Myocardial Late Contrast Enhancement CT in Troponin-Positive Acute Chest Pain Syndrome.

Background Acute chest pain with mild troponin rise and inconclusive diagnosis after clinical evaluation represents a diagnostic challenge. Triple-rule-out (TRO) CT may exclude coronary artery disease (CAD), as well as acute aortic syndrome and pulmonary embolism, but cannot help identify other causes of myocardial injury. Purpose To investigate the diagnostic value of a comprehensive CT protocol including both an angiographic and a late contrast enhancement (LCE) scan in participants with troponin-positive acute chest pain. Materials and Methods In this prospective study, consecutive patients with troponin-positive acute chest pain or anginal equivalent and inconclusive diagnosis after clinical evaluation (symptoms, markers, electrocardiography, and echocardiography) who underwent TRO CT between June 2018 and September 2020 were enrolled. TRO CT was performed to evaluate the presence of obstructive CAD (stenosis ≥50%), acute aortic syndrome, and pulmonary embolism. If the findings on the TRO CT scan were negative, an LCE CT scan was acquired after 10 minutes to assess the presence and pattern of scar and quantify the myocardial extracellular volume fraction. CT-based diagnoses were compared with diagnoses obtained with reference standard methods, including invasive coronary angiography, cardiac MRI, and endomyocardial biopsy. Results Eighty-four patients (median age, 69 years [interquartile range, 50-77 years]; 45 men) were enrolled. TRO CT helped identify obstructive CAD in 35 participants (42%), acute aortic syndrome in one (1.2%), and pulmonary embolism in six (7.1%). LCE CT scans were acquired in the remaining 42 participants. The following diagnoses were reached with use of LCE CT: myocarditis (22 of 42 participants [52%]), takotsubo cardiomyopathy (four of 42 [10%]), amyloidosis (three of 42 [7.1%]), myocardial infarction with nonobstructed coronary arteries (three of 42 [7.1%]), dilated cardiomyopathy (two of 42 [4.8%]), and negative or inconclusive findings (eight of 42 [19%]). The addition of LCE CT improved the diagnostic rate of TRO CT from 42 of 84 participants (50% [95% CI: 38.9, 61.1]) to 76 of 84 (90% [95% CI: 82.1, 95.8]) (P < .001). Conclusion A CT protocol including triple-rule-out and late contrast enhancement CT scans improved diagnostic rate in participants presenting with acute chest pain syndrome. © RSNA, 2021 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Nagpal and Bluemke in this issue.

Apparent diffusion coefficient and enhancement patterns in MR imaging as markers of severe or moderate ileum inflammation in Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: magnetic resonance enterography has been increasingly used for the diagnosis and follow-up of Crohn's disease (CD). The purpose of the study was to compare the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) with wall enhancement for the differentiation of severe, moderate or no inflammation activity in the ileum. METHODS: a prospective, blinded study was conducted of 46 CD patients with a clinical Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI) ≥ 220 and a simple endoscopic score for Crohn's disease (ES-CD) ≥ 7, which yielded 58 inflamed segments with CD. Twenty controls were also included. All segments were characterized by four ADC readings. The two different enhancement patterns observed in inflamed segments, transmural or mucosal, were associated with severely (23) or moderately (35) active CD. RESULTS: the ADC value decreased from 2.79 ± 0.35 x 10-3 mm2/s for normal segments to 1.81 ± 0.39 x 10-3 mm2/s for the moderately inflamed segments and 1.15 ± 0.20 x 10-3 mm2/s for severely inflamed segments (p ≤ 0.0001). ROC curve analysis on the basis of the three ADC distributions showed a very good discrimination capability with an area under the curve of 0.95. Three groups were defined as follows: normal ileum ADC > 2.4 x 10-3 mm2/s, moderate stages of inflammation 1.5 x 10-3 mm2/s < ADC ≤ 2.4 x 10-3 mm2/s and severe stages of ADC ≤ 1.5 x 10-3 mm2/s. CONCLUSIONS: the ADC value reliably discriminates between normal and inflamed ileum and also distinguishes between severe and moderate inflammation.

Mammotome(®) and EnCor (®): comparison of two systems for stereotactic vacuum-assisted core biopsy in the characterisation of suspicious mammographic microcalcifications alone.

PURPOSE: The authors sought to compare the diagnostic performance of the Mammotome(®) and EnCor(®) vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB) systems in the assessment of suspicious mammographic microcalcifications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 2011 and July 2012, a total of 169 VABB were performed by stereotactic guidance on a prone table. The Mammotome(®) 11G (S1) or EnCor(®) 10G (S2) probes were used randomly. Sampling time and the number of frustules collected were considered; sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic accuracy, positive and negative predictive value (PPV, NPV) of both procedures were evaluated, considering the final histological examination as reference (B1, B3, B5 lesions underwent surgical excision; B2 lesion were considered confirmed after a negative follow-up of at least 1 year). RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups of patients according to the number of procedures (S1 82/169; S2 87/169), average age, BIRADS category (4a, b), and average size of the lesions. The two systems did not differ statistically for correlation with the final histology (S1 k = 0.94 ± 0.06; S2 k = 0.92 ± 0.08) and underestimation of B3 lesions or in situ (S1 4.5%; S2 4.3%). Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, diagnostic accuracy of S1 and S2 were also not statistically different. The systems differed only in sampling time (S1 80; S2 63 s), but not in total procedure time. CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirms the effectiveness of VABB in the assessment of microcalcifications and highlights the lack of significant differences between the two systems in terms of diagnostic performance.