Chronic Pelvic Pain in Congestion Pelvic Syndrome: Clinical Impact and Electromyography Pelvic Floor Activity Prior to and after Endovascular Treatment.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to characterize the clinical impact of endovascular treatment in Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP) patients due to Pelvic Congestion Syndrome (PCS) and to assess the diagnostic value of surface electromyography (sEMG) studies of pelvic floor musculature (PFM) in PCS patients pre- and post-endovascular treatment. Between January 2019 and July 2023, we studied consecutive patients who were referred for interventional radiology assessment and treatment to a tertiary trauma care hospital, had evidence of non-obstructive PCS from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), had sEMG of PFM and who had undergone endovascular treatment. The primary outcome was clinical, defined as a change in symptom severity after endovascular treatment. The secondary outcome was a difference in the sEMG values pre- and post-endovascular therapy. RESULTS: We included 32 women (mean age 38 years). CPP was the leading symptom in 100% patients, followed by dysmenorrhea (75%) and post-coital pain (68.7%). Endovascular therapy included ovarian vein embolization in 28 patients (87.5%) and internal iliac vein embolization in only 2 patients (6.2%). After a median of 8 (range 6-10) months from endovascular treatment, 29 (90%) of patients reported an improvement of the main symptoms, and 15 (46%) were symptom-free. The sEMG values did not show a statistical difference pre- and post-PCS endovascular treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular treatment appeared to be highly effective in CPP due to PCS and was associated with a low rate of complication. sEMG study could be useful in revealing alterations of PFM electrophysiology, but a difference pre- and post-embolization in PCS patients was not demonstrated.

Successful endovascular embolization of a giant splenic artery pseudoaneurysm secondary to a huge pancreatic pseudocyst with concomitant spleen invasion.

Pseudoaneurysms of the pancreatic and peripancreatic arteries is a well-known complication of chronic or necrotizing pancreatitis due to proteolytic enzymatic digestion of the arterial wall. A major part of peripancreatic pseudoaneurysms involve the splenic artery, but any peripancreatic artery may be involved and bleed. They are potentially life threatening for patients, due to spontaneous intraperitoneal rupture, rupture and fistulization into the surrounding organs, or fistulization into the pancreatic duct. Small ones are usually asymptomatic and are often diagnosed incidentally, while giant (> 5 cm) aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms are symptomatic and may be detected as a pulsatile mass in the upper-left quadrant or epigastrium. Imaging plays a key role in the identification of splenic artery aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms, while angiography still represents the gold standard for the diagnosis, although nowadays it plays a prominent role in treatment. Treatment of splenic artery pseudoaneurysms is mandatory because of the high probability of rupture, with a mortality rate of up to 90%. The gold standard treatment is represented by surgery, with a mortality rate between 16% and 50%. In recent years the endovascular approach has proven to be an effective alternative treatment for splenic artery pseudoaneurysms, and it is currently the method of choice. In this article, we present the case of a ant pseudoaneurysm of the splenic artery due to huge pseudocysts in a young alcoholic patient with recurrent and chronic pancreatitis, complicated by fistulization and invasion of spleen parenchyma and arteriovenous fistula.

Severe metrorrhagia in patients with advanced gynecologic cancer: endovascular treatment benefits in acute and chronic setting.

PURPOSE: Interventional radiology plays an established role in the management of many conditions of the female reproductive tract. Since in benign gynecological and obstetric pathologies, as myomas and postpartum hemorrhages, uterine arteries embolization has been already evaluated, this manuscript aims to report on a single-center experience concerning the endovascular management of metrorrhagia caused by gynecological malignancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Single-center retrospective analysis of thirty patients affected by gynecologic cancer treated with endovascular embolization between January 2016 and December 2018 for acute or chronic metrorrhagia. RESULTS: All patients were in advanced oncological stage (III or IV) with loco-regional spread of the tumor or invasion of pelvic structures, with a poor performance status. They were not suitable for surgery. On initial CT angiography, contrast media extravasation was confirmed in two patients (6.6%), while on DSA examination, tumor stain was displayed in 28 patients (93.4%). In two patients (6.6%) a pseudoaneurysm was reported. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular treatment of metrorrhagia in oncologic patients could be a valid therapeutic alternative, especially when in elderly patients with poor clinical conditions not suitable for surgery. A bilateral and superselective embolization using non-resorbable embolic agents should be performed, except for those cases in which there is infiltration of major vessels causing pseudoaneurysms or fistulas that require embolization.

