A survey of liver ablation amongst UK interventional radiologists.

AIM: To characterise training for, and conduct of, image-guided liver tumour ablation amongst UK interventional radiologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A web-based survey of British Society of Interventional Radiology members was carried out between 31 August to 1 October 2022. Twenty-eight questions were designed, covering four domains: (1) respondent background, (2) training, (3) current practice, and (4) operator technique. RESULTS: One hundred and six responses were received, with an 87% completion rate and an approximate response rate of 13% of society members. All UK regions were represented, with the majority from London (22/105, 21%). Seventy-two out of 98 (73%) were either extremely or very interested in learning about liver ablation during training, although levels of exposure varied widely, and 37/103 (36%) had no exposure. Performed numbers of cases also varied widely, between 1-10 cases and >100 cases per operator annually. All (53/53) used microwave energy, and most routinely used general anaesthesia (47/53, 89%). Most 33/53 (62%) did not have stereotactic navigation system, and 25/51(49%) always, 18/51 (35%) never, and 8/51(16%) sometimes gave contrast medium (mean 40, SD 32%) after procedures. Fusion software to judge ablation completeness was never used by 86% (43/55), sometimes used by 9% (5/55), and always used by 13% (7/55) of respondents. CONCLUSION: Although there are high levels of interest in image-guided liver ablation amongst UK interventional radiologists, training arrangements, operator experience, and procedural technique vary widely. As image-guided liver ablation evolves, there is a growing need to standardise training and techniques, and develop the evidence base to ensure high-quality oncological outcomes.

Percutaneous cryoablation for desmoid fibromatosis: initial experience at a UK centre.

AIM: To report the first UK experience of cryoablation in desmoid fibromatosis (DF) with particular focus on technique, safety, and efficacy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients were selected at multidisciplinary tumour board meetings at a specialist cancer hospital. Radiation dose, procedure duration, and number of cryoprobes were compared for small versus large tumours (>10 cm long axis). Response at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was evaluated using different criteria, and percentage agreement with clinical response as assessed in oncology clinic calculated. RESULTS: Thirteen procedures were performed in 10 patients (eight women, median age 51 years, IQR 42-69 years) between February 2019 and August 2021. Procedures for large tumours had higher radiation dose (2,012 ± 1,012 versus 1,076 ± 519 mGy·cm, p=0.048) used more cryoprobes (13 ± 7 versus 4 ± 2, p=0.009), and were more likely to have residual unablated tumour (38 ± 37% versus 7.5 ± 10%, p=0.045). Adverse events were minor apart from one transient radial nerve palsy. Eight of 10 patients had symptomatic benefit at clinical follow-up (median 353 days, IQR 86-796 days), and three started systemic therapy mean 393 days later. All patients who had complete ablation demonstrated symptomatic response, with no instances of repeat treatment, recurrence, or need for systemic therapy during the study period. All progression occurred outside ablation zones. CONCLUSION: Cryoablation for symptomatic DF is a reproducible technique with low, transient toxicity, where one or two treatments can achieve a meaningful response. Where possible, the ablation ice ball should fully cover DF tumours.

CT imaging improves histopathological grading of retroperitoneal leiomyosarcomas.

BACKGROUND: Initial grading of retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is performed by core biopsy (CB) however, discrepancy between grade of tumour at initial CB and surgical excision is recognised, raising concerns about the accuracy of CB for directing neoadjuvant therapy. The histological grading system used for staging LMS consists of 3 components: tumour differentiation, mitotic index and proportion of necrosis. We postulate that assessment of necrosis by histopathology alone is inadequate, resulting in under-grading of LMS. We propose and assess a combined grading system that incorporates CT scan findings into pre-surgical grading. METHODS: Retrospective, blinded review of CT, CB histology and final surgical histology of patients with retroperitoneal LMS was undertaken. A modified grading system, CTH-Grade, was derived by replacing the CB necrosis score with a CT-derived necrosis score. The sensitivity and specificity of CTH-Grade, the standard histopathology scoring, H-grade were compared. Inter-observer variability in assessment of CT necrosis was also assessed. RESULTS: 53 patients fulfilled criteria for inclusion. CT was more sensitive at detection of necrosis than CB histology alone with sensitivity of 100% vs 53%. The use of CTHGrade resulted in increased detection of high-grade tumours with CTH-grade having sensitivities of 80% and 35% for Grade 2 and 3 tumours respectively vs 53% and 15% with H-Grade. Assessment of reader agreement demonstrated Kappa scores of 0.8. CONCLUSION: Histology from CB under-grades LMS due to undersampling of tumour necrosis. CT is more sensitive in assessing necrosis and its incorporation into a modified CT-histopathology grading system (CTH-Grade) improves accuracy of grading with significant implications for patient management.

Investigating the feasibility of tumour molecular profiling in gastrointestinal malignancies in routine clinical practice.

