[Heart-rate disorders: a challenge for the radiologist]. / Trastornos del ritmo cardíaco: un reto para el radiólogo.

Arrhythmia or altered heart rhythms can present with or without underlying heart disease. Most cardiopathies give rise to arrhythmias; however, arrhythmias can also be caused in previously healthy hearts by other conditions such as metabolic disorders, electrolyte imbalances, and drug use or abuse. The clinical presentation can range from asymptomatic cases discovered incidentally on routine examination to sudden death as the only clinical sign. In cases with clinical suspicion of arrhythmia, Holter and electrophysiological studies should be performed. If the condition is confirmed, associated cardiopathy must be ruled out. Echocardiography should be the first imaging test to be performed. Multidetector computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been applied to the field of cardiology more recently and are gradually acquiring specific roles with precise indications. In the study of arrhythmias, MRI is indicated in two particular areas: auricular fibrillation and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.

[Diagnosis and staging of carcinoma of the pancreas (I)]. / Diagnóstico y estadificación del carcinoma de páncreas (I).

Carcinoma of the pancreas is a neoplasm with a poor prognosis that is diagnosed in the advanced stages in most patients. Given that surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment for this disease, it is of the utmost importance to appropriately select the group of patients with initial stage pancreatic tumors that have not extended and can therefore be resected. Several different imaging techniques can be used for this purpose: ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), as well as the recent additions of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and positron emission tomography (PET). Other techniques, such as laparoscopy and laparoscopic ultrasonography, also play a role in the diagnosis and staging of these patients. Continual technological developments in each of the above-mentioned techniques have led to reiterated updates in the scientific literature throughout the last two decades. This review aims to evaluate each of these techniques and present diagnostic algorithms reflected in the literature in order to achieve the greatest diagnostic accuracy in determining the extent of the disease so that unnecessary surgery can be avoided in cases not susceptible to resection.

[Hospital registry of pancreatic tumors. Experience of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona (Spain)]. / Registro hospitalario de tumoraciones pancreáticas. Experiencia del Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of patients included in the pancreatic tumor registry of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. PATIENTS AND METHOD: All patients with pancreatic tumors attended between July 1990 and March 2003 were registered. Data collection included: age, gender, date of diagnosis, diagnosis, histology, size, location and tumor stage, and treatment. The correlation between tumor stage and age, date of diagnosis, and tumor location was also evaluated. RESULTS: Six hundred thirty patients with pancreatic tumors were included, representing an incidence of 60 patients/year. The mean age was 66 years and the male-to-female ratio was 1,18:1. The most frequent lesion was malignant tumor of the pancreas (92%), and the most frequent histological type was pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (73%). The most frequent location was the head of the pancreas (64%). In 28% of the patients, pancreatic cancer was diagnosed in stage I and II. Resection was performed in 31% of patients, whereas 48% of the patients received no treatment. The ratio between local (stage I)/disseminated (stage IV) disease was 0,34. The ratio between stage I/IV increased with age, diagnosis prior to 1994, and tumor location in the head of the pancreas. CONCLUSION: Hospital tumor registries can be used to define the profile of the attended population, which can help to delineate the best diagnostic-therapeutic strategy and can be useful in clinical research.

Highly effective compensatory mechanisms in a 76-year-old man with a coarctation of the aorta.

We present a man who was diagnosed with coarctation of the aorta (CA) at the age of 76. He had developed an extensive collateral circulation for maintaining the circulation below the CA. This compensatory mechanism was highly effective, since the patient had remained asymptomatic and in good health during most of his life. He died from intrahospitalary pneumonia, unrelated to CA. Long-term survival in patients with untreated CA is exceptional, with only 11 patients living into their 70s being previously reported. A review of these cases is included.