New guidelines on the use of iodinated contrast media: a report on an implementation project.

PURPOSE: The aim of this paper is to report on the implementation of new guidelines on the use of injectable iodinated contrast media (ICM) at our workplace and specific protocols for the preparation of patients at risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Operators received training with continuing medical education (CME) credits. The new documentation (patient history/screening form and informed consent form) is available on the hospital Web site and requests serum creatinine determination with estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) for every patient. Additional tests are required for high-risk patients only. RESULTS: Attendance rates were 57.2% among referring physicians and 74.5% among Radiology Department personnel. The Cockcroft-Gault formula was used to estimate GFR in adults. The main problem encountered in the implementation process was that referring physicians failed to evaluate the GFR in 80% of patients, with low GFR being discovered in the Radiology Department on the day of examination in 20% of patients, resulting in a need to reschedule the examination. CONCLUSIONS: Although not an easy task, implementation of the new guidelines for ICM use is both feasible and necessary. An additional refresher training course for personnel and GFR evaluation of the patient on referral are indispensable to ensure proper preparation of patients at increased risk of adverse reactions to ICM.

Rhinopharyngoscopy, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

Rhinitis is defined as nasal congestion, sneezing, itching and rhinorrhoea, recently classified as allergic, infective, structural or "other". The increasing employment of flexible rhynolaringoscopy may represent one of the most useful diagnostic tools in the complex differential diagnosis between allergic and nonallergic rhinitis. Furthermore, chronic allergic rhinitis, with secondary impairment of mucociliary clearance and the plethora of frequent anatomical variations, especially in the ostiomeatal complex, appear to predispose the patient to recurrent rhinosinusitis. In the last two decades, a better understanding of mucociliary clearance of nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses has shifted the attention from the maxillary sinuses to the area of the antherior ethmoid sinuses. Plain film radiographic examination, the historical standard, due to its inability to individualize ethmoid and sphenoid disease, is being rapidly supplanted by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of rhinosinusitis. In allergic and non-allergic rhinitis the diagnostic role of magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography is still under debate. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are more efficient in demonstrating the bone wall, mucosal layer and sinus content than classical and computerized radiology; they have a higher diagnostic performance index in spite of a higher cost and, for computed tomography, a higher radiation dose.

Hepatic iron overload in thalassemic patients: proposal and validation of an MRI method of assessment.

BACKGROUND: A simple, accurate, reproducible and noninvasive method of body iron overload assessment would be of great clinical use. Objective. The purpose of the study was the implementation of a 0. 5-T MRI method for liver iron overload measurement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with thalassemia major took part in the study. Liver and paraspinal muscle signal intensity (SI) measurements were performed on T1-weighted images and normalized on a standard phantom, and a subjective hemochromatosis grading scale was made on both T1- and T2-weighted images. Serum ferritin levels and tissue iron from liver biopsy specimens were determined for comparison. RESULTS: A close correlation was found between bioptic liver iron and both the liver-to-phantom SI ratio (r = -0.88) and the subjective grading scale (rho = 0.89). Serum ferritin correlated poorly with liver iron deposition, whether assessed by biopsy (r = 0. 62) or MRI (r = -0.69). CONCLUSIONS: Both the subjective and the quantitative MRI methods proposed here are clinically valuable, with the former being adequate for a gross, the latter for an accurate estimation of tissue iron overload.

