Post-operative small pelvic field radiation therapy in patients with intermediate risk early stage cervix cancer: a safe and efficient treatment modality.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of early stage cervical cancer has different therapeutic options. Adjuvant external beam radiotherapy for surgically treated intermediate risk cervical cancer patients has shown acceptable oncological outcomes with a low incidence of toxicity. The aim of this study was to analyze the oncological outcomes and safety of adjuvant small pelvic field radiotherapy in surgically treated stage IB1-2 cervical cancer patients who met the Sedlis intermediate-risk criteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was carried out with 28 patients treated from 2007 to November 2019 with biopsy proven intermediate risk stage IB1-2 cervical cancer previously treated with radical hysterectomy and bilateral lymphadenectomy who received adjuvant small pelvic field radiotherapy. The primary endpoints were local and distant control and overall survival. Secondary endpoints were acute and late gastrointestinal and genitourinary toxicity. Survival curves were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: After a median follow up period of 41.5 (27.5-80.5) months, adjuvant small pelvic field radiotherapy showed a 100% overall survival rate, 81.82% disease free survival and 86.36% local recurrence-free survival with no incidence of grade 3 or 4 acute or late toxicity. Three patients suffered from relapse, 1 in the vaginal cuff, 1 in the retrovesical area and 1 patient in the retroperitoneal area. CONCLUSIONS: Adjuvant small pelvic field radiotherapy is an efficient and safe treatment option that offers excellent oncological outcomes to surgically treated intermediate-risk stage IB1-2 cervical cancer patients with an excellent toxicity profile.

Chest x-ray severity score in COVID-19 patients on emergency department admission: a two-centre study.

BACKGROUND: Integration of imaging and clinical parameters could improve the stratification of COVID-19 patients on emergency department (ED) admission. We aimed to assess the extent of COVID-19 pulmonary abnormalities on chest x-ray (CXR) using a semiquantitative severity score, correlating it with clinical data and testing its interobserver agreement. METHODS: From February 22 to April 8, 2020, 926 consecutive patients referring to ED of two institutions in Northern Italy for suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection were reviewed. Patients with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction positive for SARS-CoV-2 and CXR images on ED admission were included (295 patients, median age 69 years, 199 males). Five readers independently and blindly reviewed all CXRs, rating pulmonary parenchymal involvement using a 0-3 semiquantitative score in 1-point increments on 6 lung zones (range 0-18). Interobserver agreement was assessed with weighted Cohen's κ, correlations between median CXR score and clinical data with Spearman's ρ, and the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Median score showed negative correlation with SpO2 (ρ = -0.242, p < 0.001), positive correlation with white cell count (ρ = 0.277, p < 0.001), lactate dehydrogenase (ρ = 0.308, p < 0.001), and C-reactive protein (ρ = 0.367, p < 0.001), being significantly higher in subsequently dead patients (p = 0.003). Considering overall scores, readers' pairings yielded moderate (κ = 0.449, p < 0.001) to almost perfect interobserver agreement (κ = 0.872, p < 0.001), with better interobserver agreement between readers of centre 2 (up to κ = 0.872, p < 0.001) than centre 1 (κ = 0.764, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Proposed CXR pulmonary severity score in COVID-19 showed moderate to almost perfect interobserver agreement and significant but weak correlations with clinical parameters, potentially furthering CXR integration in patients' stratification.

A prospective comparative trial of adjunct screening with tomosynthesis or ultrasound in women with mammography-negative dense breasts (ASTOUND-2).

