Can clinicians identify community-acquired pneumonia on ultralow-dose CT? A diagnostic accuracy study.

BACKGROUND: Without increasing radiation exposure, ultralow-dose computed tomography (CT) of the chest provides improved diagnostic accuracy of radiological pneumonia diagnosis compared to a chest radiograph. Yet, radiologist resources to rapidly report the chest CTs are limited. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of emergency clinicians' assessments of chest ultralow-dose CTs for community-acquired pneumonia using a radiologist's assessments as reference standard. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study. Ten emergency department clinicians (five junior clinicians, five consultants) assessed chest ultralow-dose CTs from acutely hospitalised patients suspected of having community-acquired pneumonia. Before assessments, the clinicians attended a focused training course on assessing ultralow-dose CTs for pneumonia. The reference standard was the assessment by an experienced emergency department radiologist. Primary outcome was the presence or absence of pulmonary opacities consistent with community-acquired pneumonia. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were calculated using generalised estimating equations. RESULTS: All clinicians assessed 128 ultralow-dose CTs. The prevalence of findings consistent with community-acquired pneumonia was 56%. Seventy-eight percent of the clinicians' CT assessments matched the reference assessment. Diagnostic accuracy estimates were: sensitivity = 83% (95%CI: 77-88), specificity = 70% (95%CI: 59-81), positive predictive value = 80% (95%CI: 74-84), negative predictive value = 78% (95%CI: 73-82). CONCLUSION: This study found that clinicians could assess chest ultralow-dose CTs for community-acquired pneumonia with high diagnostic accuracy. A higher level of clinical experience was not associated with better diagnostic accuracy.

Iatrogenic bladder injury following gynecologic and obstetric surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Iatrogenic bladder injury is a rare complication following obstetric and gynecologic surgery and only sparse information is available regarding length of transurethral catheterization following injuries, suturing techniques including choice of suture, and complications. The primary aim of this systematic review was to evaluate length of transurethral catheterization in relation to complications following iatrogenic bladder injury. Second, we aimed to evaluate the number of complications following repair of iatrogenic bladder injuries and to describe suture technique and best choice of suture. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted, and the results were presented in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. PubMed, Embase, and Medline electronic databases were searched, and followed by screening from two independent reviewers. Studies published between January 2000 and March 2023 describing methods of bladder injury repair following obstetric or gynecologic benign surgery were included. Data extraction was done using Covidence. We performed a meta-analysis on complications after repair and explored this with a meta-regression analysis (Metafor package R) on length of catheterization to determine if length of catheterization influenced the risk of complication. A risk of bias tool from Cochrane was used to assess risk of bias and the study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021290586). RESULTS: Out of 2175 articles, we included 21 retrospective studies, four prospective studies, and one case-control study. In total, 595 bladder injuries were included. Cesarean section was the most prominent surgery type, followed by laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy. We found no statistically significant association between length of transurethral catheterization and numbers of complications following repair of iatrogenic bladder injuries. More than 90% of injuries were recognized intraoperatively. Approximately 1% had complications following iatrogenic bladder injury repair (0.010, 95% confidence interval 0.0015-0.0189, 26 studies, 595 participants, I2 = 4%). CONCLUSIONS: Our review did not identify conclusive evidence on the length of postoperative catheterization following bladder injury warranting further research. However, the rate of complications was low following iatrogenic bladder injury with a wide range of repair approaches.

Impact of combined endometrial resection or ablation and levonorgestrel intrauterine device on postoperative bleeding pattern.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to describe the rate of amenorrhea in women treated with transcervical endometrial resection (TCER) or radiofrequency endometrial ablation combined with levonorgestrel intrauterine contraceptive device (LNG-IUD) six months post-operatively. METHODS: The study was performed as a prospective cohort study. All patients were included at four gynecological centers in Region of Southern Denmark. In total, 162 women referred due to menorrhagia, metrorrhagia or menometrorrhagia and offered TCER or radiofrequency endometrial ablation in combination with or without LNG-IUD included during November 2018 to June 2021 at the women's own discretion and without any cost (covered by the hospital). Data were analyzed using a multivariate regression model. RESULTS: In total, 58 women were offered TCER and 31 (53.4%) combined treatment with TCER + LNG-IUD. Among 104 women who received radiofrequency endometrial ablation, 46 (44.2%) underwent combined treatment with LNG-IUD. The incidence of amenorrhea was 26% among women who underwent treatment with TCRE and 52% when treated with TCER + LNG-IUD (adjusted OR 5.16; 95% CI 1.35-19.6; P < 0.016). Radiofrequency endometrial ablation was followed by a 41% incidence of amenorrhea, and when radiofrequency endometrial ablation was combined with LNG-IUD, the incidence of amenorrhea was 63% (adjusted OR 2.15; 95% CI 0.86-5.37; P < 0.1). We observed no statistically significant differences when comparing the groups across. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that the combination of TCER or radiofrequency endometrial ablation with LNG-IUD was superior to TCER. However, the combined treatment of radiofrequency endometrial ablation with LNG-IUD did not reach statistical significance. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effects of different ablation techniques on the amenorrhea rate.