Usefulness of doppler techniques in the diagnosis of peripheral iatrogenic pseudoaneurysms secondary to minimally invasive interventional and surgical procedures: imaging findings and diagnostic performance study.

The pseudoaneurysm (PA) is a perfused sac directly connecting with the arterial lumen by an interruption of the vessel wall continuity, more commonly secondary to trauma or iatrogenic causes. Aim of our study was to determine the accuracy and usefulness of Doppler techniques in the diagnosis of peripheral iatrogenic PAs secondary to minimally invasive procedures. From a three year prospective research, 20 Duplex Ultrasound (DUS) studies in as many patients presenting with periarterial pulsating mass clinically suspected for PA secondary to minimally invasive procedures were selected. The PA final diagnosis was confirmed by angiography in 12 patients (60% cases), by computed tomography angiography in 5 patients (25%), by surgery in 2 patients (10%), and by magnetic resonance angiography in 1 patient (5%). The vessels involved by PA formation were: common femoral artery in 8 cases (40%); superficial femoral artery in 4 cases (20%); brachial artery in 3 cases (15%); popliteal artery in 2 cases (10%); superficial temporal artery (STA) in 2 cases (10%); dorsal medial digital artery of the foot in 1 case (5%). Our study confirmed the usefulness of doppler techniques in the diagnosis of peripheral iatrogenic PAs. Specifically, a sensitivity of 90-95%, a specificity of 100% and predictive values of 100% (VPP) and 83-90% (VPN) were reported. The radiologist must always suspect a PA in the differential diagnosis of lesions contiguous to an artery vessel. This is to prevent potential complications such as e.g. massive haemorrhage. In this order, DUS allows a careful selection of patients who require to undergo in-depth imaging methods or surgical therapy, thus contributing to a significant reduction of contrast medium and exposure to ionizing radiation.

Oligometastatic Colorectal Cancer Management: A Survey of the Italian College of Interventional Radiology.

AIM: European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines (NCCN) have recently included interventional procedures among the standard treatments for the management of colorectal cancer (CRC) oligometastatic disease (OMD). This study overviews the practice of Interventional Radiology (IR) in Italian centers. METHODS: A practice focused questionnaire on locoregional treatments of CRC-OMD was submitted to all Italian IR centers to assess practice patterns. RESULTS: Thirty-three IR centers completed the questionnaire. The majority reported practice was established within a tumor board (97%), which included input from hepatobiliary surgery (94%). When considering the number of percutaneous ablation and liver-directed trans-arterial therapies performed for all tumor types, 33.5% and 13.4% were performed to specifically treat CRC-OMD. Lung ablations for CRC OMD were performed in 45.5% of centers. Regarding liver ablation, The most common technology was the microwave ablation (68.1%), which was typically performed under US guidance (78%) with conscious sedation used as the most common anaesthesia method (81%). While indication for percutaneous IR treatments was heterogeneous, 51% were performed in combination with chemotherapy in unresectable OMD. Despite new ESMO and NCCN guidelines, 59% of centers did not subjectively appreciate any change in the perception of IR treatments by other specialists; however, 63%of respondents believe that IR will have a more relevant role in the CRC-OMD management in the future. CONCLUSION: CRC-OMD treatment represents a relevant part of the everyday clinical practice of the IR Italian centers with promising future prospects. Heterogeneity persists in clinical indications, requiring more robust evidence to set indications and to diffuse clinical applications.

Rational approach, technique and selection criteria treating lumbar disk herniations by oxygen-ozone therapy.

Radicular lumbar back pain is an important public health problem not yet benefiting from a unequivocal treatment approach. Medical and physical therapies represent the first solution; however, when these fail, the second therapeutic step is still controversial and mini-invasive treatments may play an important role. In these cases oxygen-ozone therapy has been proved to be a very safe and effective option that is widely used with different modalities. This paper, by reviewing oxygen-ozone therapy literature data, aims to describe the rationale of oxygen-ozone therapy for the treatment of lumbar disk herniations, propose an effective procedural technique and clarify patient selection criteria; furthermore, complications and follow-up management are also considered.

Temperature monitoring and lesion volume estimation during double-applicator laser-induced thermotherapy in ex vivo swine pancreas: a preliminary study.

Tissue temperature distribution plays a crucial role in the outcome of laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT), a technique employed for neoplasias removal. Since recent studies proposed LITT for pancreatic tumors treatment, assessment of temperature and of its effects around the laser applicator could be useful to define optimal laser settings. The aims of this work are temperature monitoring and measurement of ablated tissue volume in an ex vivo porcine pancreas undergoing double-applicator LITT. A three-dimensional numerical model is implemented to predict temperature rise and volumes of ablated tissue in treated pancreas. Experiments are performed to validate the model, with two modalities: (1) 12-fiber Bragg grating sensors are adopted to monitor the heating and cooling during LITT at several distances from the applicators tip, and (2) 1.5-T MR imaging is used to estimate the ablated volume. Experimental data agree with theoretical ones: at 2 mm from both applicators tips, the maximum temperature increase is approximately 60 °C downward from the tips, while it increases of about 40 °C and 30 °C, respectively, at the level and upward from the tips. This behavior occurs also at other distances, proving that the tissue downward from the tip is mostly heated. Furthermore, the estimated volume with MRI agrees with theoretical one (i.d., 0.91 ± 0.09 vs. 0.95 cm(3)). The encouraging results indicate that the model could be a suitable tool to choose the optimal laser settings, in order to control the volume of ablated tissue.