Structured Reporting of Solid and Cystic Pancreatic Lesions in CT and MRI: Consensus-Based Structured Report Templates of the German Society of Radiology (DRG). / Strukturierte Befundung von soliden und zystischen Pankreasläsionen im CT und MRT: Konsensus-basierte Befundvorlagen der Deutschen Röntgengesellschaft (DRG).

BACKGROUND: Radiological reports of pancreatic lesions are currently widely formulated as free texts. However, for optimal characterization, staging and operation planning, a wide range of information is required but is sometimes not captured comprehensively. Structured reporting offers the potential for improvement in terms of completeness, reproducibility and clarity of interdisciplinary communication. METHOD: Interdisciplinary consensus finding of structured report templates for solid and cystic pancreatic tumors in computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with representatives of the German Society of Radiology (DRG), German Society for General and Visceral Surgery (DGAV), working group Oncological Imaging (ABO) of the German Cancer Society (DKG) and other radiologists, oncologists and surgeons. RESULTS: Among experts in the field of pancreatic imaging, oncology and pancreatic surgery, as well as in a public online survey, structured report templates were developed by consensus. These templates are available on the DRG homepage under www.befundung.drg.de and will be regularly revised to the current state of scientific knowledge by the participating specialist societies and responsible working groups. CONCLUSION: This article presents structured report templates for solid and cystic pancreatic tumors to improve clinical staging (cTNM, ycTNM) in everyday radiology. KEY POINTS: · Structured report templates offer the potential of optimized radiological reporting with regard to completeness, reproducibility and differential diagnosis.. · This article presents consensus-based, structured reports for solid and cystic pancreatic lesions in CT and MRI.. · These structured reports are available open source on the homepage of the German Society of Radiology (DRG) under www.befundung.drg.de.. CITATION FORMAT: · Persigehl T, Baumhauer M, Baeßler B et al. Structured Reporting of Solid and Cystic Pancreatic Lesions in CT and MRI: Consensus-Based Structured Report Templates of the German Society of Radiology (DRG). Fortschr Röntgenstr 2020; 192: 641 - 655.

Informatics in radiology (infoRAD): an open source framework for modification and communication of DICOM objects.

A configurable framework has been developed that can receive, modify, and export images in different picture archiving and communication system scenarios. The framework has three main components: a receiver for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) objects, a processing pipeline to apply one or more modifications to these objects, and one or more senders to send the processed objects to predefined addresses. The toolbox programming was implemented as an open source project in Java. The processing pipeline uses the concept of configurable plug-ins. One plug-in is user programmable by means of extensible stylesheet language files and allows conversion of DICOM objects to extensible markup language documents or other file types. Input and output channels are the DICOM Storage service, DICOM compact disks-read-only memory (CD-ROMs), and the local file system. The toolbox has been successfully applied to different clinical scenarios, including the correction of DICOM objects from non-Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) conform modalities, pseudonaming of DICOM images, and use of the IHE Portable Data for Imaging profile with import and export of CD-ROMs. The toolbox has proved reliability in the clinical routine. Because of the open programming interfaces, the functionality can easily be adapted to future applications.

Virtual MRI: a PC-based simulation of a clinical MR scanner.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of this project was to simulate the features and functions of a clinical or real-world MR scanner on a personal computer by means of a computer program. The users should be able to change all relevant settings of the virtual scanner and adapt them to the expected pathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The algorithms of the simulation are based on parameter images of the three physical basic properties T1, T2, and proton density. From this, the synthetic images are calculated pixel by pixel on the basis of the well-known formulas of the pulse sequences chosen and modified by the user. The graphical user interface is oriented to a real-world MR scanner. The software is programmed in pure Java and is freely available under the GPL license. RESULTS: Besides spin echo pulse sequence, 6 other pulse sequence classes are implemented. Parameters like repetition time and echo time can be adjusted. The choice of parameters like matrix size, slice-thickness, and number of acquisitions has an impact on the signal-to-noise ratio of the images. In a first step, the simulation calculates the signal intensity in k-space. Wraparound and motion artifacts are simulated by modifying the data of k-space. In a last step, a 2D-Fourier transform of k-space data is performed. As the image calculation takes only a few seconds, an interactive manner of working is possible. CONCLUSION: The simulation has been used in the education of medical students and interns for more than 1 year and has gained widespread acceptance.

