Ambiguous genitalia: comparative role of pelvic ultrasonography and genitography.

Ambiguous genitalia represents a true medical and social emergency which needs a multi-disciplinary team approach for elucidation. The paediatric radiologist plays an important role in defining the genital anatomy which remains one of the most important factors in sex determination. Aiming to compare the predictive value of pelvic ultrasonography and genitography in sex determination in patients with ambiguous genitalia, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 69 patients, 53 females and 16 males, where both procedures were employed. In female pseudohermaphroditism, the presence of a uterus with or without vagina was predicted in 46 (86.8%) patients by ultrasound compared with 44 (83%) patients in whom a genitogram revealed a vagina +/- uterus. In six (11.3%) patients, a genitogram revealed a male-type urethra. The combination of ultrasound and genitogram, however, was more sensitive and predicted the presence of a uterus with or without vagina in 52 (98.1%) patients. In male pseudo-hermaphroditism, there was no false positive by ultrasound, and a genitogram revealed a male-type urethra in 12 (75%) patients. In conclusion, although real time pelvic ultrasonography is less invasive than genitography, its yield in elucidating genital anatomy is comparable. The combination of both procedures is more informative and has a better yield.

Horseshoe lung: differential diagnosis.

A detailed radiologic and anatomic study of one horseshoe lung syndrome has already been published from this centre. A further case of horseshoe lung, which was also diagnosed prospectively by radiology, is described. Alongside, this is a set of a group of three conditions: we describe a right accessory lung with a peculiar feeding arterial branch originating from the left basal pulmonary artery. The bronchogram and oesophagogram of this case were normal. The other is a case of bridging bronchus where the left lower lobe bronchus originates from the right main stem bronchus. This was discovered at post mortem bronchogram performed on a 19 weeks foetus. Finally, in the dog, we found that the pulmonary angiogram and bronchogram display close similarity to human horseshoe lung though the dog has two separate lungs. The common denominator of all above cases is the presence of a pulmonary arterial branch or bronchus crossing the midline from the ipsi to the contralateral side. Therefore, it may be concluded "in contradiction to the common belief" that pulmonary angiography or bronchography alone is not sufficient for the diagnosis of horseshoe lung. When only one of these investigations is available, computerized tomography is necessary to show the isthmic lung tissue before the diagnosis of horseshoe lung is confirmed.