Current practice of emergency radiology in Turkey and future expectations: a survey study

PURPOSEThe development of emergency radiology (ER) in Turkey has accelerated with the increase in the number of patients admitted to emergency departments. We aimed to present and discuss the responses to a survey distributed to radiologists in Turkey, which included questions about the current practice of ER and future expectations.METHODSA survey with 29 questions enquiring about the infrastructure of respondents’ hospitals and radiology units, information about emergency services and ER (including patient volume), the number of staff and equipment, the ER working plan and reporting method, and training in the field of ER were distributed to members of the Turkish Radiological Society by email.RESULTSThe response rate was 21.97% (328/1.493). The presence of distinct ER units in radiology departments was confirmed by 40.55% of respondents, while for 34.25%, ER was located inside the emergency room. Of the respondents, 26.96% stated they believed that emergency cases should be reported by emergency radiologists, and the necessity for an ER subunit in the emergency room was agreed upon by 58.64% of contributors. The majority of respondents (69.54%) agreed with the opinion that residents should receive their ER training in an ER unit.CONCLUSIONKeeping abreast of current ER practices and radiologists’ expectations may be helpful for improving national ER practices and academic studies

Annotating Subordinators in the Turkish Discourse Bank

In this paper we explain how we annotated subordinators in the Turkish Discourse Bank (TDB), an effort that started in 2007 and is still continuing. We introduce the project and describe some of the issues that were important in annotating three subordinators, namely kars¸ın, ragmen ˘ and halde, all of which encode the coherence relation Contrast-Concession. We also describe the annotation tool

Increased cerebral blood flow in the right anterior cingulate cortex and fronto-orbital cortex during go/no-go task in children with ADHD

Objective Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a relatively new imaging modality in the field of the cognitive neuroscience. In the present study, we aimed to compare the dynamic regional cerebral blood flow alterations of children with ADHD and healthy controls during a neurocognitive task by using event-related ASL scanning. Methods The study comprised of 17 healthy controls and 20 children with ADHD. The study subjects were scanned on 3 Tesla MRI scanner to obtain ASL imaging data. Subjects performed go/no-go task during the ASL image acquisition. The image analyses were performed by FEAT (fMRI Expert Analysis Tool) Version 6. Results The mean age was 10.88 +/- 1.45 and 11 +/- 1.91 for the control and ADHD group, respectively (p = .112). The go/no-go task was utilized during the ASL scanning. The right anterior cingulate cortex (BA32) extending into the frontopolar and orbitofrontal cortices (BA10 and 11) displayed greater activation in ADHD children relative to the control counterparts (p < .001). With a lenient significance threshold, greater activation was revealed in the right-sided frontoparietal regions during the go session, and in the left precuneus during the no-go session. Conclusion These results indicate that children with ADHD needed to over-activate frontopolar cortex, anterior cingulate as well as the dorsal and ventral attention networks to compensate for the attention demanded in a given cognitive task

İntrakranial kistik lezyonlarda difüzyon-ağırlıklı MR görüntüleme

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the signal intensities of cystic or necrotic intracranial lesions on diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) and to investigate the contribution of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in differential diagnosis. In the study group, there were 24 consecutive patients with intracranial cystic lesions; seven pyogenic abscesses, six epidermoid cysts, four arachnoid cysts, five cystic glioblastomas, and two hydatid cysts. In the MR examinations, conventional spin echo sequences and diffusion-weighted MRI were performed. On DWI imaging, multislice axial plane, single shot, echo-planar spin echo sequence (b=1000 mm2/sn) were used. The intracranial cystic or necrotic lesion signals on DWI were evaluated comparing with normal appearing brain parenchyma. Quantitative ADC measurement were performed on ADC map images with ROI (region of interest). While the cystic portions of tumours, arachnoid cysts and hydatic cysts were hypointense, cystic parts of bacterial abscesses and epidermoid cysts were hyperintense compared to brain parenchyma on diffusion-weighted images. On ADC map images, the cystic portions of tumours, arachnoid cysts and hydatic cysts showed marked high ADC values. However, low ADC values were calculated from cystic parts of bacterial abscesses and epidermoid cysts. DWI is useful technique in evaluation of intracranial cystic lesions. DWI can differentiate pyogenic abscesses from cystic-necrotic tumors as well as epidermoid cysts from arachnoid cysts. Cerebral hydatic cysts and arachnoid cysts show same signals on DWI, but these lesions can be distinguished from others by their location (intraaxial/extraaxial).Bu çalışmanın amacı kistik yada nekrotik intrakranial lezyonların difüzyon ağırlıklı görüntülemede (DAG) sinyal intensitelerini değerlendirmek ve bu lezyonların apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) değerlerini ölçerek ayırıcı tanıya katkısını araştırmaktı. Kistik yada nekrotik intrakranial lezyonu bulunan 24 olgu (7 baktehal abse, 6 epidermoid kist, 4 araknoid kist, 5 glioblastom, 2 kist hidatik) çalışmaya dahil edildi. Bu olgulara rutin MR görüntülerin yanısıra eko-planar difüzyon ağırlıklı görüntüme yapıldı. DAG için, aksiyel planda multipl kesitli, single shot, eko-planar spin-eko sekans b=1000sn/mma kullanılmıştır. DAG'de lezyonların kistik yada nekrotik kısımları beyin parankimi ile karşılaştırılarak değerlendirildi. ADC haritalarından ROI (region of interest) ile kantitatif ölçümler yapıldı. DAG'de araknoid kistlerin, kist hidatik lezyonlarının ve tümörlerin kistik bölümleri serebral paranklme oranla hipointens iken, bakterial apselerde ve epidermoid tümörlerde kistik komponent belirgin hiperintensti. ADC haritasında DAG'de hiperintens /z/enenen epidermoid tümör ve bakterial apseler düşük ADC değerine sahipken, DAG'de hipointens izlenen araknoid kist, kist hidatik ve glioblastomlar yüksek ADC değerine sahipti. İntrakranial kistik lezyonların ayırıcı tanısında DAG yararlı ek bilgiler vermektedir. DAG, bakteriyel abseien kistik-nekrotik tümörlerden, epidermoid kisti ise araknoid kistlerden ayırabilmektedir. Serebral kist hidatik ile araknoid kistin DAG'deki sinyal intensiteleri benzerlik gösterir ve bu iki lezyon arasındaki tek fark intrakranial yerleşimdir (intra/ekstraaksiyel)

Serebral süperfisyal siderozis: MRG bulguları

Superficial siderosis of the central nervous system is a rare condition characterized by deposition of hemosiderin in the leptomeninges, subpial tissue and spinal cord. Magnetic resonance imaging provides prompt diagnosis of this entity. Three cases of cerebral superficial siderosis are presented in this study. On T2-weighted images, typical hypointense rims were observed under the brain surface. In one patient, there was also spinal superficial siderosis findings.Superficial siderosis of the central nervous system is a rare condition characterized by deposition of hemosiderin in the leptomeninges, subpial tissue and spinal cord. Magnetic resonance imaging provides prompt diagnosis of this entity. Three cases of cerebral superficial siderosis are presented in this study. On T2-weighted images, typical hypointense rims were observed under the brain surface. In one patient, there was also spinal superficial siderosis findings