Precision of sonographic measurement of articular cartilage: inter- and intraobserver analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the precision of sonographic measurement of the thickness of the articular cartilage of the hip and knee in children. DESIGN: The precision was assessed by evaluating the intra- and interobserver variations in sonographic measurements. PATIENTS: A total of 65 healthy children were in the study. The articular cartilage of the right hip and knee of 40 subjects (mean age 10.3 years, range 4-16.9 years) was evaluated in masked fashion by two observers to assess the interobserver variability. The articular cartilage of the right hip and knee of 25 children (mean age 10.4 years, range 6.2-15.5 years) was examined twice by the same observer to assess the intraobserver variability. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Discrepancies between repeated measurements were expressed as data differences. The "limits of agreement" of data differences, i.e. the mean +2 SD and the mean -2 SD, ranged from -0.26 to +0.22 mm and from -0.56 to +0.48 mm for the interobserver analysis of the femoral head cartilage (FHC) and femoral condylar cartilage (FCC), respectively. The "limits of agreement" for the intraobserver analysis ranged from -0.16 to +0.15 mm and from -0.51 to +0.41 mm for the FHC and the FCC, respectively. The overall precision of the sonographic measurements was satisfactory. When used for determination of skeletal age, sonographic assessment of FHC thickness resulted in under/overestimation of skeletal age by about 7.5 months. In conclusion, sonographic measurement of articular cartilage is precise enough to be used in clinical practice.

Accidental intrathecal injection of ionic water-soluble contrast medium: report of a case, including treatment.

We report a patient who inadvertently received a small amount of meglumine diatrizoate intrathecally. The physiopathology and treatment of this kind of accident are discussed.

Technical note: CT scout views of the cervical spine in severely head-injured patients.

The objective of this study was the validation of a CT multiprojection scout view method for the evaluation of cervical spine integrity in severely head-injured patients. Following brain CT, 130 consecutive patients underwent anteroposterior, laterolateral, and 45 degrees right and left oblique scout views of the cervical spine. The method allowed direct and prompt detection of traumatic lesions of the cervical spine in ten cases without moving the patients from the scanner table.

Iron overload in thalassemia: comparative analysis of magnetic resonance imaging, serum ferritin and iron content of the liver.

BACKGROUND: Iron overload in patients with thalassemia is a common feature which requires continuous chelation therapy and monitoring. Serum ferritin determination is widely accepted as a simple method for following iron load in patients with primary hemochromatosis; however, several reports on thalassemic patients emphasize that ferritinemia is not accurate and that other methods such as direct measurement of iron in the liver (HIC) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are more precise. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to contribute to the general understanding of iron load in thalassemia we used liver MRI to study 33 thalassemic patients, most of whom were also evaluated for iron content by liver biopsy. The data were then compared with serum ferritin levels. RESULTS: Ferritin levels ranged between 276 and 8031 ng/mL, and liver iron content ranged from 1.6 to 31.0 mg/g dry weight; grade III or IV liver siderosis was recorded in 23/33 patients, just as 23/33 patients were found to have severe or very severe siderosis at MRI. Significant correlations with ferritin levels were recorded between grade IV and grades III, II and I (p < 0.01, p = 0.02, and p = 0.03, respectively). Ferritinemia also showed significant linearity with liver iron content (r = 0.603, p = 0.001). No significant differences of levels were recorded, however, between patients found to have severe and those with mild iron load at MRI (p = 0.073). CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that serum ferritin levels exhibit a tendency to be significantly correlated with the true status of hemochromatosis in thalassemic patients; however, the discrepancies recorded in several patients and the scarce or total lack of correlation with MRI suggest exploring other approaches to this problem in order to make proper decisions about therapy.

99mTc HM-PAO brain perfusion SPECT in brain death.

Diagnosis of brain death must be certain to allow discontinuation of artificial ventilation and organ transplantation. Brain death is present when all functions of the brain stem have irreversibly ceased. Clinical and electrophysiological criteria may be misinterpreted due to drug intoxication, hypothermia or technical artefacts. Thus, if clinical assessment is suboptimal, reliable early confirmatory tests may be required for demonstrating absence of intracranial blood flow. We have easily carried out and interpreted 99mTc HM-PAO SPECT in a consecutive series of 40 comatose patients with brain damage, without discontinuing therapy. Brain death was diagnosed in 7 patients, by recognising absence of brain perfusion, as shown by no intracranial radionuclide uptake. In patients in whom perfusion was seen on brain scans, HM-PAO SPECT improved assessment of the extent of injury, which in general was larger than suggested by CT.