Embolization of high-flow priapism: technical aspects and clinical outcome from a single-center experience.

PURPOSE: High-flow priapism is an incomplete and painless persistent erection caused by trauma. Its diagnosis is performed thanks to clinic and imaging evaluation with detection of fistula/pseudoaneurysm in the cavernous tissue. This paper aims to retrospectively assess the efficacy and safety of superselective arterial embolization in patients with high-flow priapism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From January 2008 to March 2017, nine patients with high-flow priapism have been treated in a single center with embolization. The main etiology was trauma in eight subjects. The patients were evaluated with laboratory examinations and clinical and imaging findings (color Doppler ultrasonography and angiography). The mean follow-up time after embolization was 24 months. RESULTS: Eleven procedures were performed in nine patients: two of them required a second treatment session because of recurrence after 1-2 weeks. Embolic agents were microcoils, microparticles (300-500 µm) and Spongostan. Restoration of erectile function was monitored by clinical and color Doppler evaluation during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Superselective embolization should be the procedure of choice in patients affected by high-flow priapism; this technique appears to be successful in preserving erectile function. The choice of the embolic agent is crucial, and it should be tailored for each patient.

Successful endovascular treatment of a spontaneous bleeding accessory spleen: A case report.

Accessory spleens are often encountered in radiologic studies and they are not usually associated with symptoms. They could arise from autotransplantation of splenic tissue after splenic trauma or splenectomy (splenosis) [1]. In this case we describe a woman treated for splenectomy 20 years before and subsequently for adhesions, that suffered sudden left upper abdominal quadrant pain, weakness, and pale color. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed free spilling in the abdomen and venous bleeding of a big accessory spleen; thus the patient underwent transcatheter arterial embolization with coils. Due to the 2 previous surgical operations in the splenic loggia, endovascular treatment compared to "open surgery" was the best choice in this case because of determined less complications, a shorter period of hospitalization, and a reduction of health cost.

Intrabone hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy for adult and pediatric patients affected by transfusion-dependent ß-thalassemia.

ß-thalassemia is caused by ß-globin gene mutations resulting in reduced (ß+) or absent (ß0) hemoglobin production. Patient life expectancy has recently increased, but the need for chronic transfusions in transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) and iron chelation impairs quality of life1. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation represents the curative treatment, with thalassemia-free survival exceeding 80%. However, it is available to a minority of patients and is associated with morbidity, rejection and graft-versus-host disease2. Gene therapy with autologous HSCs modified to express ß-globin represents a potential therapeutic option. We treated three adults and six children with ß0 or severe ß+ mutations in a phase 1/2 trial ( NCT02453477 ) with an intrabone administration of HSCs transduced with the lentiviral vector GLOBE. Rapid hematopoietic recovery with polyclonal multilineage engraftment of vector-marked cells was achieved, with a median of 37.5% (range 12.6-76.4%) in hematopoietic progenitors and a vector copy number per cell (VCN) of 0.58 (range 0.10-1.97) in erythroid precursors at 1 year, in absence of clonal dominance. Transfusion requirement was reduced in the adults. Three out of four evaluable pediatric participants discontinued transfusions after gene therapy and were transfusion independent at the last follow-up. Younger age and persistence of higher VCN in the repopulating hematopoietic cells are associated with better outcome.

Characterization of Adrenal Lesions on Unenhanced MRI Using Texture Analysis: A Machine-Learning Approach.

