Beyond symptomatology: A comparative analysis of unilateral and bilateral macronodular mild autonomous cortisol secretion.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical, laboratory findings and signal intensity index (SII) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with bilateral and unilateral macronodular mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS). PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS: Clinical and laboratory findings of 81 patients with MACS were examined from retrospective records. SII of adenomas and internodular areas were evaluated by MRI. The unilateral group included patients with an adrenal macronodule (≥1 cm) in a single adrenal gland, while the bilateral group included patients with at least one macronodule in both adrenal glands. RESULTS: In total, 46 patients were in the unilateral (57%), while 35 (43%) patients were in the bilateral groups. The dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S) level was lower in the unilateral than in the bilateral group (p < .001). The presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) concentrations were higher in the bilateral group (p < .05). However, no significant difference was detected in terms of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and overnight 1 mg dexamethasone suppression test (DST) between the two groups (p > .05). There was no difference in SII between adenomas within the same patient, as well as between the unilateral and bilateral groups (p > .05). Logistic regression analysis based on the differentiation between unilateral and bilateral macronodular MACS demonstrated that DHEA-S, HbA1c and LDL concentrations were associated factors. CONCLUSION: DHEA-S levels may not be as suppressed in patients with bilateral macronodular MACS as compared to those with unilateral adenoma. T2DM and hypercholesterolaemia have a higher frequency in bilateral patients. However, ACTH, overnight 1 mg DST and SII may not provide additional information for differentiation of bilaterality and unilaterality.

Clinical prediction model for primary aldosteronism subtyping and special focus on adrenal volumetric assessment.

PURPOSE: Our aim was to develop a prediction model based on a simple score with clinical, laboratory, and imaging findings for the subtype diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA). The contribution of adrenal volumetric assessment to PA subtyping was also investigated. METHODS: Thirty-five patients with adequate cannulation in adrenal venous sampling (AVS) were included. Laboratory data, the saline infusion test (SIT), and the AVS results of patients with PA were retrospectively evaluated. Volumetric assessment was performed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the ratio of adrenal volumes was calculated after adjusting for gender- and side-specific mean reference values of both adrenal glands. RESULTS: The AVS was consistent with unilateral PA in 49% and bilateral in 51% of the patients. Hypertension as a reason for work-up, the highest aldosterone/lowest potassium value higher than 12, the percentage of plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) reduction after SIT by equal or less than 43.5%, the use of oral potassium replacement, unilateral disease at pre-AVS imaging, and a ratio of adjusted adrenal volumes equal to or below 1.7 were indicative of unilateral disease in univariate logistic regression analysis concerning the distinction of PA subtyping (p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis also revealed that adrenal volumetric assessment has an impact on PA subtyping (p < 0.05). In the prediction model, when each of the six parameters that were significant in the univariate logistic regression analysis was assigned one point, < 4 predicted bilateral PA, whereas ≥ 4 predicted unilateral PA (AUC:0.92, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This prediction model before AVS may serve as a convenient and practical approach, while an adjusted adrenal volumetric assessment can make a positive contribution to PA subtyping.

Comparison of diagnostic performances in the evaluation of breast microcalcifications: synthetic mammography versus full-field digital mammography.

BACKGROUND: Although several studies proved that SM could substitute for FFDM, the efficacy of SM in microcalcification evaluation remains controversial. AIMS: To investigate the diagnostic performance of synthetic mammography (SM) in the evaluation of microcalcifications in comparison with full-field digital mammography (FFDM). METHODS: In this retrospective study, 76 mammograms of 76 patients who underwent FFDM and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) acquisitions concomitantly between 2018 and 2019 and whose final mammography interpretation revealed microcalcifications (28 malignant microcalcifications and 48 benign microcalcifications) were included. All mammograms were reviewed independently by three radiologists with different levels of breast imaging experience. Readers were blinded to patient outcomes and interpreted each case in two separate reading sessions (first FFDM, second SM + DBT), according to the BI-RADS lexicon. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was calculated using ROC analysis in all cases for FFDM and SM + DBT sessions. The readers also assigned conspicuity scores to mammograms. The interobserver agreement was calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). RESULTS: The overall AUCs for malignant microcalcifications were 0.80 (95% CI: 0.75-0.85) in FFDM and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.80-0.89) in SM, and no significant difference was found between the groups (p = 0.0603). The sensitivity of the readers increased slightly with experience. The ICC values of BI-RADS categorization between readers were 0.93 (95% CI: 0.90-0.95) and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.91-0.96) for FFDM and SM, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: SM had similar diagnostic performance in the evaluation of breast microcalcifications in comparison with FFDM, regardless of reader experience levels.

Accuracy in tumor size measurements: Comparison of digital mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis and synthetic mammography.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of digital mammography (DM), digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) and synthetic mammography (SM) in tumor size measurements compared with histological tumor sizes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 71 breast cancer patients who underwent DM and DBT acquisitions simultaneously were included in this study. One radiologist with 8 years of experience in breast imaging measured tumor sizes independently in three separate sessions which include DM, DBT and SM images, respectively. The correlations between the measured tumor sizes on each imaging technique and histological sizes were analyzed using Spearman correlation test. The patients were categorized into two subgroups according to assigned breast density categories (dense and non-dense), and histological tumor sizes (≤2 cm and > 2 cm). To assess the agreement levels between the measured tumor sizes and histological sizes Bland-Altman analyses were performed for each imaging technique. RESULTS: The mean of histological size of tumors was 23.85 ±â€¯16.57 mm (median: 20). The means of measured tumor sizes were 21.21 ±â€¯13.59 mm (median: 19), 21.52 ±â€¯13.42 mm (median: 19) and 18.97 ±â€¯11.21 mm (median: 17) in DM, DBT and SM, respectively. The Spearman correlation values with histologic sizes were 0.814 (P < 0.001), 0.887 (P < 0.001), and 0.852 (P < 0.001) for DM, DBT and SM, respectively. In subgroup analyses, the correlation values showed decrement for tumors >2 cm in size compared to tumors ≤2 cm in size. CONCLUSION: DBT provides the most accurate tumor size measurements among mammographic imaging techniques and if mammography will be used in tumor size measurements, DBT should be preferred.

Evaluation of effects of aging on skeletal muscle elasticity using shear wave elastography.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of aging on skeletal muscle stiffness in relaxed and contracted status using shear wave elastography (SWE). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 57 participants were enrolled to this institutional review board approved prospective study. Medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle (GM) of all participants were examined bilaterally by a single radiologist in prone position. Muscle thickness, stiffness values in both relaxed and contracted status were measured. Stiffness increase rate (SIR) was calculated for all muscles. The Spearman's correlation test was used for correlation analyses. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare subgroups. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 41.15 ±â€¯16.19 (range, 18-74). The means of stiffness values of medial head of GM were 12.51 ±â€¯2.56 kPa and 81.74 ±â€¯15.77 kPa in relaxed and contracted status, respectively. The mean of SIR values was 5.62 ±â€¯1.05 (range, 3.18-8.66). The stiffness values of relaxed and contracted medial head of GM had moderate to strong inverse correlations with age for both dominant and non-dominant extremities (r range: -0.703 to -0.590). Age subgroup analyses revealed significant differences in muscle thickness and stiffness values, whereas no significant difference was found in SIR values. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, despite the decrease in stiffness of skeletal muscle with advancing age, SIR remained similar. Any improvement in stiffness values of skeletal muscle in relaxed status may play pivotal role in the management of sarcopenia.