[Stress urinary incontinence in women: magnetic resonance assessment]. / Incontinenza urinaria da sforzo della donna. Valutazione mediante Risonanza Magnetica.

The preoperative radiologic study of female stress urinary incontinence is still incomplete and often not well tolerated. MRI is becoming a major diagnostic tool for pelvis assessment also thanks to its allowing dynamic studies. Therefore, MRI was used for the static and dynamic assessment of the pelvic floor, which is compromised in stress incontinence, in a series of 21 patients. Dynamic studies were reliable in all but two cases. Our MRI technique demonstrated anatomical and functional stress urinary incontinence alterations, such as the increased distance between urethra and pubic symphysis (16 patients), vaginal changes (7 patients), levator ani muscle changes (9 patients) and urethropelvic ligaments changes (9 patients). The functional changes caused by pelvic floor collapse were observed in all the patients with reliable dynamic studies, i.e., the posterior urethrovesical angle was increased and the pelvic floor excessively lowered during pelvic strain. Our preliminary results suggest that MRI can play a major role in the preoperative assessment of stress urinary incontinence, notwithstanding the fact that the exam is performed with the patient supine and therefore with no gravity.

Spontaneous regression of exostoses: two case reports.

Exostoses are a common skeletal disorder. Despite their incidence, little is yet known about their origin and biological behaviour. In particular, spontaneous regression of exostoses--an extremely rare event--is still a subject for debate. In this study, we describe two additional cases of spontaneous regression of exostosis; one was a solitary lesion while the other occurred in a patient with multiple heritable exostoses. Radiographic findings are presented along with some of the theories which aim at explaining this phenomenon.

Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT in a cerebral gunshot wound.

The authors examined regional cerebral blood flow by using Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT studies in a patient who received a gunshot wound to the brain. Although the presence of the retained bullet's fragments adversely affected the quality of CT images and contraindicated MRI studies, the SPECT examination did not have the same constraints and allowed both therapy assessment and prognostic evaluation. The repair of the cortical defect could also be assessed.

Considerations of brain death on a SPECT cerebral perfusion study.

Brain death imaging is often a diagnostic challenge. Cerebral angioscintigraphy is extensively used for this analysis, but this test does not allow the perfusion evaluation of the posterior fossa. The authors report a case in which a SPECT study showed persistence of blood flow in infratentorial structures with total absence of cerebral (supratentorial) perfusion. This finding excluded the diagnosis of brain death.

Crossed cerebello-cerebral diaschisis: a SPECT study.

A scintigraphic single photon emission computed tomographic (SPECT) evaluation of frontal perfusion alteration was performed in five patients with known cerebellar lesions but with normal supratentorial computed tomographic (CT) or magnetic resonance (MR) scans. A clearly evident asymmetry was found in prefrontal areas in the four subjects with acquired cerebellar damage. The fifth subject, who had congenital left cerebellar hypoplasia, did not show any frontal flow asymmetry. The data support the growing clinical evidence that the cerebellum contributes to the cognitive processes of the frontal lobes and suggest a possible role for SPECT examination in the assessment of functional cognitive impairment in patients with acquired cerebellar lesions.

[Diagnostic yield in rhino-sinusal inflammatory pathology: comparison of projective radiology, CT and MR]. / Resa diagnostica nella patologia flogistica rino-sinusale: confronto tra radiologia proiettiva, TC e RM.