Background: Targeted capture sequencing can potentially facilitate precision medicine, but the feasibility of this approach in gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies is unknown. Patients and methods: The FOrMAT (Feasibility of a Molecular Characterisation Approach to Treatment) study was a feasibility study enrolling patients with advanced GI malignancies from February 2014 to November 2015. Targeted capture sequencing (mainly using archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded diagnostic/resection samples) was carried out to detect mutations, copy number variations and translocations in up to 46 genes which had prognostic/predictive significance or were targets in current/upcoming clinical trials. Results: Of the 222 patients recruited, 215 patients (96.8%) had available tissue samples, 125 patients (56.3%) had ≥16 genes successfully sequenced and 136 patients (61.2%) had ≥1 genes successfully sequenced. Sample characteristics influenced the proportion of successfully sequenced samples, e.g. tumour type (colorectal 70.9%, biliary 52.6%, oesophagogastric 50.7%, pancreas 27.3%, P = 0.002), tumour cellularity (high versus low: 78.3% versus 13.3%, P ≤ 0.001), tumour content (high versus low: 78.6% versus 27.3%, P = 0.001) and type of sample (resection versus biopsy: 82.4% versus 47.6%, P ≤ 0.001). Currently, actionable alterations were detected in 90 (40.5%) of the 222 patients recruited (66% of the 136 patients sequenced) and 2 patients subsequently received a targeted therapy. The most frequently detected currently actionable alterations were mutations in KRAS, BRAF, TP53 and PIK3CA. For the 205 patients with archival samples, the median time to obtain sequencing results was 18.9 weeks, including a median of 4.9 weeks for sample retrieval and 5.1 weeks for sequencing. Conclusions: Targeted sequencing detected actionable alterations in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples, but tissue characteristics are of critical importance in determining sequencing success. Routine molecular profiling of GI tumours outside of clinical trials is not an effective use of healthcare resources unless more targeted drugs become available. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02112357.

Needle tract seeding following core biopsies in retroperitoneal sarcoma.

BACKGROUND: Retroperitoneal tumours often require a preoperative core needle biopsy to establish a histological diagnosis. Literature is scarce regarding the risk of biopsies in retroperitoneal sarcomas, so the aim of this study is to identify the potential risks of core needle biopsies causing needle tract recurrences or local recurrences. METHOD: Patients who underwent resection of a primary retroperitoneal sarcoma between 1990 and 2014 were identified from a prospectively maintained database from two tertiary referral centres. Patient demographics, tumour characteristics and biopsy techniques were examined. The primary endpoint was needle tract recurrence and local intra-abdominal recurrence. RESULTS: 498 patients were included in the analysis. The most common histological subtypes were liposarcoma (66%) and leiomyosarcoma (18%). Of the 498 patients that underwent resection, 255 patients were diagnosed with a preoperative biopsy. Five patients (2%) developed a biopsy site recurrence: 3 patients with leiomyosarcomas and 2 patients with dedifferentiated liposarcomas. All biopsy site recurrences occurred after trans-abdominal biopsies and were not performed with a co-axial technique. There was no significant difference in local recurrence rate between the patients with or without a biopsy (=0.30) or for the biopsy route (trans-abdominal or trans-retroperitoneal (p = 0.72)). CONCLUSION: The risk of a needle tract metastasis after core needle biopsy for retroperitoneal sarcoma is very low but not zero. The safest method seems a trans-retroperitoneal approach with a co-axial technique. Local recurrence rate is not altered after doing a core needle biopsy.

64-section CT angiography in patients with critical limb ischaemia and severe claudication: comparison with digital subtractive angiography.

AIM: To assess the utility of 64 section multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) lower-limb angiography in the evaluation of patients with critical limb ischaemia (CLI) or severe intermittent claudication (IC) in grading disease before endovascular treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-one consecutive patients with CLI or severe IC were assessed using 64 section MDCT angiography. The MDCT examinations were compared with subsequent intra-arterial digital subtraction angiography (IADSA) examinations performed at the time of endovascular intervention. The MDCT and IADSA examinations were independently scrutinized by readers blinded to the results of the other imaging method. RESULTS: For arterial segments with haemodynamically significant disease (stenosis ≥50%), the overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of MDCT in patients with severe claudication and CLI was 99% (95% CI: 98-100%), 98% (95% CI: 97-100%) and 98% (95% CI: 97-99%), respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) was 97% and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 99%. CONCLUSIONS: MDCT angiography is a useful tool in the assessment of patients with severe claudication and CLI and can be reliably used to grade disease severity and plan treatment.

Operative repair of an incidentally diagnosed giant hepatic artery aneurysm.

Hepatic Artery Aneurysms (HAA) are rare vascular lesions which are associated with significant morbidity and mortality in the event of rupture. Early diagnosis and expedient management are therefore important to optimise outcome. Here we report a case of a giant Hepatic Artery Aneurysms (HAA) found incidentally on Computerised Tomography, successfully managed without complication by elective surgical repair.

Influence of endodontic treatment, post insertion, and ceramic restoration on the fracture resistance of maxillary premolars.