BACKGROUND: Adrenal adenomas (AA) are the most common benign adrenal lesions, often characterized based on intralesional fat content as either lipid-rich (LRA) or lipid-poor (LPA). The differentiation of AA, particularly LPA, from nonadenoma adrenal lesions (NAL) may be challenging. Texture analysis (TA) can extract quantitative parameters from MR images. Machine learning is a technique for recognizing patterns that can be applied to medical images by identifying the best combination of TA features to create a predictive model for the diagnosis of interest. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: To assess the diagnostic efficacy of TA-derived parameters extracted from MR images in characterizing LRA, LPA, and NAL using a machine-learning approach. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective, observational study. POPULATION/SUBJECTS/PHANTOM/SPECIMEN/ANIMAL MODEL: Sixty MR examinations, including 20 LRA, 20 LPA, and 20 NAL. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: Unenhanced T1 -weighted in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP) as well as T2 -weighted (T2 -w) MR images acquired at 3T. ASSESSMENT: Adrenal lesions were manually segmented, placing a spherical volume of interest on IP, OP, and T2 -w images. Different selection methods were trained and tested using the J48 machine-learning classifiers. STATISTICAL TESTS: The feature selection method that obtained the highest diagnostic performance using the J48 classifier was identified; the diagnostic performance was also compared with that of a senior radiologist by means of McNemar's test. RESULTS: A total of 138 TA-derived features were extracted; among these, four features were selected, extracted from the IP (Short_Run_High_Gray_Level_Emphasis), OP (Mean_Intensity and Maximum_3D_Diameter), and T2 -w (Standard_Deviation) images; the J48 classifier obtained a diagnostic accuracy of 80%. The expert radiologist obtained a diagnostic accuracy of 73%. McNemar's test did not show significant differences in terms of diagnostic performance between the J48 classifier and the expert radiologist. DATA CONCLUSION: Machine learning conducted on MR TA-derived features is a potential tool to characterize adrenal lesions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Gd-EOB-DTPA for Detection Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC): A Comparative Study with Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Computed Tomography (CT).

BACKGROUND: To compare the diagnostic accuracy of hepato-biliary (HB) phase with gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine-pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) with dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging (DCEMRI) and contrast-enhanced CT (DCECT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) detection. MATERIAL/METHODS: 73 patients underwent DCECT and Gd-EOB-DTPA-3T-MR. Lesions were classified using a five-point confidence scale. Reference standard was a combination of pathological evidence and tumor growth at follow-up CT/MR at 12 months. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were obtained. RESULTS: A total of 125 lesions were confirmed in 73 patients. As many as 74 were HCCs and 51 were benign. Area under the curve (AUC) was 0.984 for DCEMRI+HB phase vs. 0.934 for DCEMRI (p<0.68) and 0.852 for DCECT (p<0.001). For lesions >20 mm (n.40), AUC was 0.984 for DCEMRI+HB phase, 0.999 for DCEMRI, and 0.913 for DCECT, (p=n.s.). For lesions <20 mm (n.85) AUC was 0.982 for DCEMRI+HB phase vs. 0.910 for DCEMRI (p<0.01) and 0.828 for DCECT (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of HB phase to DCEMRI provides an incremental accuracy of 4.5% compared to DCEMRI and DCECT for HCC detection. The accuracy of Gd-EOB-DTPA-3T-MR significantly improves for lesions <20 mm. No significant improvement is observed for lesions >20 mm and patients with Child-Pugh class B or C.

Integrated Imaging Characterization of Adrenal Adenoma: False-Positive Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) Findings of Adrenal Scintigraphy.

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of a patient with melanoma in whom an adrenal mass was detected on CT and MR during follow-up and further characterized with PET-CT and MIBG scintigraphy. CASE REPORT: In this case report, we describe a patient with melanoma in whom an adrenal mass was detected on CT and MRI during post-surgical follow-up and was further characterized with radionuclide studies consisting of PET-CT and MIBG scintigraphy. Although the results of imaging studies suggested that the mass was a pheochromocytoma, a cortical adrenal adenoma was histologically proven. CONCLUSIONS: Integrated structural and functional imaging is recommended to characterize adrenal tumors; however, mistakes may occur and therefore careful imaging evaluation is required.

Plerixafor on demand in ten healthy family donors as a rescue strategy to achieve an adequate graft for stem cell transplantation.

BACKGROUND: In allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation, the collection of an appropriate number of HSCs while maintaining a high level of safety for healthy donors is fundamental. Inadequate HSC mobilization can be seen with the standard use of granulocyte-colony-stimulating (G-CSF). Plerixafor (PL) is a chemokine receptor CXC Type 4-stromal-derived factor 1 inhibitor; its HSC-mobilizing properties are synergistic with G-CSF in poor mobilizing patients. The use of PL as adjuvant or alternative to G-CSF in healthy donors has shown a good safety profile but is so far off-label. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We report 10 healthy HSC donors treated with PL because of insufficient response to G-CSF alone or contraindication to G-CSF. Eight donors did not mobilize enough CD34+ cells with G-CSF alone because poor mobilizers or because insufficient HSCs were harvested according to the clinical need of the patient; in two cases G-CSF administration and marrow harvest were unfeasible or contraindicated in the donor. RESULTS: The use of PL for mobilization increased the number of circulating CD34+ cells by 2.8-fold and the CD34+/kg collection by 3.0-fold. Only mild adverse events were reported (bone pain or discomfort) and not univocally attributable to PL. Rate of engraftment and graft-versus-host disease were similar to those seen in recipients of grafts from G-CSF only-mobilized donors. CONCLUSION: We exposed 10 allogeneic donors to mobilization with PL. PL was well tolerated in all cases and ensured procurement of an adequate graft for transplantation resulting in a normal hematopoietic engraftment.

