Staging of Endometrial Cancer Using Fusion T2-Weighted Images with Diffusion-Weighted Images: A Way to Avoid Gadolinium?

Endometrial cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide, and its prognosis depends on various factors, with myometrial invasion having a major impact on prognosis. Optimizing MRI protocols is essential, and it would be useful to improve the diagnostic accuracy without the need for other sequences. We conducted a retrospective, single-center study, which included a total of 87 patients with surgically confirmed primary endometrial cancer, and who had undergone a pre-operative pelvic MRI. All exams were read by an experienced radiologist dedicated to urogenital radiology, and the depth of myometrial invasion was evaluated using T2-Weighted Images (T2WI) and fused T2WI with Diffusion-Weighted Images (DWI). Both results were compared to histopathological evaluations. When comparing both sets of imaging (T2WI and fused T2WI-DWI images) in diagnosing myometrial invasion, the fused images had better accuracy, and this difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). T2WI analysis correctly diagnosed 82.1% (70.6-88.7) of cases, compared to 92.1% correctly diagnosed cases with fused images (79.5-97.2). The addition of fused images to a standard MRI protocol improves the diagnostic accuracy of myometrial invasion depth, encouraging its use, since it does not require more acquisition time.

Bilateral shoulder arthritis in COVID-19 patient after prolonged mechanical ventilation assist: a case report.

Prolonged immobilization and, in particular, mechanical ventilation, have been linked to muscle atrophy. Anecdotal reports in the literature describe rhabdomyolysis as a potential late complication of COVID-19 infection which, in severe cases, may coexist with fluid collections. We report a case of a 28-year-old patient that had been recently hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, with need for invasive ventilation support. Days after being discharged, the patient presents with retrosternal thoracalgia irradiating to the left upper limb. On physical examination, abduction and external rotation were limited due to pain complaints and there was soft tissue swelling of the corresponding shoulder and arm. Imaging evaluation was essential to establish the underlying condition, revealing bilateral arthritis communicating with large rotator cuff collections, which was considered of septic nature.