Evaluation of the value of chest CT severity score in assessment of COVID-19 severity and short-term prognosis.

Background: Evaluations have shown that the severity of pulmonary involvement is very important in the mortality rate of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of chest CT severity score in assessment of COVID-19 severity and short-term prognosis. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study with a sample size of 197 patients, including all patients admitted to Rasoul Akram Hospital, with positive polymerase chain reaction, to investigate the relationship between computed tomography (CT) severity score and mortality. The demographic data and CT scan findings (including the pattern, side, and distribution of involvement), co-morbidities, and lab data were collected. Finally, gathered data were analyzed by SPSS-26. Results: 119 (60.4%) patients were male, and 78 (39.6%) were female. The mean age was 58.58 ± 17.3 years. Totally, 61 patients died; of those, 41 (67.2%) were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), so there was a significant relation between death and ICU admission (P value = 0.000). Diabetes was the most common co-morbidity, followed by hypertension and IHD. There was no significant relation between co-morbidities and death (P value = 0.13). The most common patterns of CTs were interlobular septal thickening and ground glass opacities, and a higher CT severity score was in the second week from the onset of symptoms, which was associated with more mortality (P value < 0.05). Conclusion: Our study showed that a patient with a higher CT severity score of the second week had a higher risk of mortality. Also, association of the CT severity score, laboratory data, and symptoms could be applicable in predicting the patient's condition.

Predicting survival of Iranian COVID-19 patients infected by various variants including omicron from CT Scan images and clinical data using deep neural networks.

Purpose: The rapid spread of the COVID-19 omicron variant virus has resulted in an overload of hospitals around the globe. As a result, many patients are deprived of hospital facilities, increasing mortality rates. Therefore, mortality rates can be reduced by efficiently assigning facilities to higher-risk patients. Therefore, it is crucial to estimate patients' survival probability based on their conditions at the time of admission so that the minimum required facilities can be provided, allowing more opportunities to be available for those who need them. Although radiologic findings in chest computerized tomography scans show various patterns, considering the individual risk factors and other underlying diseases, it is difficult to predict patient prognosis through routine clinical or statistical analysis. Method: In this study, a deep neural network model is proposed for predicting survival based on simple clinical features, blood tests, axial computerized tomography scan images of lungs, and the patients' planned treatment. The model's architecture combines a Convolutional Neural Network and a Long Short Term Memory network. The model was trained using 390 survivors and 108 deceased patients from the Rasoul Akram Hospital and evaluated 109 surviving and 36 deceased patients infected by the omicron variant. Results: The proposed model reached an accuracy of 87.5% on the test data, indicating survival prediction possibility. The accuracy was significantly higher than the accuracy achieved by classical machine learning methods without considering computerized tomography scan images (p-value <= 4E-5). The images were also replaced with hand-crafted features related to the ratio of infected lung lobes used in classical machine-learning models. The highest-performing model reached an accuracy of 84.5%, which was considerably higher than the models trained on mere clinical information (p-value <= 0.006). However, the performance was still significantly less than the deep model (p-value <= 0.016). Conclusion: The proposed deep model achieved a higher accuracy than classical machine learning methods trained on features other than computerized tomography scan images. This proves the images contain extra information. Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence methods with multimodal inputs can be more reliable and accurate than computerized tomography severity scores.

Uremic encephalopathy: A definite diagnosis by magnetic resonance imaging?

The aim of this study was to investigate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings for the diagnose uremic encephalopathy and describe the usefulness of MRI findings in the ultimate diagnosis of uremic encephalopathy (UE). A total of 20 patients with uremic encephalopathy admitted to the hospital were evaluated in this prospective study. The clinical manifestations, laboratory and MRI imaging findings, demographic information, and clinical outcome were analyzed for each patient. We observed that the 20 prospectively reviewed patients with UE had no involvement of the basal ganglia or the lentiform fork sign (LFS). However, two-thirds of the patients had white matter involvement, and 80% of the subjects had cerebral or cortical atrophy. The arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis revealed that 50% of the patients suffered from metabolic acidosis (n=10). The results of the present study demonstrated that although the observation of Lentiform Fork Sign and Basal Ganglia involvement in MRI of UE patients is a specific finding the absence of which does not rule out UE. Thus, simultaneous examination of clinical manifestation and laboratory test analyses, along with imaging findings, should also be taken into account.