BACKGROUND: Increased risk of breast cancer (BC) and increased risk of an interval BC at mammography screening are associated with high mammographic density. Adjunct imaging detects additional BCs not detected at mammography screening in women with dense breasts. AIM: The aim is to estimate the incremental cancer detection rate (CDR) and false-positive recall for each of tomosynthesis and ultrasound, as adjunct screening modalities in women with mammography-negative dense breasts. METHODS: A multicentre prospective comparative trial of adjunct screening with tomosynthesis or ultrasound in women with mammography-negative dense breasts (ASTOUND-2) recruited asymptomatic women attending Italian breast screening services. All participants had independently interpreted tomosynthesis and ultrasound. Outcomes were ascertained from excision histopathology or completed assessment. Paired binary data were compared using McNemar's test. RESULTS: We recruited 5300 screening participants with median age of 50 (interquartile range 43-79) years who had negative mammography and dense breasts (April 2015-September 2017). Adjunct screening detected 29 additional BCs (27 invasive, 2 in situ): 12 detected on both tomosynthesis and ultrasound, 3 detected only on tomosynthesis, 14 detected only on ultrasound. Incremental CDR for tomosynthesis (+15 cancers) was 2.83/1000 screens (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.58-4.67) versus ultrasound (+26 cancers) with an incremental CDR of 4.90/1000 screens (95% CI: 3.21-7.19), P = 0.015. Mean size of these cancers was 14.2 mm (standard deviation: 7.8 mm), and six had nodal metastases. Incremental false-positive recall was 1.22% (95% CI: 0.91%-1.49%) and differed significantly between tomosynthesis (0.30%) and ultrasound (1.0%), P < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound detected more BCs but caused more false positives than tomosynthesis, underscoring trade-offs in screening outcomes when adjunct imaging is used for screening dense breasts.

An exploratory radiomics analysis on digital breast tomosynthesis in women with mammographically negative dense breasts.

PURPOSE: To compare Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) for cancers and normal screens in women with dense breasts and negative mammography using a Radiomics approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A substudy (N = 40) of the 'Adjunct Screening With Tomosynthesis or Ultrasound in Women With Mammography-Negative Dense Breasts (ASTOUND)' trial was done based on 20 women who had DBT-detected, histology-proven, breast cancer and 20 controls matched for age and density. Using a Radiomics approach normal and pathological breast parenchyma were evaluated, and correlations among Radiomics features and clinical and prognostic parameters were investigated. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 50 years (range 39-70 years). After Radiomics feature number reduction, 3 of 6 (50%) selected features differed between controls and cancers (Skewness (0.002); Entropy (p.004); 90percentile (p.006)). Three Radiomics features (Energy, Entropy and Dissimilarity) significantly correlated to tumor size (r = -0.15,r = 0.49,r = 0.51), but not with prognostic factors. Entropy correlated with Estrogen Receptor status (r = -0,46; p.004). CONCLUSION: Radiomics features in patients with dense breasts and negative mammography appear to differ between cancerous and normal breast tissue, with evidence of correlation with tumor size and estrogen receptors. This new information warrants further evaluation in larger studies and could contribute to improved understanding of breast cancer through imaging, and may support tailored screening and treatments.

Role of respiratory-triggered diffusion-weighted MRI in the assessment of pleural disease.

OBJECTIVE:: To evaluate the correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and histopathological features in a cohort of patients with suspected malignant pleural disease. METHODS:: We evaluated 56 consecutive patients undergoing a chest MRI examination for clinical suspicion of malignant pleural disease; all patients underwent thoracoscopic biopsy for histological assessment. All MRI examinations were performed with a 1.5-T scanner using a dedicated protocol, including a respiratory-triggered diffusion-weighted sequence with three b-values (0, 100 and 750). The ADC values were calculated, and a statistical analysis was performed. RESULTS:: The average ADC value in non-neoplastic pleural disease (NNPD) resulted in 1.84 ± 0.37 × 10-3 mm2 s-1, whereas we obtained an average value of 0.96 ± 0.19 × 10-3 mm2 s-1 in epitheliod, of 0.76 ± 0.33 × 10-3 mm2 s-1 in biphasic and of 0.67 ± 0.2 × 10-3 mm2 s-1 in sarcomatoid pleural mesotheliomas. Histology revealed the presence of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) in 44 patients, chronic pleuritis in 8 patients and atypical mesothelial hyperplasia in 4 patients. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between NNPD and MPM (p < 0.001) and between epithelioid and sarcomatoid MPM subtypes (p = 0.0004), whereas biphasic MPMs showed a wide range of overlapping with the other groups. CONCLUSION:: We observed a statistically significant difference between NNPD, epitheliod and sarcomatoid subtypes of MPM regarding ADC values. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE:: Our study confirmed previous data regarding distribution of ADC values in pleural disease using a respiratory-triggered diffusion-weighted technique that allowed us to minimize motion artefacts and to reduct acquisition time.

