Needlestick injuries in radiology: prevention and management.

Needlestick injuries are common and often underreported in invasive radiological procedures. Prior needlestick injuries have been reported in 86-91% of interventional radiologists, and on average, one needlestick injury occurs for every 5 years of practice. Of those that have had a needlestick injury, only 58% had formal education on needlestick injury prevention. Needlestick injuries can often result in long-term debility if not properly managed. Injuries can result in transmission of blood-borne pathogens, such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human immunodeficiency virus. Preventative measures, such as vaccination, proper sharps selection, handling, and disposal during radiological procedures, minimising procedure time, and team communication, can decrease the risk of needlestick injuries and pathogen transmission rate. Initial management involves proper cleaning of the wound and activating the injury reporting system. Further lab testing and post-exposure prophylaxis will depend on the serology status of the source and exposed patient. Needlestick injuries with pathogen transmission can result in long-term health issues and psychological damage, therefore, it is imperative for radiologists to understand factors that increase the risk for transmission, methods to prevent injury, and how to manage an injury when it occurs

Asymptomatic Complicated Cysts in Postmenopausal Women: Is Tissue Sampling Unnecessarily High?

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To determine the malignancy rate of complicated cysts in postmenopausal women and to discuss appropriate (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System assessment and recommendation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was approved by our institutional review board and informed consent was waived. One hundred fourteen postmenopausal patients with 183 complicated cysts as defined by the newest Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System edition were identified retrospectively between January 2013 and December 2015 (to allow for 2 years follow-up period). One hundred eight complicated cysts were assessed as probably benign and 75 as suspicious. Prospective review of all images and pathology was performed and patient\u27s age, breast density, risk factors, use of hormone replacement therapy, and family history of breast cancer were recorded. A total of 30 symptomatic patients and lesions not meeting criteria for complicated cysts were excluded from our cohort. Benignity was determined by aspiration, biopsy, resolution, recategorization to a simple cyst, or adequate follow-up. RESULTS: None of our complicated cysts proved malignant. Fifteen of 108 probably benign complicated cysts were aspirated yielding benign fluid in 10 and 5 were biopsied yielding benign pathology (only 2 with atypical cells). Twenty-nine of 75 complicated cysts categorized as suspicious were aspirated and fluid was discarded in 25 and 4 sent for cytology yielding benign pathology. The other 41 complicated cysts thought to be suspicious were biopsied with benign pathology (only 1 atypical). CONCLUSION: This study supports the use of a probably benign assessment of asymptomatic complicated cysts irrespective of age. The sensitivity for malignancy was 100% in our cohort

Uncommon Implantation Sites of Ectopic Pregnancy: Thinking beyond the Complex Adnexal Mass.

Ectopic pregnancy occurs when implantation of the blastocyst takes place in a site other than the endometrium of the uterine cavity. Uncommon implantation sites of ectopic pregnancy include the cervix, interstitial segment of the fallopian tube, scar from a prior cesarean delivery, uterine myometrium, ovary, and peritoneal cavity. Heterotopic and twin ectopic pregnancies are other rare manifestations. Ultrasonography (US) plays a central role in diagnosis of uncommon ectopic pregnancies. US features of an interstitial ectopic pregnancy include an echogenic interstitial line and abnormal bulging of the myometrial contour. A gestational sac that is located below the internal os of the cervix and that contains an embryo with a fetal heartbeat is indicative of a cervical ectopic pregnancy. In a cesarean scar ectopic pregnancy, the gestational sac is implanted in the anterior lower uterine segment at the site of the cesarean scar, with thinning of the myometrium seen anterior to the gestational sac. An intramural gestational sac implants in the uterine myometrium, separate from the uterine cavity and fallopian tubes. In an ovarian ectopic pregnancy, a gestational sac with a thick hyperechoic circumferential rim is located in or on the ovarian parenchyma. An intraperitoneal gestational sac is present in an abdominal ectopic pregnancy. Intra- and extrauterine gestational sacs are seen in a heterotopic pregnancy. Two adnexal heartbeats suggest a live twin ectopic pregnancy. Recognition of the specific US features will help radiologists diagnose these uncommon types of ectopic pregnancy

Why Patients Decline Digital Breast Tomosynthesis? Results From a Patient Survey in an Urban Academic Breast Center.

