CT evaluation of mediastinal masses

CT is an important modality for imaging mediastinal masses, and certain CT attenuation features (fat, calcium, or water attenuation, contrast enhancement) are well known to suggest specific diagnoses. In a series of 132 consecutive patients with tissue-proven mediastinal masses, these specific CT features were present in only 16. We evaluated the ability of CT to differentiate soft tissue mediastinal masses based on morphology and distribution of disease. Metastatic disease and lymphoma accounted for 69% of masses in this series, and CT could not generally differentiate them. However, CT was helpful in differential diagnosis in certain settings. CT demonstration of multiple mediastinal masses when conventional radiographs showed a single mass generally excluded diagnoses such as thymoma and teratoma. CT demonstration of a single middle mediastinal mass, frequently missed by conventional radiography, made metastatic disease a much more likely diagnosis than lymphoma. Finally, CT demonstration of certain ancillary findings strongly favored a diagnosis of lymphoma (axillary adenopathy) or metastatic disease (solitary pulmonary mass, focal liver lesions, bone lesions).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26707/1/0000257.pd

Comparison of Soft-copy and Hard-copy Reading for Full-Field Digital Mammography

Purpose: To compare radiologists' performance in detecting breast cancer when reading full-field digital mammographic (FFDM) images either displayed on monitors or printed on film

Accuracy of Soft-Copy Digital Mammography versus That of Screen-Film Mammography according to Digital Manufacturer: ACRIN DMIST Retrospective Multireader Study1

Our retrospective reader study, which was designed to detect differences at least as large as those postulated for the primary Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST) study, did not show statistically significant differences between soft-copy digital and film mammography for Fischer, Fuji, and GE digital systems in either the full reader sets or in the subsets of women in whom digital mammography was found to be significantly superior to film mammography in the primary DMIST study

Diagnostic Accuracy of Digital versus Film Mammography: Exploratory Analysis of Selected Population Subgroups in DMIST

Purpose: To retrospectively compare the accuracy of digital versus film mammography in population subgroups of the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST) defined by combinations of age, menopausal status, and breast density, by using either biopsy results or follow-up information as the reference standard