Efeito anestésico do óleo de cravo em alevinos de lambari / Anesthetic effect of clove oil on lambari

Para avaliar o efeito anestésico do óleo de cravo em lambaris (Astyanax altiparanae), cinco grupos de 30 alevinos (0,6±0,1g) foram expostos às concentrações de 50, 75, 100, 125 e 150mg L-1, medindo-se, respectivamente: tempo de indução à anestesia profunda (caracterizada pela perda de equilíbrio, pela ausência de natação, pela redução dos movimentos operculares e pelas respostas apenas a estímulos táteis mais intensos), tempo de recuperação e taxa de mortalidade após a exposição. Em uma segunda etapa (10 peixes/tratamento), registraram-se, para cada concentração, os tempos de indução e de recuperação após anestesia cirúrgica (movimentos operculares lentos e irregulares e perda de reações a estímulos), anotando-se a mortalidade após seis minutos de exposição. Observou-se redução linear no tempo de indução à anestesia (0,01min mg-1 de anestésico acrescido) e aumento quadrático do tempo de recuperação com a elevação da concentração (resposta máxima estimada em 7,1 minutos). A anestesia profunda foi alcançada em tempo inferior a 1,5 minuto para todas as concentrações, com recuperação mais rápida e sem mortalidade para 50mg L-1. Para indução à anestesia cirúrgica, foram registrados menores tempos nas concentrações 75 e 100mg L-1; porém, com mortalidade de 80 por cento e 100 por cento, respectivamente. A concentração 50mg L-1 promoveu anestesia cirúrgica e recuperação em 3,29±0,71 e 4,97±0,63 minutos, respectivamente, sem mortalidade. Concluiu-se que o óleo de cravo possui efeito anestésico para alevinos de lambari, sendo 50mg L-1 a concentração eficiente e segura para indução à anestesia profunda em até 1,5 minuto e de anestesia cirúrgica em até 3,3 minutos de exposição.

The anesthetic effect of clove oil on lambari (Astyanax altiparanae) was evaluated by exposing five groups of 30 fry (0.6±0.1g) to concentrations of 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150mg L-1 and measuring the induction time to deep anesthesia (characterized by loss of equilibrium, absence of swimming, reduction of opercular movements, and responses only to intense tactile stimuli), recovery time, and mortality rate after exposure. Another phase of the experiment (10 fish/treatment) involved recording the induction time and recovering after surgical anesthesia (slow irregular opercular movements and loss of reaction to stimuli), and mortality rates after six minutes of exposure to each concentration of clove oil. Induction time decreased linearly (0.01 minute for each mg of additional anesthetic) and recovery time increased quadratically as the concentration increased (maximum estimated response in 7.1 minutes). Deep anesthesia occurred in less than 1.5 minute at all the concentrations, with faster recovery and zero mortality at 50mg L-1. The fastest induction to deep anesthesia occurred at concentrations of 75 and 100mg L-1, but resulted in mortality rates of 80 percent and 100 percent, respectively. The 50mg L-1 concentration resulted in surgical anesthesia in 3.29±0.71 minutes and recovery in 4.97±0.63 minutes, without mortality. It was concluded that clove oil has an anesthetic effect on lambari and that 50mg L-1 is an efficient and safe concentration for inducing deep anesthesia in up to 1.5 minute and surgical anesthesia in up to 3,3 minutes of exposure.

Is it possible to discontinue imatinib mesylate therapy in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia patients with undetectable BCR/ABL? A case report and a review of the literature.

Imatinib mesylate (IM) therapy leads to a complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) in 75-90% of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) patients in chronic phase, but only a small percentage of patients achieve complete molecular response (CMR). Very little is known about IM discontinuation. We report the case of a 20-years-old male patient in chronic phase CML who maintained undetectable BCR/ABL mRNA levels, despite IM discontinuation over a period of 15 months after achieving CMR. Our patient reached CCyR and CMR after 3 and 6 months of IM treatment, respectively. We also reviewed the published literature concerning cases of IM discontinuation.