Limits of ¹8F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in recurrence diagnosis of borderline ovarian tumor.

Most borderline ovarian tumors (BOT) occur in young women and exhibit a low malignant behavior. Nevertheless, an accurate long-term follow-up is required because, frequently, recurrence arises after many years from primary treatment, especially in patients affected by BOT with invasive peritoneal implants, which have a worse prognosis. We report the case of a pelvic recurrence of serous BOT firstly suspected by physical examination but misdiagnosed by ¹8F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and computed tomography and identified only by magnetic resonance imaging, 7 years after primary treatment. We also reviewed the literature concerning the role of ¹8F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in the management and follow-up of BOT.

Potential role of fetal cardiac evaluation with magnetic resonance imaging: preliminary experience.

OBJECTIVE: To report our experience with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in fetal heart evaluation. METHOD: Two radiologists examined 31 MRI of fetuses with no ultrasound (US) evidence of cardio-thoracic anomalies. T2-weighted half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo sequences were acquired for anatomic evaluation; fast imaging with steady-state free precession (TrueFISP) and cine-MR sequences with real-time steady-state free precession oriented like standard fetal echocardiographic projections were acquired for the characterization of cardiovascular morphology and function. RESULTS: In every case, MRI assessed the viscero-atrial situs. The four-chamber view and the short-axis view of the left ventricle were obtained in all fetuses, the long-axis view of the aortic arch in 28, the long-axis view of the ductus arteriosus in 17, the five-chamber view in 12, the long-axis of the left ventricle in 9, the three-vessel view in 7, the tricuspid-aortic view in 3, and the transverse view of the aortic arch and the angulated view of the arch and the ductus arteriosus simultaneously in 2 fetuses. CONCLUSION: Our preliminary experience demonstrates the feasibility to visualize the fetal heart with routine fetal MRI protocols in particular, by means of acquisition of TrueFISP imaging (morphological study) and real-time cine-MRI (dynamic study), potentially making MRI a second-level tool to add to fetal echocardiography in the prenatal study of congenital cardiac malformations.

MRI with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) assessment in the evaluation of normal and abnormal fetal kidneys: preliminary experience.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping with the measurement of renal tissue ADC value of normal and pathological fetal kidneys at various gestational ages (GAs). METHODS: Fifty pregnant women underwent magnetic resonance images (MRI) after ultrasound (US) for suspected fetal genitourinary disorders (16) or for suspected disorders in other organs (34). A multiplanar study of urinary system was obtained by using conventional T2-weighted sequences and echo planar imaging (EPI); Diffusion-weighted images and ADC maps were evaluated. The renal tissue ADC value was measured for all normal and abnormal fetuses and related to GA. RESULTS: MRI confirmed urinary anomalies in 15 fetuses [2 renal developmental variants, 2 nephropathies, 4 multicystic dysplastic kidneys (MCDK), 7 renal tract dilatations] and detected normal kidneys in the remaining 35 fetuses. Normal renal parenchyma showed bright signal on diffusion-weighted images with ADC values ranging from 1,065 to 1,327 microm(2)/s with a tendency to decrease over GA. A pathological ADC was detected in cases of bilateral MCDK, huge dilatations and in cases of nephropathies. CONCLUSION: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with ADC mapping can be used in the evaluation of fetal renal parenchyma and may become a tool of assessing function of the fetal kidney by means of measurement of renal tissue ADC values.

The distally-based radial fasciosubcutaneous flap for soft tissue cover of the flexor aspect of the wrist.

The distally-based radial forearm fasciosubcutaneous flap is based on the distal perforators of the radial artery. We used it in a particularly difficult case involving loss of soft tissue at the wrist with exposure of tendons and nerves after an operation to section the transverse carpal ligament for carpal tunnel syndrome complicated by a chronic fistula.