AIM: To investigate the effects of endodontic treatment, post placement and ceramic restoration type on the fracture resistance of premolars. METHODOLOGY: One hundred and twenty teeth maxillary premolars were allocated to four groups (A-D; n = 30). In group A, mesio-occlusal-distal-inlays with a buccal and palatal wall of 2 mm (MOD), in group B partial onlays with palatal cusp coverage and in group C total onlays with buccal and palatal cusp coverage were prepared. Group D served as untreated controls. Groups A-C were divided into three subgroups (n = 10): (i) teeth received solely the described preparations, (ii) teeth were root filled, (iii) teeth were root filled and quartz fibre posts were placed. Teeth were restored using Computer-assisted design/computer-assisted machining-ceramic-restorations and subjected to thermo-mechanical-loading; subsequently, the buccal cusp was loaded until fracture. RESULTS: Group D revealed significantly higher fracture resistance [mean (standard deviation)] [738 (272) N] compared to all other groups (P < 0.05; post hoc test Dunnett). For groups A-C, fracture resistance was significantly affected by the restoration type (P = 0.043) and endodontic treatment/post placement (P = 0.039; 2-way anova). Group A [380 (146) N] showed significantly lower fracture resistance compared to group B [470 (158) N] (P = 0.048; post hoc test Tukey). Compared to non-endodontically treated teeth [487 (120) N], root filled teeth revealed significantly lower fracture resistance [389 (171) N] (P = 0.031). CONCLUSION: The restoration of cavities with a remaining wall thickness of 2 mm using ceramic MOD-inlays is inferior with respect to the fracture resistance compared to partial onlay restorations. Root filled teeth without post placement show lower fracture resistance compared to non-endodontically treated teeth.

Imaging and staging of haemophilic arthropathy.

Arthropathy is one of the most disabling consequences of haemophilia. The management of this condition has been revolutionized by the introduction of prophylactic treatment with clotting factor replacements. In order for benefits of this treatment to be monitored, the severity of any joint disease needs to be accurately assessed. Diagnostic imaging is used to objectively evaluate haemophilic arthropathy (HA). There are several established scoring systems for grading HA based on conventional radiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this review the role of the different imaging methods in the evaluation of HA are discussed, the established staging systems are presented, and an explanation of why MRI is becoming the primary method of joint imaging in HA is provided.

An in vitro study of the cytogenetic and cytotoxic effects of imatinib mesylate, STI571 on murine erythroleukemia GM-86 cells.

Imatinib mesylate, STI571, is a novel anticancer drug used to treat Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia. Studies have demonstrated the efficacy of imatinib mesylate in human cancers; however, its effects in murine cancer cell lines are not well documented. This study investigated the cytogenetic and cytotoxic effects of imatinib mesylate in vitro on virus-induced mouse erythroleukemia GM-86 cells. Cytogenetic studies revealed a noticeable increase in chromosomal abnormalities and multinucleation, as well as micro and macronuclei formation in treated cells. An increase in abnormalities such as condensed nuclei and nuclear and cytoplasmic degradations were also detected in cells treated with imatinib mesylate. It is suggested that the reduction in cell proliferation, mitotic index, and increase in cell damaging effects observed in imatinib mesylate-treated GM-86 cells were a result of the induced chromosomal and nuclear abnormalities.

Congenital extrahepatic portal vein aneurysm.

Portal vein aneurysm is a rare clinical entity, with only 41 published cases in the English-language literature. Twenty-five of them were congenital. We present the case of a 50-year-old woman who was incidentally diagnosed with a congenital extrahepatic portal vein aneurysm during an investigation for dyspepsia. Ultrasonographic features are described with correlation of computed tomographic and magnetic resonance findings. Etiology, clinical significance, and management strategies for these lesions are discussed and a review of the literature regarding this entity is presented.

Magnetic resonance imaging in 120 patients with intractable partial seizures: a preoperative assessment.

The aim of this study was to describe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in patients with medically intractable epilepsy and to compare different magnetic resonance (MR) sequences in order to establish a dedicated and shorter scan time imaging protocol of choice. One hundred and twenty patients with seizures that were refractory to medical treatment were assessed by MRI with spin-echo (SE) T1, fast spin-echo (FSE) T2, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), inversion recovery (IR) and contrast-enhanced T1 SE sequences. Pathological scans were acquired in 78 patients. Hippocampal sclerosis was detected in 30 patients (25%), cerebral, tumoral, mass lesions in 12 patients (10%), vascular malformations in nine patients (7.5%), cortical infarcts in eight patients (6.7%), cerebral infections in four patients (4.2%) and developmental disorders in 15 patients (12.5%). The most common location of the lesions was the temporal lobe (60%). Coronal, thin (slice thickness 4-5 mm) images have proven to be the most useful in the assessment of the hippocampus. FLAIR and IR are particularly useful in the detection of lesions abutting cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spaces and developmental disorders, respectively, while T1 SE sequences before and after the intravenous administration of gadolinium offer great facility in identifying space-occupying lesions and infections. MRI is the most important diagnostic tool for the assessment of epileptogenic foci, thus playing the primary role in indicating the type of treatment to be applied.