Contribution of real-time elastography in diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome

PURPOSEWe aimed to assess the feasibility and reproducibility of real-time elastography (RTE) for displaying the effects of morphological changes in the ovary in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).METHODSForty-eight patients diagnosed with PCOS and 48 healthy women were enrolled in the study. Ultrasonography and RTE were performed on the 3rd day of the menstrual cycle. Evaluations were performed independently by two radiologists. Ovarian volume, number of follicles, elasticity pattern, and strain ratio were measured. Elasticity patterns were assessed as hard (type 1; blue or blue-green), moderate (type 2; green or green-yellow) or soft (type 3; red or orange-red).RESULTSBoth radiologists determined the elasticity pattern as mostly type 1 in the PCOS group and type 3 in the control group (P < 0.01). The mean strain ratios obtained by the first and second radiologist were 6.1±1.8 (2.7–10.1) and 6.0±1.5 (3.0–9.0) in PCOS and 3.3±1.2 (1.7–7.2) and 3.2±0.9 (1.7–6.8) in the control group, respectively (P < 0.001). Interobserver agreement was moderate for the elasticity pattern (κ=0.48) and good for the strain ratio (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.77). A strain ratio of 3.8 was determined as the optimized cutoff point by receiver operating curve analysis. Strain ratio was correlated with the ovarian volume and the number of detected follicles (P < 0.001).CONCLUSIONElasticity pattern and strain ratio can help identify morphological changes that make PCOS ovaries stiffer than normal ovaries

Identification of Intracranial Calcifications and Hemorrhages Using MRI-Based Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

Thedifferentiation of intracranial hemorrhage and calcification on conventional MRimages is often challenging. Both pathologies show varying signal intensitieson T1- and T2-weighted images. Thus, Computed Tomography is often required inconfirmation of calcification. Phaseinformation in Susceptibility Weighted Imaging can provide contrast indifferentiation of two pathologies. Recently, Quantitative SusceptibilityMapping (QSM) has been shown to be useful in this separation since QSM providesa map of local tissue magnetic susceptibility by utilizing both magnitude andphase data and performing a dipole deconvolution. Inthis study, we explored efficiency of QSM in identification of intracranialcalcifications and hemorrhages on seven different cases (six hemorrhage caseswith several lesions and one calcification case with both calcification andhemorrhage) and compared its findings with the detection using SWI phase data. SWIphase images showed seventeen out of nineteen hemorrhage lesions but failed toidentify almost any lesions whether it’s a hemorrhage or calcification while eighteenout of nineteen hemorrhage lesions were identified on QSM images. Similarly,the calcified lesion was identified on QSM images but not on SWI phase images. Basedon our results, we conclude that QSM provides great utility in identificationof hemorrhage and calcification.&nbsp;</p

Computed tomography depiction of normal inguinal lymph nodes in children

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to establish computed tomography (CT) characteristics, distribution and provide normative data about size of normal inguinal lymph nodes in a paediatric population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four hundred eighty-one otherwise healthy children (147 girls, mean age: 8.87, range 0-17 years) underwent pelvic CT in the setting of high-energy trauma were included in the study. Both axial and coronal 1.25-mm reconstructions were evaluated for the presence, location (deep or superficial), number, presence of fat attenuation, and shape of the lymph nodes, short-axis diameter of the biggest lymph node for each of right and left inguinal regions. RESULTS: A total of 7556 lymph nodes were detected in 481 subjects (the mean count of superficial and deep inguinal lymph nodes was 13.35 [range 6-23] and 2.36 [range 0-7] per subject, respectively): 15% (1135/7556) deep located, 85% (6421/7556) superficially located, 86.6% (6547/7556) with fat attenuation, 99.2% (7496/7556) oval in shape, 0.8% (60/7556) spherical. The short-axis diameter of the lymph nodes increased with age. Pearson's correlation coefficient for superficial and deep lymph nodes in boys and girls, respectively: 0.538 (p < 0.001), 0.504 (p < 0.001), 0.452 (p < 0.001) and 0.268 (p < 0.001). The mean maximum short-axis diameters in different age groups and gender varied between 6.33 ± 0.85 mm and 8.68 ± 1.33 mm for superficial, 3.62 ± 1.16 mm and 5.83 ± 1.05 mm for deep inguinal lymph nodes. CONCLUSIONS: Inguinal lymph nodes were multiple, commonly contained fat, and were oval in shape. The data determined about inguinal lymph node size in different paediatric age groups may be applicable as normative data in daily clinical CT evaluation practice