Degree of colonic distension: intrapatient comparison between CT colonography and CT with water enema.

PURPOSE: Compare colonic distension using CT colonography (CTC) and CT with water enema (CTWE) in the same patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Twenty-seven patients who underwent both CTC and CTWE, considering separately supine (CTC-S) and prone (CTC-P) acquisition of CTC were included. The colon was divided into six segments, performing both a qualitative and quantitative analysis. RESULTS: Adequate distension of sigmoid colon was more frequently achieved with CTC-P and CTWE compared to CTC-S (P<.05). CTC-P and CTWE showed better distension of the left colon compared to CTC-S (P<.01 and P=.03 regarding sigmoid colon, respectively; P=.01 and P=.03 regarding descending colon, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Computed tomography (CT) studies of the colon should be customized to fulfill the clinical query.

CTLA-4 in mesothelioma patients: tissue expression, body fluid levels and possible relevance as a prognostic factor.

CTLA-4 function as a negative regulator of T cell-mediated immune response is well established, whereas much less is known about the immunoregulatory role of its soluble isoform (sCTLA-4). No data are available on CTLA-4 expression and prognostic impact in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). We investigated, by immunohistochemistry, CTLA-4 expression in tumor tissues and, by ELISA, sCTLA-4 levels in sera and matched pleural effusions from 45 MPM patients. Prognostic effect of CTLA-4 expression on overall survival (OS) was assessed through Cox regression and prognostic significance expressed as death rate ratio (HR). We found that 56.0 % of MPM tissues expressed CTLA-4 with variable intensity and percentage of positive cells estimated by the immunoreactive score. sCTLA-4 levels were significantly higher in sera (S-sCTLA-4) than in pleural effusions (PE-sCTLA-4) (geometric mean ratio = 2.70, P value = 0.020). CTLA-4 expression at the tissue level was higher in the epithelioid histological subtype than in the sarcomatoid, whereas at the serum level, it was higher in the sarcomatoid subtype. A homogeneous favorable prognostic effect was found for CTLA-4 overexpression in tissue, serum and pleural effusion. Interestingly, only the PE-sCTLA-4 was found to be a statistically significant positive prognostic factor (HR = 0.37, 95 % CI = 0.18-0.77, P value = 0.007). Indeed, PE-sCTLA-4 correlated with CTLA-4 expression in tissues, whereas this latter expression showed a weak association with OS. To confirm our findings, further experimental evidences obtained from a larger cohort of MPM patients are required. However, our results would indicate a positive correlation of PE-sCTLA-4 levels and OS in MPM patients.

Role of B-scan ocular ultrasound as an adjuvant for the clinical assessment of eyeball diseases: a pictorial essay.

We report our experience in B-mode ocular ultrasonography, focusing on its contribution when the clinical examination proves to be difficult, mainly due to the existence of intraocular opacities of the ocular fundus or diagnostic doubts. We revise the ocular ultrasound technique, its indications and contraindications, comparing to the other imaging techniques. In our experience ultrasonography revealed pathological findings which confirmed the clinical suspicion in most of cases or provide additional information. With understanding of the indications for ultrasonography and proper examination technique, one can gather a vast amount of information not possible with clinical examination alone.

Peripheral nerves: ultrasound-guided interventional procedures.

Specific ultrasound (US)-guided interventional procedures on peripheral nerves are reviewed in this article including regional anesthesia, biopsy of neural lesions, and some injection therapies. For these procedures, US is the best modality to provide a safe imaging guidance because of its excellent spatial resolution and real-time capabilities. With US guidance, the radiologist can visualize the needle tip continuously and ensure that the needle is placed precisely in the desired location, avoiding the risk of inadvertent nerve damage. Practical tips and tricks for US-guided needle placement, biopsy of neural lesions, and US-guided therapy are reviewed in this article. The use of US-guided injections in specific clinical settings, such as the percutaneous treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome, Morton's and saphenous neuromas, painful stump neuromas, piriformis syndrome, and meralgia paresthetica are also illustrated here. US allows the clinician to inject drugs with little or no patient discomfort.