MRI diagnosis of rubber band constriction syndrome.

Rubber band syndrome is caused by constriction of the wrist from elastic bracelets worn for decorative purposes. Overtime, the fixed or elastic band burrows into the skin and becomes invisible. We present the case of a 2.5-year-old female child presenting to our institution with signs of circumferential swelling and inflammatory changes about the right wrist. MRI of the wrist demonstrated a subcutaneous circular foreign body, which was confirmed at surgery to be a rubber band. Although this disease entity is rare, radiologists can be instrumental in suggesting this diagnosis based on the location involved, ie, wrist, and the imaging findings.

A review of sonographic evaluation of renal transplant complications.

In this article, we present an overview of renal transplantation with its complications and discuss the abilities and limitations of ultrasound in evaluating these complications. We included renal transplants performed at our institution between 1993 and 2006 and gathered data on more than 1,000 patients who developed graft dysfunction. We analyzed the ultrasound findings in different posttransplant complications and compared our findings with those in published literature. We present this review article that elaborates and categorizes various transplant complications from an ultrasound perspective. Based on imaging evaluation, the complications of renal transplantation can be divided into four major categories: peri-renal, renal parenchymal, renal collecting system, and renal vascular complications. Common complications included acute tubular necrosis, graft rejection, drug nephrotoxicity, hematoma, lymphocele, urinoma, hydronephrosis, and vascular complications. Ultrasound has a key role in identification and management of most of these complications. However, some parenchymal complications may only be diagnosed on renal biopsy. Ultrasound is a very powerful screening tool to assess renal transplant dysfunction and has a primary role in early diagnosis and management of structural and vascular complications, which may need surgical intervention to save the graft.

Extracardiac findings at cardiac CT: a practical approach.

Noncardiac findings occur in 10% to 60% of cases depending on the patient population studied. Although most of the abnormalities will turn out to be benign, important findings such as pulmonary embolism and lung cancer occur. Not all important abnormalities will occur within the coned down field-of-view for evaluating the coronary arteries, and the entire study should also be reviewed with an expanded field-of-view. In particular, the typical screen detected cancer occurs in the lung periphery. It is important to have a practical approach in detecting and evaluating incidental findings so as not to cause undue cost or patient anxiety, while ensuring timely management of critical diseases.