Quantitative CT of lung nodules: Dependence of calibration on patient body size, anatomic region, and calibration nodule size for singleâ and dualâ energy techniques

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134901/1/mp8536.pd

Providing perioperative care for patients with hip fractures

Providing perioperative care for patients with hip fractures can present major challenges for the anaesthesiologist. These patients often have multiple comorbidities, the deterioration of any one of which may have precipitated the fall. A careful balance has to be achieved between minimising the time before operation and spending time to optimise their medical status. This review will present insights into preoperative patient assessment and optimization in this group of patients from the anaesthesiologists’ perspective. In particular, it will highlight important medical issues of concern that may alter anaesthetic risks and management. With a greater understanding of what these issues are, potentially a more prompt and integrated approach to managing these patients may be made. Hopefully, this would result in minimising last minute cancellations due to medical reasons for these patients

Interopservacijske razlike u dijagnosticiranju azbestoze prema klasifikaciji ILO

Inhalation of asbestos fibres leads to asbestosis of the pleura and the lung, with possible progression to lung cancer and malignant pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma. Asbestosis remains difficult to diagnose, especially in its early stages. The most important role in its diagnosis is that of chest radiographs. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to address interobserver variations in interpreting chest radiographs in asbestos workers, which remain to be an issue, despite improvements in the International Labour Office (ILO) classification system. In our ten-year study, we investigated 318 workers occupationally exposed to asbestos, and in 210 workers with diagnosed asbestos-related changes we compared interpretations of chest radiographs according to ILO by two independent radiologists. The apparent degree of interobserver variation in classifying lung fibrosis was 26.66 % for the diameter of changes and 42.2 % for the profusion of the changes. In cases with diffuse pleural thickening, the interobserver variation using ILO procedures was 34.93 %. This investigation raises the issue of standardisation and objectivity of interpretation of asbestosis according to the ILO classification system. This study has revealed a significant disagreement in the estimated degree of pleural and parenchymal asbestos pulmonary disease. This is why we believe highresolution computed tomography (HRCT) should also be used as a part of international classification.Azbestoza je bolest koja nastaje kao posljedica inhalacije azbestnih vlakana. Zahvaća pluća i pleuru, a ponekad može dovesti do karcinoma pluća, pleure i peritoneuma. Azbestozu je teško dijagnosticirati, osobito u početnom stadiju bolesti. U dijagnostici azbestoze presudna je radiološka obrada. Cilj ovog rada je utvrditi interopservacijske razlike u analizi radiograma prema kriterijima klasifikacije ILO kod profesjonalne azbestoze. U istraživanje je bilo uključeno 318 ispitanika profesionalno izloženih azbestnim česticama. U 210 ispitanika kojima je postavljena dijagnoza azbestoze usporedili smo radiološke nalaze analizirane od dvaju neovisnih radiologa eksperata u skladu s važećom klasifikacijom ILO. Uspoređujući rezultate analize malih zasjenjenja parenhima pluća prema njihovoj veličini, našli smo da se rezultati razlikuju u 26,66 % slučajeva, dok je prema prožetosti intersticija neslaganje bilo još učestalije, tj. zabilježeno je u 42,22 % slučajeva. U ispitanika s pleuralnim promjenama usporedili smo rezultate analize difuznih pleuralnih zadebljanja i našli neslaganje u debljini i/ili širini pleuralnih zadebljanja u 34,93 % slučajeva. Uočili smo značajno neslaganje u procjeni stupnja azbestne bolesti na pleuri i na parenhimu pluća. Zbog toga smatramo da je u kvantificiranju promjena izazvanih azbestom i u procjeni stupnja tjelesnog oštećenja nužno rabiti kompjutoriziranu tomografiju visoke rezolucije kao znatno osjetljiviju i pouzdaniju slikovnu tehniku

Three-dimensional lung densitometer using CdTe detectors for diagnosis and evaluation of the progress of pulmonary edema

A low-cost portable non-invasive densitometer is described. While the present system is optimized for lung densitometry, similar configurations can be used for bone densitometry and in industrial applications.On décrit un densitomètre portable, à faible prix ne nécessitant aucune injection. Bien que ce dispositif ait été développé essentiellement en vue de la densitométrie du poumon, il pourra trouver des applications en densitométrie des os, voire dans des domaines industriels