Pediatric tuberculosis in Iran: a review of 10-years study in an Iranian referral hospital.

INTRODUCTION: Reductions in global tuberculosis incidence are considered as one of the End TB Strategy goal. The diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in children is challenging due to insufficient specimen material and the scarcity of bacilli in specimens. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, characteristics, clinical profiles, laboratory findings and treatment outcomes of children infected with TB in an Iranian referral hospital during a 10-years period. METHODS: This study was a retrospective analysis of the medical records of 90 children (£15 years) with a diagnosis of tuberculosis who were admitted to Children's Medical Center Hospital, Tehran, Iran, between March 2006 and March 2016. The patients' information such as demographic, clinical manifestations, laboratory, radiological and histological tests results, and treatment outcomes were extracted from medical records and were analyzed. RESULTS: The total prevalence of TB was about 56.6 per 100,000 admitted patients. Most of the patients were between 5 to 12 years. Sixty-one percent were male. Twenty-two percent had the history of TB in their family. Underlying diseases were identified in 30 cases (33%). Thirty-four cases (38%) had pulmonary TB (PTB), 35 cases (39%) had extrapulmonary TB (EPTB), while disseminated TB (DTB) was found in 21 cases (23%). Distribution of DTB in males was higher than in females (36% vs. 6%). In patients < 1 year, DTB was the most frequent type (48 %); however, in patients > 1 year both PTB and EPTB had similar distributions (42%) and were more frequent than DTB (16%).  Conclusions: The total prevalence rate of TB in our study was 56.6 per 100,000 admitted patients. Since the mortality rate was higher in infants, children with DTB and children with underlying diseases, early detection and treatment of these patients will help to reduce the mortality rate of TB disease.

Chest CT severity score: assessment of COVID­19 severity and short-term prognosis in hospitalized Iranian patients.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of chest computed tomography (CT) severity score in the assessment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID­19) severity and short-term prognosis. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated all patients who were referred to our university hospital, from 21 May 2020 to 22 June 2020 with positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. The patients suspected of having other respiratory diseases including influenza, according to an infectious disease specialist, and those without chest CT scan were excluded. A chest CT was obtained for all patients between days 4 and 7 days after symptom onset. Chest CT severity score was also calculated based on the degree of involvement of the lung lobes as 0%, (0 points), 1-25% (1 point), 26-50% (2 points), 51-75% (3 points), and 76-100% (4 points). The CT severity score was quantified by summing the 5 lobe indices (range 0-20). The ROC curve analysis was performed for the clinical value of CT scores in distinguishing the patients based on the severity of disease (mild/moderate group versus severe group), ICU admission, intubation requirement, and mortality. RESULTS: Of the 148 patients included, 93 patients recovered, while 55 patients died (mortality rate 37%). The area under the curve of CT score for discriminating of recovered patients from deceased individuals was 0.726, and the optimal CT score threshold was 15.5 with 61.8% sensitivity and 76.3% specificity. The best CT score cut-off for discriminating of patients based on the severity of disease was 12.5 with 68.3% sensitivity and 72.7% specificity. In addition, with CT score cut-off of 15.5, sensitivities of 70.8% and 51.6% and specificities of 78% and 72.6% were observed for intubation and ICU admission, respectively. CONCLUSION: CT scan and semiquantitative scoring method could be beneficial and applicable in predicting the patient's condition.

