Incidental ultrasound finding of cholelithiasis in an 8-week-old infant: A case report.

Infantile cholelithiasis is a rare occurrence. It is often diagnosed incidentally during ultrasonography for other conditions as most cases are asymptomatic and may be self-limiting. A few cases may however present with prolonged neonatal or infantile jaundice. We report our initial experience with an incidental case of infantile cholelithiasis in an 8-week-old male infant who was brought to our ultrasound unit in Accra, Ghana, for an abdominal ultrasound on account of conjugated hyperbilirubinemia and pigmented stools. The patient had presented initially at the children's emergency unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, 2 days after an uneventful delivery, with a history of yellowing of the eyes, noticed on the first day of life, which necessitated the request for the ultrasound examination, leading to this rare finding of infantile cholelithiasis. The availability and use of modern sonographic equipment are likely to result in more effective detection of this incidental finding and its subsequent management.

Unintentionally retained pelvic drainage tube found on Imaging; A case report.

A retained drainage tube after surgery is rare and patients may be asymptomatic if it occurs. The presence of a retained drainage tube may be first recognized on imaging and this requires a high index of suspicion by radiologists. In this case report, we described an incidental finding of an asymptomatic retained fractured drainage tube in the pelvis of a 32-year-old female on ultrasonography for renal evaluation. This highlighted the need for radiologists to have a high index of suspicion when performing ultrasonography on postoperative patients and surgeons should be meticulous when removing drainage tubes postsurgery. The possibility of a foreign body should be considered when unfamiliar findings are encountered on imaging. Surgeons should inspect drainage tubes after removal to ensure the full length of the tube is removed.

A rare case of multiple minor salivary gland sialoliths in the masseteric region.

We report a case of a 59-year-old woman who presented with swelling of the right cheek. CT Scan showed three calculi located anteromedial to the masseter, and well isolated from other major salivary glands. Calculi were surgically removed with standard intraoral incision and exploration.

The degree and appropriateness of computed tomography utilization for diagnosis of headaches in Ghana.

INTRODUCTION: Headache is a common and sometimes debilitating medical condition. Patients presenting with no neurologic anomaly, nontraumatic primary headache require careful evaluation before neuroimaging. National Guidelines standardizing exploitation of Computed Tomography (CT), the most utilized imaging modality in this clinical scenario, has not been established in Ghana, a developing country with limited healthcare resources. The country has not also adopted existing guidelines such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) of the United Kingdom or the Appropriateness Criteria (AC) of the American College of Radiologists (ACR). The purpose of this review was to analyze the propensity of CT utilization for diagnosing headaches against the AC of the ACR and discuss some of the socio-economic inferences thereof. METHODS: This study retrospectively reviewed CT imaging records and clinical data of all patients referred for head CT scans between 1st January 2016 and 31st December 2018 at five major health facilities (four tertiary government hospitals and one private hospital) across Ghana. We isolated all head CT scans performed for the diagnosis of headache for analysis. We analyzed the type of presenting headache, CT findings, gender distribution, pattern of referrals, and head CT appropriateness against the AC of the ACR. RESULTS: A total of 44,218 patients were referred to the five facilities for head CT secondary to diverse indications for the period. All non-trauma cases were 41.7%; trauma cases were 31.6%, the majority (72.3%) were from road traffic accidents. The majority (64.9%) of trauma casualties were males. A total of 11,806 (26.7%) patients were referred for a head CT scan for the diagnosis of headache. The private hospital recorded the highest referrals for head CT scan for diagnosis of headache. The gender distribution of all headache patients was 57.6% females, and 42.4% were males. The age distribution showed 19.3% were children, 71.2% were adults, and the aged constituted 9.4%. The results showed 2.8% significant cranial CT findings of all reviewed headache patients. Pathological findings among the cohort of children were 0.6%.The sources and pattern of referrals showed 57.3% were from the Outpatient Department, 26.6% from the Emergency Department, in-patients' referrals were 9.4%, and specialist consultation was 7.1%. Analysis of CT scans performed against the AC of the ACR, showed 69.0% of headache patients were likely scanned inappropriately. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to implement international best practice guidelines or develop a national neuroimaging policy to protect patients. Unjustified CT utilization for diagnosis of headaches exposes patients to unnecessary ionizing radiation that can instigate cancer and unnecessary expenditure. Head CT scan for some headache patients with normal neurologic findings may be unnecessary in an emerging country like Ghana. Clinicians must, therefore, be discerning in CT scan requests for the diagnosis of headache.

Percutaneous transhepatic biliary stent placement in the palliative management of malignant obstructive jaundice: initial experience in a tertiary center in Ghana.

INTRODUCTION: one of the mainstays of management of malignant biliary obstruction is the decompression of the biliary system and its associated obstructive symptoms. Non-surgical palliative treatment such as percutaneous transhepatic biliary stenting is desirable in many selected patients. However, this service is often not available in many resource-limited countries. We share our initial experience of percutaneous transhepatic biliary stenting for the management of malignant biliary obstruction in our first set of patients with surgically non resectable malignant biliary obstruction in Ghana. METHODS: percutaneous transhepatic biliary stenting was performed on the first 23 consecutive patients at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The procedure served as the first palliation for malignant obstruction through interventional radiology. Medical records as well as serum levels of total bilirubin (TBil), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were used to assess the efficiency of the intervention. Microsoft Excel 2010 was used to analysis the data. RESULTS: most patients had resolution of jaundice with marked improvement in liver function and resolution of the itching associated with obstructive jaundice. During the follow-up of cases, one major complication of hemoperitoneum occurred requiring laparotomy. No other major complications such as bile leakage or death occurred. Four (4) patients had sepsis, which was managed. CONCLUSION: the introduction of the intervention in Ghana has proven to valuable for palliative drainage and relief of obstructive symptoms, hence contributing to better patient management. It is relatively safe with minor complications among Ghanaians with non-resectable obstructive symptoms.

Radiographic determination of cardiomegaly using cardiothoracic ratio and transverse cardiac diameter: can one size fit all? Part one.

INTRODUCTION: The cardio-thoracic ratio (CTR) and the transverse cardiac diameter (TCD) on Plain chest radiography are the two parameters commonly used to diagnose cardiomegaly and heart disease. A CTR of greater than 50% on a PA film is abnormal and normally indicates cardiac or pericardial disease condition, whiles an increase of TCD from 1.5 to 2cm on two consecutive radiographs, taken at short interval, suggests possible cardiac pathology. The aim was to determine the suitability of using the same TCD and CTR to detect cardiomegaly for all age groups and genders respectively. METHODS: A retrospective study involved the review of 1047 radiological images of adults aged 21 to 80 years, who had plain postero-anterior chest radiographs between January 2012 and November 2013 by 3 radiologists. Data recorded included the transverse cardiac, thoracic diameter and the cardiothoracic ratios. Descriptive analyses were carried out using the Microsoft excel 2010. RESULTS: The mean age and standard deviation for the study population was 35.1 ± 12.7. The mean and standard deviations for the transverse cardiac diameter, thoracic diameter, and the cardiothoracic ratios for male participants were 13.08cm ± 1.2, 29.7cm ± 2.7 and 46.6% ± 3.9; and 12.9 cm ± 1.3, 27.1 cm ± 2.6, and 47.8% ± 4.8 for females. An increase in TCD of 1cm resulted in a CTR of greater than 50.0% in all but the males aged 21-40 years. CONCLUSION: The study found that the same TCD and CTR values are not suitable in detecting cardiomegaly for all age groups and genders.