In everyday practice, the radiologist is concerned with the diagnosis of inflammatory conditions of the nose and paranasal sinuses. This paper was aimed at evaluating and comparing the diagnostic efficacy of the main diagnostic imaging procedures currently available. Fifty-six patients were studied: 25 with computed radiography (CR) and CT, 21 with CR and MRI (0.22 T resistive magnet), and 10 with CR, CT, and MRI. From the diagnostic point of view, the conventional-like CR image was assumed as analog to the conventional radiographic (RX) one on the basis of previous personal experience. The following elements were separately considered for RX, CR, CT, and MRI: anatomical structure identificability, spatial resolution, dosimetry, time consumption, diagnostic results, and economics. A global performance index was calculated (RX less than 1; CR = 1; MRI ranging 1.2-2.2; CT = 7.3). CR was superior to RX, from both a diagnostic and a dosimetric point of view, but buying the equipment is nowadays expensive. CT and MRI were superior to both RX and CR in the diagnosis of inflammatory conditions of the nose and paranasal sinuses. When an inflammatory condition is unquestionable, MRI is more accurate than CT, but the latter (thanks to its optimal documentation of both bony walls and soft tissues) is superior to MRI in the differential diagnosis of a generic disease of the nose and paranasal sinuses--that is, when the inflammatory nature is questionable. MRI limitations were poor visualization of bone walls, high cost, and poor access. Thus, CT emerged as the technique of choice, thanks to its diagnostic results, easy access and low cost, with a negligible radiation dose to patients.

[Vertebral collapse model: combined diagnostic imaging]. / Il modello del collasso vertebrale: diagnostica per immagini integrate.

Ninety-eight consecutive patients with 344 collapsed vertebrae underwent conventional and/or digital radiography and MRI. Vertebral collapse was due to osteopenia (16 cases), trauma (17 cases), and vertebral osteonecrosis (3 cases). Other causes were: spondylodiscitis (9 patients), primary neoplasm (4 patients), metastases (37 patients), and hemomyelopathies (7 patients); 5 patients bore vertebral angiomas. Sixty-three patients also underwent CT and 25 bone scintigraphy. As far as collapsed vertebral endplates are concerned, according to a previous classification, outcomes were divided into 4 groups. Type 1 (focal concave collapse) was observed in 10% of benign lesions and in 1% of malignant ones; type 2 (diffuse concave collapse) in 24% of benign and in 16% of malignant lesions; type 3 (focal collapse with an acute angle) in 11% of benign and malignant lesions, and type 4 (diffuse collapse with an acute angle) in 11% of benign and in 26% of malignant lesions. Neural arch involvement was observed in 3% of benign lesions and in 16% of malignant ones; paravertebral soft-tissue involvement in 6% of benign and in 29% of malignant lesions; vertebral canal involvement in 11% of benign lesions and in 20% of malignant ones. The intervertebral disk proximal to vertebral collapse was more involved in benign lesions (24%) than in malignant ones (8%). MR signal followed 4 main patterns: low signal on T1-weighted images and high signal on proton-density and T2-weighted images (2% of benign lesions, 49% of malignant ones), low signal on all sequences (7% of benign lesions and 25% of malignant ones), isointense signal on all sequences (50% of benign and 21% of malignant lesions), and high signal on all sequences (41% of benign lesions and 0% of malignant ones).

Right ventricular aneurysm: a new prognostic indicator after a first acute myocardial infarction.

The prognostic implication of a right ventricular aneurysm after a first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was assessed on a series of 137 AMI patients 12 of whom had a right ventricular aneurysm detected at radionuclide angiocardiography. The follow-up lasted 36 months. Mortality was 50 and 18.4% in patients with and without right ventricular aneurysm, respectively (p less than 0.02). Groups did not differ in age, male-to-female ratio, AMI site, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), peak filling rate (PFR), left ventricular size. A multivariate logistic analysis showed that only three out of ten clinical and functional variables qualified to be independent predictors of death: right ventricular aneurysm (odd ratio = 2.48, confidence limits = 1.21-4.98), LVEF less than 52% (odd ratio = 1.91, confidence limits = 1.03-3.48), abnormal terminal P wave forces (odd ratio = 1.72, confidence limits = 1.07-2.75). The analysis of single case histories did not provide a clue to clarify the reasons accounting for the negative prognostic implication of a right ventricular aneurysm. In conclusion, a significant positive relationship between right ventricular aneurysm and mortality after AMI has been demonstrated; further study is needed to clarify the relevant mechanisms.