The Valuable Role of Imaging Modalities in the Diagnosis of the Uncommon Presentations of COVID-19: An Educative Case Series.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in late 2019 rapidly turned into a global pandemic. Although the symptoms of COVID-19 are mainly respiratory ones, the infection is associated with a wide range of clinical signs and symptoms. The main imaging modality in COVID-19 is lung computed tomography (CT) scanning, but the diagnosis of the vast spectrum of complications needs the application of various imaging modalities. Owing to the novelty of the disease and its presentations, its complications-particularly uncommon ones-can be easily missed. In this study, we describe some uncommon presentations of COVID-19 diagnosed by various imaging modalities. The first case presented herein was a man with respiratory distress, who transpired to suffer from pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum in addition to the usual pneumonia of COVID-19. The second patient was a hospitalized COVID-19 case, whose clinical condition suddenly deteriorated with the development of abdominal symptoms diagnosed as mesenteric ischemia by abdominal CT angiography. The third patient was a case of cardiac involvement in the COVID-19 course, detected as myocarditis by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The fourth and fifth cases were COVID-19-associated encephalitis whose diagnoses were established by brain MRI. COVID-19 is a multisystem disorder with a wide range of complications such as pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, mesenteric ischemia, myocarditis, and encephalitis. Prompt diagnosis with appropriate imaging modalities can lead to adequate treatment and better survival.

Babu and Magon uterine closure technique during cesarean section: A randomized double-blind trial.

AIM: We compared the effectiveness of the Babu and Magon uterine closure technique and unlocked double-layer uterine closure on the integrity and thickness of the uterine scar. METHODS: A randomized double-blind trial was performed at Hazrat-e Rasoul -e-Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from March 2018 to December 2019, in 72 pregnant women who were candidates for cesarean section for the first time. Women were randomly assigned to the Babu and Magon uterine closure technique (intervention group, n = 34) or double-layer closure of the uterine incision (control group, n = 38). The primary outcome of the study was the frequency of myometrial defects at the site of the scar (niche), and a large niche. Secondary outcomes, including the time taken for uterine closure and postpartum hemorrhage (early and late), were compared between groups. RESULTS: Adjacent myometrium thickness (AMT) between the two groups was not statistically significant. A niche was reported in 23.5% (8/34) and 50% (19/38) of women in the intervention and controls, respectively (p = 0.02). A large niche was reported in 2.9% (1/34) and 23.7% (9/38) of women in the intervention and controls, respectively (p < 0.01). The duration of uterine closure was not statistically significant between the two groups. Hemoglobin levels did not differ significantly between groups during the first 24 h post-surgery. CONCLUSION: The results of the study showed that the technique of uterine closure is one of the main potential determinants of myometrial healing. The Babu and Magon uterine closure technique seems to lead to tissue alignment during suturing and consequently cause better myometrial healing, although this issue calls for well-founded longer studies of appropriate design.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in children in Iran: Atypical CT manifestations and mortality risk of severe COVID-19 infection.

BACKGROUND: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Iran reported its first confirmed cases of syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections on 19 February 2020 in Qom. Although the numbers of cases are increasing, no report about clinical manifestations, laboratory results, and imaging findings of the children infected with COVID-19 in Iran has been published. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological, clinical, and radiological and laboratory findings of 24 children who had proven SARS-CoV-2 infection and performed chest computed tomographic (CT) in Qom, Iran. METHODS: Demographic information and clinical characteristics of the patients including signs and symptoms, chest CT scan manifestation, laboratory findings and clinical outcomes were collected. Diagnosing of the confirmed case was based on positive real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction test for SARS-CoV-2. FINDINGS: During the first 3 months of the epidemic in Qom, Iran, 24 children with confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 were included. The median age of the cases was 6 years [inter-quartile range 3.5-9.5 years]. The most common presenting symptoms were fever (100%), dry cough (62.5%), tachypnea (29%), abdominal pain (21%), and vomiting (21%). Three cases (12.5%) presented with a history of diarrhea in addition to fever and cough. According to the chest CT findings, 2 cases (8%) showed no abnormality. Typical CT findings were found in 6 patients (25%), 2 patients showed indeterminate appearance, and 14 patients (58%) showed atypical findings. Two children with SARS-CoV-2 infection manifested as a hyperinflammatory syndrome with multi-organ involvement similar to Kawasaki disease shock syndrome. Seventy-one percent of the patients showed severe SARS-CoV-2 infection and the mortality of 12.5% (3 cases) were reported. INTERPRETATION: High frequency of atypical chest CT finding in children should raise concern for pediatricians. Early recognition of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection is of crucial importance in controlling of the outbreak and atypical imaging features should be interpreted with caution.

