Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy in the liver: MRI findings along a time continuum.

Recent development of 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapies provides a concentrated radiation dose to the tumor. To achieve this goal, a complex design of multiple narrow beamlets is used to shape the radiation exposure to conform to the shape of the tumor. Imaging findings after novel radiation therapy techniques differ from those of conventional radiation therapy. This article discusses changes in the liver parenchyma and tumor after conformal radiation therapy focusing on magnetic resonance imaging.

Bouveret's syndrome: a case report and a review of the literature.

Bouveret's syndrome is a gastric outlet obstruction caused by an impacted gallstone that passes through a cholecysto-gastric or cholecysto-duodenal fistula. An elderly woman visited a local clinic with nausea and abdominal pain. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a stone that was impacted in the duodenal lumen and a fistula between the gallbladder and duodenum. Malignancy could not be excluded due to the mass in the cystic duct showing enhancement and the presence of enlarged lymph nodes on computed tomography, and increased fludeoxyglucose uptake in the cystic duct on positron emission tomography. The patient underwent simultaneous cholecystectomy, segmental duodenectomy and gastro-jejunostomy. Pathological examination exhibited chronic inflammation and no primary cancer of the gallbladder and fistula.

Noncontrast chest computed tomography immediately after transarterial chemoembolization in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: clinical benefits and effect of radiation reduction on image quality in low-dose scanning.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical benefits of noncontrast chest computed tomography (CT) immediately after transarterial chemoembolization in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and to assess the effect of radiation reduction on image quality in low-dose scanning. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From June to October 2010, we performed standard-dose, noncontrast chest CTs immediately after transarterial chemoembolization in 160 patients and low-dose CTs in 88 patients. We reviewed the entire noncontrast chest CTs and follow-up CTs to reveal the clinical benefits of CT evaluation immediately after transarterial chemoembolization. Using two independent readers, we also retrospectively evaluated the radiation dose and image quality in terms of the image noise, contrast between the liver parenchyma and iodized oil and diagnostic acceptability for the evaluation of treatment response after transarterial chemoembolization. RESULTS: In 5.2% of the patients, additional treatment was performed immediately after the interpretation of the noncontrast chest CT, and additional pulmonary lesions were found in 8.5% of the patients. The measured mean dose-length product for the low-dose scanning was 18.4% of that of the standard-dose scanning. The image noise was significantly higher with the low-dose scanning (p<0.001). However, all of the low-dose CT scans were diagnostically acceptable, and the mean scores for the subjective assessments of the contrast and diagnostic acceptability showed no significant differences for either reader. CONCLUSION: A noncontrast chest CT immediately after transarterial chemoembolization has some clinical benefits for immediate decision making and detecting pulmonary lesions. Low-dose, noncontrast chest CTs immediately after transarterial chemoembolization consistently provide diagnostically acceptable images and information on treatment response in patients who have undergone transarterial chemoembolization.