Society of Abdominal Radiology Disease Focused Panel Survey on Clinical Utilization of Incidental Pancreatic Cyst Management Recommendations and Template Reporting.

OBJECTIVE: To assess current practice patterns with respect to protocols used for incidental pancreatic cyst follow-up, management guidelines, and template reporting. METHODS: The Society of Abdominal Radiology Disease Focused Panel on intraductal pancreatic neoplasms distributed an anonymous 14-question survey to its members in June 2018 that focused on current utilization of incidental pancreatic cyst guidelines, protocols, and template reporting. RESULTS: Among the 1,390 email invitations, 323 responded, and 94.7% (306 of 323) completed all questions. Respondents were mainly radiologists (93.8%, 303 of 323) from academic institutions (74.7%, 227 of 304) in North America (93.7%, 286 of 305). Of respondents, 42.5% (136 of 320) preferred 2017 ACR recommendations, 17.8% (57 of 320) homegrown systems, 15.0% (48 of 320) Fukuoka guidelines, and 7.8% (25 of 320) American Gastroenterological Association guidelines. The majority (68.7%, 222 of 323) agreed or strongly agreed that developing a single international consensus recommendation for management was important, and most radiologists preferred to include them in reports (231 of 322, 71.7%); yet only half included recommendations in >75% of reports (161 of 321). MR cholangiopancreatography was the modality of choice for follow-up of <2.5 cm cysts. Intravenous contrast was routinely used by 69.7% (212 of 304). Standardized reporting templates were rarely used in practice (12.8% 39 of 306). CONCLUSIONS: Nearly 7 of 10 radiologists desire a unified international consensus recommendation for management of incidental cystic pancreatic lesions; ACR 2017 recommendations are most commonly used, followed by homegrown systems and Fukuoka guidelines. The majority of radiologists routinely use MR cholangiopancreatography with intravenous contrast for follow-up of incidental cystic lesions, but template reporting is rarely used.

Update on hybrid conjugate-view SPECT tumor dosimetry and response in 131I-tositumomab therapy of previously untreated lymphoma patients.

UNLABELLED: A study of the use of (131)I-labeled tositumomab, preceded by an unlabeled tositumomab predose, for therapy of 76 previously untreated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients has been completed at the University of Michigan. Fifty-two of the 76 treated patients were imaged once during therapy with SPECT to assist in dosimetric estimation. In this article, the patient's average tumor dose, estimated by a hybrid method using that SPECT, is compared with the same statistic estimated by pretherapy conjugate views. METHODS: The SPECT activity-quantification procedure used 3-dimensional CT-to-SPECT image registration. Daily pretherapy conjugate-view images provided the shape of the time-activity curve for the hybrid dose estimation. RESULTS: With the hybrid method, the mean of the patient's average tumor dose over 8 patients using only their axillary tumors (162 cGy) was very significantly lower (P < 0.0001) than the mean over 47 patients using only their evaluated chest, abdominal, and pelvic tumors (624 cGy) for unknown reasons. Excluding axillary tumors as a best case for prediction, there still was considerable overlap in the distribution of a patient's average tumor dose over 38 patients who went on to a complete response (CR) and that from 9 patients who went on to a partial response (PR) using either method. However, a high value of the patient's average tumor dose was correctly associated with a CR for 15 of 16 patients (94%) with hybrid SPECT and for 9 of 12 patients (75%) with conjugate views. Also, the mean of the patient's average tumor dose for the CR patients was larger than the mean for PR patients; the P value was 0.18 with hybrid SPECT and 0.25 with conjugate views. A multiple logistic regression analysis combining the dose, tumor burden, and level of lactate dehydrogenase as explanatory variables for response did not yield statistical significance with either method. CONCLUSION: Patients with evaluated tumors that receive the highest tumor radiation dose are most likely to achieve a CR. Dosimetry based on a combination of pretherapy conjugate views and intratherapy SPECT provides somewhat better correspondence between the patient's average tumor dose and his or her degree of response compared with dosimetry from pretherapy conjugate views alone. Statistical significance for the correspondence is not reached either with the dosimetric method or with either method in combination with the tumor burden and level of lactate dehydrogenase.

Developing a prediction rule to assess hepatic malignancy in patients with cirrhosis.

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of our study were to identify independent clinical, demographic, and MR imaging correlates of malignancy in patients with cirrhosis and to develop a predictive model based on identified correlates of malignancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty examinations of 58 patients with biopsy proof of lesions suggestive of hepatocellular carcinoma on MR imaging were retrospectively reviewed. The signal intensity of the lesion on T2-weighted imaging and dynamic gadolinium-enhanced imaging, the size of the lesion, and the number of suspicious lesions were recorded; in addition, patient age and sex, alpha-fetoprotein level, and hepatitis C viral genotype were noted. The association between malignancy and each predictor variable was evaluated using the chi-square test or the two-group t test. The final logistic regression model included the variables that were shown to have a significant association with malignancy and the clinically relevant predictors. We used the adjusted odds ratios to measure the strength of each association. The discriminant ability of the model for detecting hepatic malignancy was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of hepatic malignancy in our study population was 64%. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the logistic regression model was 0.82. Venous washout (odds ratio = 9.2), alpha-fetoprotein level (odds ratio = 3.2), and number of lesions (odds ratio = 1.5) were significant predictors for malignancy (p < 0.05). When arterial enhancement and venous washout were either both present or both absent, alpha-fetoprotein level contributed little to the prediction of malignancy. CONCLUSION: The MR characteristics of hepatic lesions during the dynamic venous phase in conjunction with the serum alpha-fetoprotein level and number of lesions are predictors of hepatic malignancy. The use of these predictors can facilitate explicit estimation of malignancy in individuals with underlying cirrhosis, potentially improving clinical decision-making.