The First Confirmed Case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in an Adolescent with Abdominal Pain in Iran.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is evolving rapidly. However, there is limited information about this disease in children and adolescents. Only a few pediatric cases of COVID-19 have been reported so far. Since the immune responses of children are different from adults, their clinical findings and therapeutic responses may differ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in a 12-year-old girl with abdominal pain in Iran. CASE PRESENTATION: A 12-year-old girl with a history of cold, dry cough, sore throat, fever, and left-sided abdominal pain was referred to the Children's Medical Center, Tehran, Iran, on March 7, 2020. The chest X-ray indicated air space opacification in the right lower lobe and faint ground-glass opacity in the left lower lung. A subsequent chest computed tomography (CT) scan indicated blialteral patchy lower lobe consolidations. The patient's oropharyngeal swab was positive for COVID-19, based on the result of real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assay. The patient's clinical status was improved, and she was discharged five days after admission (March 11, 2020). CONCLUSION: Since the number of infected cases with COVID-19 is growing rapidly in Iran, early detection and management of infected cases are highly recommended for preventing the disease transmission and reducing the rate of infection.

High prevalence of latent tuberculosis in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients: A First Report.

TB is an increasing health problem, and patients undergoing HSCT are more prone to develop tuberculosis. The aim of our study was to evaluate prevalence of latent tuberculosis in HSCT recipients. In this study, 84 patients (2 months to 18 years) who were candidates for HSCT at the referral hospital of Tehran Children's Medical Center were enrolled. The TST and the QFT-GIT test were performed in all 84 patients, simultaneously. LTBI was considered when one of the tests was positive. Overall, the prevalence of LTBI in HSCT recipients in our study was 12% (10 cases). TST induration ≥5 mm was seen in only three patients (3.5%). Eight patients (9.5%) had a positive result for IGRA test, and 11 of them (13%) had indeterminate QFT-GIT result. The agreement between the TST results (induration size ≥5 mm) and the QFT-GIT results was poor (kappa = 0.14). In conclusion, there was a high rate of discordance between TST and IGRA results with many more positive QFT-GIT tests. However, more studies are needed in this population to determine whether this discordance reflects true infection.

Epidemiologic and clinical findings of children with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in four provinces of Iran.

INTRODUCTION: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is still a remarkable challenge throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Despite the fact that HIV in children is becoming one of the most challenging diseases, it seems that pediatric AIDS in Iran is an unknown disease and there is a lack of studies about it. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of HIV-positive children who referred to the hospitals of Tehran, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, and Qom provinces of Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a retrospective investigation of medical records among 61 children with a diagnosis of HIV who were admitted to the children's hospitals in the four provinces of Iran during a 3-year period (2013-2016). RESULTS: The frequency of HIV in the center of Iran (Tehran and Qom provinces) was higher (N = 37, 61%). Most of the infected patients were between 5 and 15 years old, 52% were male, and 93% had a history of HIV in their family. Median age at diagnosis of HIV was 2 years. Most of the hospitalized patients were discharged and only two patients (3%) died due to HIV infection. The vast majority of patients (93%) were infected through maternal transmission and a low percentage (29%) were diagnosed before 1 year of age. All of them were in the third stage of the disease. All patients had a positive HIV PCR test. HIV EIA was positive in the majority of cases (98%). A history of addiction in the family was demonstrated in 22 cases (36%). Weight loss (N = 51, 84%), prolonged fever (N = 50, 81%), and respiratory infection (N = 26, 47%) were the most common symptoms. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated a high frequency of pediatric HIV among children aged 5-15 years in four provinces of Iran. Novel strategies to prevent and eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, diagnostic facilities, and treatment of infected mothers during pregnancy in our country are highly recommended.