DICOM router: an open source toolbox for communication and correction of DICOM objects.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE: Today, the exchange of medical images and clinical information is well defined by the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) and Health Level Seven (ie, HL7) standards. The interoperability among information systems is specified by the integration profiles of IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise). However, older imaging modalities frequently do not correctly support these interfaces and integration profiles, and some use cases are not yet specified by IHE. Therefore, corrections of DICOM objects are necessary to establish conformity. The aim of this project was to develop a toolbox that can automatically perform these recurrent corrections of the DICOM objects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The toolbox is composed of three main components: 1) a receiver to receive DICOM objects, 2) a processing pipeline to correct each object, and 3) one or more senders to forward each corrected object to predefined addressees. The toolbox is implemented under Java as an open source project. The processing pipeline is realized by means of plug ins. One of the plug ins can be programmed by the user via an external eXtensible Stylesheet Language (ie, XSL) file. Using this plug in, DICOM objects can also be converted into eXtensible Markup Language (ie, XML) documents or other data formats. DICOM storage services, DICOM CD-ROMs, and the local file system are defined as input and output channel. RESULTS: The toolbox is used clinically for different application areas. These are the automatic correction of DICOM objects from non-IHE-conforming modalities, the import of DICOM CD-ROMs into the picture archiving and communication system and the pseudo naming of DICOM images. CONCLUSION: The toolbox has been accepted by users in a clinical setting. Because of the open programming interfaces, the functionality can easily be adapted to future applications.

Agreement of multislice CT angiography and MR angiography in assessing the degree of carotid artery stenosis in consideration of different methods of postprocessing.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the agreement of multislice computed tomography angiography (CTA) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) in the quantitative measurement of carotid artery stenosis. The dependency of the agreement of the chosen postprocessing procedures was also investigated. METHODS: Fifty consecutive symptomatic patients were included in this study. In all patients, a CTA was performed with a 16-slice CT scanner. Within 30 days, the extracranial vessels were examined using a combined time-of-flight and contrast-enhanced MRA. The CT data sets were used to calculate the degree of stenosis according to the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial, European Carotid Surgery Trial, and Common Carotid methods by means of the 1-mm thick, transverse raw data (RD), a sagittal maximum-intensity projection reconstruction, and sagittal multiplanar reconstruction. In addition, a semiautomated analysis was done using a specialized postprocessing software. For all combinations of postprocessing procedures and methods of calculating the degree of stenosis, the correlation coefficient and the agreement based on Bland/Altman plots were calculated. RESULTS: Eleven of the 100 primarily included carotid arteries could not be evaluated. The correlation coefficients for all combinations were comparable and lied in the interval between 0.932 and 0.787. The best correlation was found for the combination of RD/sagittal multiplanar reconstruction and ECST method. The evaluation of the agreement gave a systematic overestimation of CTA between 1.9% and 10.7% with a 95% confidence interval between +/-26.7% and +/-43.3%. With the semiautomated postprocessing software, additional 33 vessels could not be evaluated. The agreement of the calculated degrees of stenoses was worse than that of the planar procedures. CONCLUSIONS: CTA and MRA had a feasible agreement in measuring the degree of stenosis of the carotid arteries. The best result could be obtained for the evaluation of the RD and the NASCET method. In this case one has to take into account a systematic overestimation of CTA of 1.9%. The combination with an additional reconstructive postprocessing procedure did not improve the result but might be useful for the radiologist to identify the location of the closest narrowing.

Evaluation of renovascular hypertension: comparison of functional MRI and contrast-enhanced MRA with a routinely performed renal scintigraphy and DSA.

OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to evaluate a clinically suspected renovascular hypertension (RVH) by means of MRI. It was to find out if functional MRI (fMRI) is able to provide adequate results with regard to MAG3 captopril scintigraphy and if contrast-enhanced MR angiography (MRA) is able to provide adequate results in the stenosis grading compared with the nonselective digital subtraction angiography (DSA). METHODS: This open, monocentric, prospective, phase 3 study included patients with a clinically suspected RVH. For fMRI a dynamic TurboFLASH sequence and for MRA a single-shot breath-hold flash 3D sequence was performed. Gadodiamide was injected as contrast medium. RESULTS: Sixty patients were included in the study. The correlation between fMRI and scintigraphy had an accuracy, a sensitivity, and a specificity of 69%, 5%, and 92%, respectively, and correlations between MRA and DSA of 95%, 92%, and 96%. CONCLUSION: The noninvasive MRA can replace DSA in the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis. However, fMRI can not replace renal scintigraphy.