Investigation of Skull Cortical Thickness Changes in Healthy Population and Patients With Schizophrenia on Computed Tomography Images.

Cortical bone thickness is essential for the mechanical function of bone. Some factors including aging, sex, body size, hormone levels, behavior, and genetics lead to changes in cranial cortical robusticity. Moreover, the skull is one of the hardest and most durable structures in the human body. Schizophrenia is defined as a psychiatric disease characterized by delusions and hallucinations, and these patients have reduced brain volume; however, there is no study including cortical bone structure. For this reason, the aim of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in the skull cortical thickness of patients with schizophrenia and, compare it with healthy subjects. The cranial length, cranial width, anterior cortical thickness, right and left anterior cortical thickness, right and left lateral cortical thickness, right and left posterior lateral thickness, and posterior cortical thickness were measured with axial computed tomography images of 30 patients with schizophrenia and 132 healthy individuals aged between 18 and 69years. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in the measurements of right and left posterior lateral thickness, and posterior cortical thickness ( P = 0.006, P = 0.001, and P = 0.047, respectively). The sexes were compared, and it was found that the cranial width, anterior thickness, left anterior thickness, and right and left posterior thickness measurements of patients with schizophrenia showed a statistically significant difference compared with the control group ( P < 0.001, P = 0.003, P = 0.001, P < 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively). The authors observed that skull cortical thickness may be different in schizophrenia. The results obtained from this study may be beneficial for evaluating these structures for clinical and pathological processes. Furthermore, knowledge about the skull cortical thickness in planning surgical procedures will increase the reliability and effectiveness of the surgical method, and this will minimize the risk of complications.

Is biopsy necessary? Role of DCE-MRI in BIRADS-3 lesions.

PURPOSE: We aimed to evaluate BIRADS-3 breast lesions with dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and compare with histopathology, and to investigate the effectiveness of breast MRI for follow-up and management. METHODS: A total of 84 BIRADS-3 lesions reported by US or mammography and evaluated by DCE-MRI between September 2014 and October 2015 were included in this study. All patients underwent percutaneous or surgical biopsy for histopathologic diagnosis. Morphologic and kinematic features on MRI were compared with histopathologic results. RESULTS: Of the 84 BIRADS-3 breast lesions, 9 (10.7%) had malignant features on DCE-MRI and all were verified with histopathologic results. DCE-MRI had 96.7% sensitivity, 72% specificity, 92% positive predictive value, and 82.5% negative predictive value. MRI and histopathology results were correlated for the diagnosis of malignant lesions. The sensitivity and negative predictive value of MRI for diagnosis of malignant lesions were both 100%. CONCLUSION: Differentiation of benign versus malignant lesions was accomplished with 100% accuracy with DCE-MRI. We suggest that DCE-MRI should be an additional diagnostic tool and problem-solving modality for BIRADS-3 lesions, particularly in patients with relative risk factors.