Co-infection with bacterial and fungal endocarditis at scar tissue in an immunocompromised patient.

We present the case of a 65-year-old immunocompromised male with a history of kidney transplantation, diabetes, coronary artery bypass, and cardiac resynchronization therapy device implantation who was finally diagnosed with an unusual form of infective endocarditis due to co-infection of fungal and bacterial pathogens. He was afebrile at the time of admission and presented with decompensated heart failure and pneumonia. A spleen abscess was discovered incidentally and prompted us to search for a cardiac source of emboli. Culture of the suppurative fluid drained percutaneously from the abscess was positive for Enterococcus and Aspergillus species. Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography revealed a mobile vegetation attached to the scarred myocardium of anterior septum - an unusual location for intracardiac vegetations. With regard to the prohibitive risk for redo surgery, the patient was managed medically with broad spectrum antimicrobial therapy. Finally, the patient died with severe sepsis. .

Neurobrucellosis in a 9-year-old girl.

Brucellosis is a zoonotic multi-organ infectious disease most frequent in developing countries. Neurobrucellosis a quite rare but serious complication of brucellosis in the pediatric age group manifests with different neurological symptoms and signs. In the present case a 9-year-old girl was referred to our centre with a 9-months history of headache and back pain, facial nerve palsy and right upper limb weakness. She had undergone ventriculoperitoneal shunting surgery due to communicating hydrocephalus. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a spinal extramedullary intradural mass, two epidural collections in the cervical spine and thickening/abnormal enhancement in the basal cisterns with invasion to medulla and pons. The patient's serum and cerebrospinal serologic tests were found positive for brucellosis. The patient was successfully treated by anti-brucella antibiotic therapy.

Patterns of stress and strain in complete-arch prostheses supported by four or six implants: A literature review of finite element analyses.

Background: Tilted implants have been recommended as an alternative to the bone graft procedures in implant sites although with possibly higher stress concentrations. This study reviews finite element studies to evaluate patterns of stress and strain in complete-arch prostheses supported by 4‒6 implants. Methods: A literature search was performed using the online databases. Articles published in English from 2003 to 2015 were reviewed. A total of 100 articles were found related to the subject and after evaluating the titles and abstracts, 18 studies were selected. Results: By increasing the number of implants, a reduction was detected in the amount of stress in the bone and implants, while in others, the stress level did not change with the increase in the number of implants. Conclusion: According to finite element analyses, placing a distal implant in an angular position results in better distribution of forces and stresses. Using less cantilever lengths would reduce the stress.

Acute osteomyelitis and septic arthritis in children : A referral hospital-based study in Iran.

Information concerning the epidemiology of acute osteomyelitis (OM), septic arthritis (SA) and concurrent OM and SA in children is limited. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of OM, SA and concurrent OM and SA in children. During the 4 years of the study, 63,999 patients were admitted to the Children's Hospital, Tehran, Iran. We identified 111 patients with OM and/or SA during the 4­year period. There were 72 cases of OM (11 cases per 10,000 children) and 90 cases of SA (11 cases per 10,000 children). Concurrent OM and SA accounted for 0.17% of all cases (n = 51). The erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C­reactive protein were elevated in the majority of both infections. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequent pathogen responsible for both OM and SA in any age group. The lower limb was the most frequently affected (femur: 33/72, 46%; tibia or fibula: 22/72, 31%; foot: 5/72, 7%). The most frequent involved joints were hips (n = 31, 34%) and knees (n = 31, 34%). The present study showed high frequency of patients with concurrent SA and OM. Therefore, prompt recognition and proper diagnosis of pediatric OM and SA is highly recommended.