BACKGROUND: Despite the advantages of reduced callback rates, higher sensitivity, and higher specificity associated with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) over traditional full-field digital mammography (FFDM), many patients declined DBT at our urban academic breast center. Most states also do not have mandated insurance coverage for DBT. METHODS: A patient survey was conducted at our breast center from February 2017 to April 2017. All patients were informed regarding the potential benefits of DBT as well as the potential additional charge related to DBT, which depended on the insurance coverage. The survey aimed to examine why the patient declined the DBT option. Reasons included cost, increased radiation risk, anxiety about newer technology, discomfort associated with the exam, lack of education about potential benefits, or patient belief that she will not benefit from DBT. We also inquired if patients would change their opinion about DBT if cost were removed. Patients answered each question by rating their responses on a scale of 1-5, from strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree. RESULTS: Potential additional cost associated with tomosynthesis had the highest influence on patient decision to decline DBT with an average score of 4.68 out of 5. Other factors as described above had less impact on the patient decision with an average score ranging from 1.53-1.72 out of 5. CONCLUSION: Potential out-of-pocket cost for patients remains one of the major obstacles in adoption of DBT as standard of care for breast cancer screening

Focal nodular hyperplasia within accessory liver: imaging findings at computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging

Accessory liver tissue is a rare but probably underreported entity that may harbor the same spectrum of pathology as that of the parent organ. The rarity and aberrant locations of such lesions cause confusion and may lower diagnostic confidence despite otherwise classic radiographic appearances. Focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) is the most common non-hemangiomatous benign hepatic tumor, but to our knowledge, ectopic FNH has been reported only once before in the gastroenterology literature. We present the first case of ectopic FNH in the radiology literature

Excision or Observation: The Dilemma of Managing High-Risk Breast Lesions.

There is an enduring dilemma on the appropriate management of high-risk breast lesions; is surgical excision always warranted or can conservative management be utilized? We present cases of high-risk breast lesions diagnosed at core needle biopsy at our institution along with relevant factors to consider for appropriate management. We conclude that a nuanced approach is warranted over the broad stroke approach of surgical excision of all high-risk breast lesions

Evaluating blunt pancreatic trauma at whole body CT: current practices and future directions

Blunt pancreatic trauma almost always occurs in the setting of multiple severe injuries, and is usually diagnosed within the context of whole-body trauma CT. Associated injuries may flag the pancreas for greater scrutiny. Main duct laceration is the primary determinant of the need for surgical intervention. Characterization is improved with advanced post-processing techniques. We present useful diagnostic pearls, describe key pitfalls, and review advancements in the evaluation of pancreatic trauma at whole-body MDCT

Performance of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Automated Segmentation and Quantification of Traumatic Pelvic Hematomas on CT.

The volume of pelvic hematoma at CT has been shown to be the strongest independent predictor of major arterial injury requiring angioembolization in trauma victims with pelvic fractures, and also correlates with transfusion requirement and mortality. Measurement of pelvic hematomas (unopacified extraperitoneal blood accumulated from time of injury) using semi-automated seeded region growing is time-consuming and requires trained experts, precluding routine measurement at the point of care. Pelvic hematomas are markedly variable in shape and location, have irregular ill-defined margins, have low contrast with respect to viscera and muscle, and reside within anatomically distorted pelvises. Furthermore, pelvic hematomas occupy a small proportion of the entire volume of a chest, abdomen, and pelvis (C/A/P) trauma CT. The challenges are many, and no automated methods for segmentation and volumetric analysis have been described to date. Traditional approaches using fully convolutional networks result in coarse segmentations and class imbalance with suboptimal convergence. In this study, we implement a modified coarse-to-fine deep learning approach-the Recurrent Saliency Transformation Network (RSTN) for pelvic hematoma volume segmentation. RSTN previously yielded excellent results in pancreas segmentation, where low contrast with adjacent structures, small target volume, variable location, and fine contours are also problematic. We have curated a unique single-institution corpus of 253 C/A/P admission trauma CT studies in patients with bleeding pelvic fractures with manually labeled pelvic hematomas. We hypothesized that RSTN would result in sufficiently high Dice similarity coefficients to facilitate accurate and objective volumetric measurements for outcome prediction (arterial injury requiring angioembolization). Cases were separated into five combinations of training and test sets in an 80/20 split and fivefold cross-validation was performed. Dice scores in the test set were 0.71 (SD ± 0.10) using RSTN, compared to 0.49 (SD ± 0.16) using a baseline Deep Learning Tool Kit (DLTK) reference 3D U-Net architecture. Mean inference segmentation time for RSTN was 0.90 min (± 0.26). Pearson correlation between predicted and manual labels was 0.95 with p \u3c 0.0001. Measurement bias was within 10 mL. AUC of hematoma volumes for predicting need for angioembolization was 0.81 (predicted) versus 0.80 (manual). Qualitatively, predicted labels closely followed hematoma contours and avoided muscle and displaced viscera. Further work will involve validation using a federated dataset and incorporation into a predictive model using multiple segmented features

Focal nodular hyperplasia within accessory liver: imaging findings at computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

Accessory liver tissue is a rare but probably underreported entity that may harbor the same spectrum of pathology as that of the parent organ. The rarity and aberrant locations of such lesions cause confusion and may lower diagnostic confidence despite otherwise classic radiographic appearances. Focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) is the most common non-hemangiomatous benign hepatic tumor, but to our knowledge, ectopic FNH has been reported only once before in the gastroenterology literature. We present the first case of ectopic FNH in the radiology literature