The role of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging in determining tumor aggressiveness during preoperative surgical planning in early-stage endometrial cancer.

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between tumor volume and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in preoperative magnetic resonance imaging and deep myometrial invasion, tumor grade, and lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) in patients with early-stage endometrial cancer. METHODS: The study included 73 patients diagnosed with early-stage endometrial cancer based on histopathological examination between May 2014 and July 2019. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to estimate the accuracy of ADC and tumor volume in predicting the LVSI, the depth of myometrial invasion (DMI), and the histopathological tumor grade in these patients. RESULTS: The areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) of ADC and tumor volume in predicting LVI, DMI, and high tumor grade were significantly greater than those for superficial myometrial invasion and low-grade tumors. The ROC analysis revealed that higher tumor volume was significantly associated with the prediction of DMI and tumor grade (p = 0.002 and p = 0.015). The corresponding cut-off values of tumor volume were > 7.12 and > 9.38 mL. The sensitivity of ADC in predicting DMI was higher than its sensitivity in predicting LVSI and grade 1 tumors. Furthermore, tumor volume was significantly associated with the prediction of DMI and tumor grade. CONCLUSION: In the absence of pathological pelvic lymph nodes in early-stage endometrial cancer, tumor volume in DWI sequences determines the active tumor load and tumor aggressiveness. Furthermore, a low ADC indicates deep myometrial invasion and helps differentiate stage IA and stage IB tumors.

A comparison between the superb microvascular imaging technique and conventional Doppler ultrasound in evaluating chronic allograft damage in renal transplant recipients

PURPOSE: The present study comparatively evaluates the performance of conventional Doppler ultrasound and superb microvascular imaging (SMI) in delineating the cortical microvessels of the transplanted kidney and compares the chronic allograft damage index (CADI) based on the examination of biopsy specimens with Doppler ultrasound and SMI findings. METHODS: Sixty-eight renal transplant recipients underwent kidney biopsy with the pre-diagnosis of rejection before undergoing renal Doppler ultrasound examination between January 2020 and October 2020. The distance between the kidney capsule and the vascular structure closest to the kidney capsule was measured at the level of the lower pole in the transplanted kidney using color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS), power Doppler ultrasound (PDUS), and the SMI technique. The kidney size, resistive index at the level of the arcuate artery in the lower pole of the kidney, and renal artery flow rates were also measured. RESULTS: The mean distance between the kidney capsule and the vessel was 2.44 ± 2.0 mm on CDUS, 1.34 ± 1.2 mm on PDUS, 0.99 ± 1.8 mm using the color SMI (cSMI) technique, and 0.86 ± 1.8 mm using the monochrome SMI (mSMI) technique. The study found that the SMI technique was superior to CDUS and PDUS in delineating the cortical microvasculature of the kidney. Both Doppler ultrasound examinations and the SMI technique proved effective in predicting the CADI (P = 0.006 for CDUS, P = 0.002 for PDUS, P = 0.018 for cSMI, and P = 0.027 for mSMI). Among conventional Doppler ultrasound examinations and the SMI technique, PDUS had the highest sensitivity, and cSMI had the highest specificity in differentiating high and low CADI values. Both the cSMI and mSMI techniques had similar sensitivity values, whereas only cSMI exhibited high specificity. CDUS had the lowest specificity value (P = 0.003 for CDUS, P = 0.002 for PDUS, P = 0.005 for cSMI, and P = 0.004 for mSMI). CONCLUSION: The present study is the first in the literature to demonstrate the utility of the distance between the kidney capsule and the vessels in predicting the CADI score and to compare the Doppler ultrasound examinations and SMI technique in doing so.

Incidental pulmonary nodules in children: characteristic features and clinical course.

BACKGROUND: There exists insufficient information about the natural course of incidental pulmonary nodules (IPN) determined on tomography in children. The aim was to determine the characteristic features and factors affecting the course of IPN. METHODS: This retrospective study included patients who presented at the Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy & Immunology Section of Akdeniz University Hospital between January 2014-2020, and were determined with pulmonary nodules on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). The patients were separated into two groups as those with a nodule decreased in size or which had disappeared on the follow-up HRCT (Group 1) and those with a nodule which had remained at the same size (Group 2). These two groups were compared in respect to demographic data, nodule size and characteristics, and accompanying findings on HRCT. RESULTS: A total of 177 nodules were determined in the 66 patients included in the study. A follow-up HRCT was taken within mean 16.29±11.38 months in 27 patients. In these patients, 78 nodules were determined on the initial HRCT. On the follow-up, twelve of the nodules were seen to have shrunk or disappeared compared to the initial images, 66 had remained the same size, and none had grown. The mean age of the patients in Group 1 was statistically significantly lower than that of patients in Group 2 (p < 0.001). The rates of an accompanying mosaic attenuation pattern (p < 0.001) on HRCT and subsolid density (p=0.011) of the nodules in Group 1 were statistically significantly higher compared to Group 2 and the rate of calcification content was statistically significantly lower (p=0.002). No suspicious or confirmed malignancy was observed in any case throughout the mean follow-up period of 38.33±16.5 months after the initial HRCT. CONCLUSIONS: The young age of patients, subsolid structure of nodules, calcification content and the presence of an accompanying mosaic attenuation pattern on HRCT, could be useful factors in the estimation of size in the follow-up of nodules.