Metastatic pulmonary artery sarcoma presented with tamponade: a case report.

Pulmonary artery sarcoma is a rare tumor with varying presentations including pericardial effusion and pulmonary metastasis. Single-nucleotide polymorphism array is a novel method that can be used to define tumor genome and be used as a guidance to choose the proper treatment regimen.

Molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus nasal colonization among patients and their parents /guardian in an Iranian referral hospital.

INTRODUCTION: Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in the nose appears to play a key role in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of infection. It is important to investigate the genetic relatedness of S. aureus and MRSA clones in different geographic regions. The aim of this study was to assess the nasal carriage rate of S. aureus, including MRSA strains in both hospitalized children and general adult population (parents/guardian). In addition, antibiotic susceptibility pattern and molecular diversity of S. aureus in both population was evaluated in an Iranian referral pediatrics Hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All samples were obtained through nasal screening of patients and general adult population at admission and discharge day. The prevalence, resistance, and molecular diversity of all S. aureus isolates were examined. RESULTS: In the current study, nasal carriage of S. aureus and Staphylococcus non aureus was identified in 384 (26%) and 1004 (68%) of the study population. The prevalence of MRSA nasal carriage in children and adults was 6.6% (29 out of 438) and 2.8% (29 out of 1046), respectively. Among S. aureus strains isolated obtained from patients and general adult population at admission day, high sensitivity to most of the antibiotics such as vancomycin (100%), rifampin (95%), linezolid (94%), quinupristin/dalfopristin (94%), minocycline (94%), chloramphenicol (89%), gentamycin (87%), amikacin (87%), clindamycin (86%) and moxifloxacin (83%) was seen. The most resistance antibiotics were penicillin (96-98%) and methicillin (44-47%). The susceptibility patterns of nasal S. aureus strains isolated at discharge day was not statistically different from S. aureus isolates obtained at admission day. Admission S. aureus isolated strains of 77 patients (64%) were similar to the isolated S. aureus strains of discharge, while S. aureus isolated strains of 43 patients (36%) was not similar to the strain of discharge (had similarity of less than 70%). CONCLUSION: High prevalence of nasal carriage of S. aureus and MRSA indicates the urgent need to improve strategies for management of S. aureus infections. Our findings are useful for understanding of S. aureus nasal colonization dynamics within the patients and general population. Surveillance for S. aureus in community settings can provide data on circulating strains and might help developing control measures for reducing of infection spread in hospitals.

Short-term effectiveness of radiochemoembolization for selected hepatic metastases with a combination protocol.

