Radiographic and HRCT imaging findings of chronic pulmonary schistosomiasis: review of 10 consecutive cases

Objective: To describe the chest radiography (CR) and the high resolution CT (HRCT) imaging findings of chronic pulmonary schistosomiasis (CPS)Methods and materials: This retrospective study included 10 patients suffering from CPS, studied between September 2013 and October 2016 by using CR and HRCT. Images were reviewed by two experienced radiologists in consensus, blinded to clinical data. A p value < 0.05 was considered significantResults: All the patients enrolled showed some abnormalities at HRCT, including lung consolidations, solid nodules, nodules with pen-nodular halo, ground-glass opacities, enlarged hilar lymph-nodes. Only seven patients showed findings at CR (p = 0.001). At CT, none of the patients had significant pleural, vascular (pulmonary arteries) or cardiac findings. Post-therapy studies (mean interval 35 days) demonstrated the absence of residual disease in all patients.Conclusion: The imaging findings of CPS varied widely in our study population. HRCT may show signs which are occult on plain radiograph. All lesions disappeared after appropriate therapy at imaging follow-up studie

Large multicystic spinal lesion in a young African migrant: a problem of differential diagnosis

We describe a rare case of large, fully cystic spinal schwannoma in a young adult from The Gambia. The initial clinical suspicion was spinal cystic echinococcosis. He came to our attention reporting progressive walking impairment and neurological symptoms in the lower limbs. An expansive lesion extending from L2 to S1 was shown by imaging (ie, CT scan and MRI). Differential diagnoses included aneurysmal bone cyst and spinal tuberculosis and abscess; the initial suggested diagnosis of spinal cystic echinococcosis was discarded based on contrast enhancement results. The final diagnosis of cystic schwannoma was obtained by histopathology of the excised mass. Cystic spinal lesions are rare and their differential diagnosis is challenging. Awareness of autochthonous and tropical infectious diseases is important, especially in countries experiencing consistent migration flow; however, it must be kept in mind that migrants may also present with 'non-tropical' pathologies

Magnetic resonance imaging assessment of ASAS-defined active sacroiliitis in patients with inflammatory back pain and suspected axial spondyloarthritis: a study of reliability

The main purpose was to investigate the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS) definition of positive MRI for active sacroiliitis (ASAS-positive MRI), in a sample of patients with inflammatory back pain (IBP) and suspected axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), who underwent sacroiliac joints (SIJ) MRI. We also evaluated the intra- and inter-rater reliability for the detection of the recently ASAS-refined findings indicating inflammatory activity