Hydatid Disease: A Radiological Pictorial Review of a Great Neoplasms Mimicker.

Hydatid cyst is a common name for the larval stage of a tapeworm species of Echinococcus granulosus, which is transmitted from animals to humans via the fecal-oral route. Hydatid cysts predominantly affect the liver (75%), followed by the lung (15%), and they can affect many organs in the human body. Medical imaging modalities are the keystone for the diagnosis of hydatid cysts with high sensitivity and specificity. Ultrasound imaging with high resolution is the first choice for diagnosis, differential diagnosis, staging, establishing a role in interventional management, and follow-up, and it can differentiate Type I hydatid cysts from simple liver cysts. Unenhanced computed tomography (CT) is indicated where or when an ultrasound is unsatisfactory, such as with chest or brain hydatid cysts, when detecting calcification, and in obese patients. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is superior for demonstrating cyst wall defects, biliary communication, neural involvement, and differentiating hydatid cysts from simple cysts using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequences. According to the phase of growth, hydatid cysts occur in different sizes and shapes, which may mimic benign or malignant neoplasms and may create diagnostic challenges in some cases. Hydatid cysts can mimic simple cysts, choledochal cysts, Caroli's disease, or mesenchymal hamartomas of the liver. They can mimic lung cystic lesions, mycetoma, blood clots, Rasmussen aneurysms, and even lung carcinomas. Differential diagnosis can be difficult for arachnoid cysts, porencephalic cysts, pyogenic abscesses, and even cystic tumors of the brain, and can create diagnostic dilemmas in the musculoskeletal system.

Risks of khat chewing on the cardiovascular, nervous, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary systems: A narrative review.

Khat is an evergreen plant and its fresh green leaves and buds are chewed for several hours a day for its psychostimulant response. This study aimed to review the effects of khat chewing on the body. PubMed was searched for literature on the different aspects of khat chewing to summarize its effects on different body systems. The major effects of khat chewing are those on the cardiovascular system including increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, and increased risk of myocardial infarction. It causes insomnia, stress, depression, hallucination, and increased risk of brain stroke. It causes dental caries, bad oral hygiene, periodontitis, increased oral mucosal ulcers, and increased gingival bleeding and recession. Khat chewing causes loss of appetite, gastritis, constipation, and hemorrhoids, and increased risk of hepatotoxicity and liver cirrhosis. Ultimately, it causes weak micturition, decreased sperm motility and count, and low birth-weight offspring in khat chewing mothers. The published articles about khat chewing in journals indexed in the PubMed was reviewed. Inclusion criteria involved each article available with English language and have a reported new effect of khat chewing.

The Diagnostic Deceiver: Radiological Pictorial Review of Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis; it is a public health problem worldwide and one of the leading causes of mortality. Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented health challenges and disrupted the TB health services, especially in high-burden countries with ever-increasing prevalence. Extrapulmonary and even pulmonary TB are an important cause of nonspecific clinical and radiological manifestations and can masquerade as any benign or malignant medical case, thus causing disastrous conditions and diagnostic dilemmas. Clinical manifestations and routine laboratory tests have limitations in directing physicians to diagnose TB. Medical-imaging examinations play an essential role in detecting tissue abnormalities and early suspecting diagnosis of TB in different organs. Radiologists and physicians should be familiar with and aware of the radiological manifestations of TB to contribute to the early suspicion and diagnosis of TB. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the common radiologic patterns of pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB. This article will be beneficial for radiologists, medical students, chest physicians, and infectious-disease doctors who are interested in the diagnosis of TB.

Autoamputated pharyngeal hairy polyp presented with aero-digestive obstruction: A case report.

A pharyngeal hairy polyp (HP) is a rare benign mass that can be surgical detached with few complications. In this report, we describe a hairy polyp in a 7-day-old neonate presented with intermittent respiratory distress and feeding difficulties since birth. Neck computed tomography was performed, and demonstrated a well-defined pedunculated heterogeneous mass arising from the right lateral wall of the nasopharynx extending downward and nearly completely obstructing of the nasopharynx and oropharynx. The central part of the mass was found relatively dense surrounded by low attenuation fatty components with enhancement of the outer wall of the mass. The provisional diagnosis was pharyngeal HP. After autoamputation at the seventh day old, HP was analyzed via histopathology examination that showed a mixture of various ectodermal and mesodermal tissues including skin, cartilage, adipose and fibrous tissue. The patient fully recovered with no residual clinical features. We report this case to elucidate the possibility of this strange behavior of pharyngeal HP.

Frequent clinical and radiological manifestations of the Novel SARS-CoV-2: A review article.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease caused by the novel "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2" (SARS-CoV-2) and is rapidly spreading worldwide. This review is designed to highlight the most common clinical features and computed tomography (CT) signs of patients with COVID-19 and to elaborate the most significant signs indicative of COVID-19 diagnosis. This review involved five original articles with both clinical and radiological features of COVID-19 published during Jan and Mar 2020. In this review, the most frequent symptoms of COVID-19 were fever and cough. Myalgia, fatigue, sore throat, headache, diarrhea, and dyspnea were less common manifestations. Nausea and vomiting were rare. Ground-glass opacity (GGO) was the most common radiological finding on CT, and mixed GGO with consolidation was reported in some cases. In addition, elevated C-reactive protein and lymphopenia are the pertinent laboratory findings of COVID-19. CT is an effective and important imaging tool for both diagnosis and follow-up COVID-19 patients with varied features, duration, and course of the disease. Bilateral GGOs, especially in the periphery of the lungs with or without consolidation, are the hallmark of COVID-19.

Diagnosis and risk stratification of coronary artery disease in Yemeni patients using treadmill test.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common medical problem that remains a great cause of morbidity and mortality. Based on clinical manifestation, CAD span from chronic stable angina to acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which encompasses (1) unstable angina (UA), (2) non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), and (3) ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to describe the risk stratification and prognosis of CAD in Yemeni patients undergoing an exercise stress test. METHOD: A retrospective descriptive study involved the records of 302 patients who undergoing exercise stress testing by the Bruce protocol of Treadmill (TMT). RESULTS: Out of 302 patients, the mean age was 43.29 years, (range, 22-70 years), and 79.80% were males. The majority of patients (86.75%) were normal. Most of the affected patients (82.50%) were males. All of the affected peoples were more than 30 years old with predominance in more than 50 years old. Results showed that 45% of the positive (+ve) patients were in high-risk group, and 55% were in intermediate and low-risk groups. CONCLUSIONS: CAD affects males more than females. It affects patients older than 30 years and predominates in elderly patients. Most of the affected patients were in the high, intermediate, and low-risk groups and rarely were in the very high-risk group.