AIM: To introduce the combination method of radiochemoembolization for the treatment of selected hepatic metastases. METHODS: Twenty patients with biopsy proven hepatic metastases were selected from those who underwent transarterial radiochemoembolization, a novel combination protocol, between January 2009 and July 2010. Patients had different sources of liver metastasis. The treatment included transarterial administration of three chemotherapeutic drugs (mitomycin, doxorubicin and cisplatin), followed by embolization with large (50-150 µm) radioisotope particles of chromic 32P. Multiphasic computer tomography or computer tomography studies, with and without contrast medium injections, were performed for all patients for a short-term period before and after the treatment sessions. The short-term effectiveness of this procedure was evaluated by modified response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (mRECIST), which also takes necrosis into account. The subjective percentage of necrosis was also assessed. The response evaluation methods were based on the changes in size, number, and the enhancement patterns of the lesions between the pre- and post-treatment imaging studies. RESULTS: Patients had liver metastasis from colorectal carcinomas, breast cancer, lung cancer and carcinoid tumors. The response rate based on the mRECIST criteria was 5% for complete response, 60% for partial response, 10% for stable disease, and 25% for progressive disease. Regarding the subjective necrosis percentage, 5% of patients had complete response, 50% had partial response, 25% had stable disease, and 20% had progressive disease. Based on traditional RECIST criteria, 3 patients (15%) had partial response, 13 patients (65%) had stable disease, and 4 patients (20%) had disease progression. In most patients, colorectal carcinoma was the source of metastasis (13 patients). Based on the mRECIST criteria, 8 out of these 13 patients had partial responses, while one remained stable, and 5 showed progressive disease. We also had 5 cases of breast cancer metastasis which mostly remained stable (4 cases), with only one partial response after the procedure. Six patients had bilobar involvement; three of them received two courses of radiochemoembolization. The follow up imaging study of these patients was performed after the second session. In the studied patients there was no evidence of extrahepatic occurrence, including pulmonary radioactive deposition, which was proven by Bremsstrahlung scintigraphy performed after the treatment sessions. For the short-term follow-ups for the 2 mo after the therapy, no treatment related death was reported. The mostly common side effect was post-embolization syndrome, presented as vomiting, abdominal pain, and fever. Nineteen (95%) patients experienced this syndrome in different severities. Two patient had ascites (with pleural effusion in one patient) not related to hepatic failure. Moreover, no cases of acute liver failure, hepatic infarction, hepatic abscess, biliary necrosis, tumor rupture, surgical cholecystitis, or non-targeted gut embolization were reported. Systemic toxicities such as alopecia, marrow suppression, renal toxicity, or cardiac failure did not occur in our study group. CONCLUSION: Radiochemoembolization is safe and effective for selected hepatic metastases in a short-term follow-up. Further studies are required to show the long-term effects and possible complications of this approach.

Histological evaluation of drill fragments obtained during osteoid osteoma radiofrequency ablation.

OBJECTIVE: Osteoid osteoma (OO) is a benign bone tumor diagnosed mainly on the basis of the patient's history and radiological data. Histological evaluation may not be available before treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of a histological evaluation of the bone fragments obtained during radiofrequency ablation (RFA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: During a 2-year period, 39 patients diagnosed clinically with OO were entered into this study. The procedure was performed under computed tomography (CT) guidance. An 11-gauge needle was initially placed as a coaxial guide. After drill removal, RFA was performed. Bone fragments collected from the drill were examined by two experienced pathologists, independently. RESULTS: There was strong association between pathologists' reports (P <0.001). In 27 cases (69.2%) this diagnosis was confirmed pathologically. No significant relationship was found between nidus diameter and positive histological findings (P = 0.35). CONCLUSION: Histological confirmation of OO based on drill fragments is similarly frequent as previously reported for standard bone biopsy.

Radiofrequency ablation of osteoid osteoma in atypical locations: a case series.

BACKGROUND: Osteoid osteoma has a nidus surrounded by sclerotic bone with a size usually less than 20 mm. Its diagnosis is made on typical presentation of nocturnal pain and imaging findings. Excision of the niduses, which are often small and difficult to precisely identify, sometimes may result in resection of surrounding normal bone. Minimally invasive percutaneous treatments have been used to try to minimize resection of normal bone. Although minimally invasive radiofrequency ablation generally relieves pain, its ability to relieve pain is less well known in locations other than lower extremity long bones. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We determined the pain relief and complication rates after radiofrequency ablation of osteoid osteomas presenting in atypical locations and followed patients to assess possible recurrence or late complications. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 21 patients with osteoid osteomas in unusual locations (eg, hip, radioulnar joint, and proximal phalanx) in whom we used radiofrequency ablation. Postoperative activities were not restricted for any of the patients. We assessed the time for patients to become symptom free, their activity status, and possible recurrence or complications. The minimum clinical followup was 12 months (mean, 27.8 months; range, 12-37 months). RESULTS: All patients became symptom free within 24 hours to 1 week. During followup, none of the patients experienced recurrence or any major complications. CONCLUSIONS: Radiofrequency ablation for osteoid osteomas in unusual locations reliably relieves pain with few complications and recurrences at short-term followup. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, case series. See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of level of evidence.