Use of modern three-dimensional imaging models to guide surgical planning for local control of pediatric extracranial solid tumors.

INTRODUCTION: In complex pediatric surgical oncology, surgical planning is contingent upon data gathered from preoperative imaging. Three-dimensional (3D) modeling and printing has been shown to be beneficial for adult presurgical planning, though pediatric literature is less robust. The study reviews our institutional experience with the use of 3D image segmentation and printed models in approaching resection of extracranial solid tumors in children. METHODS: This is a single institutional series from 2021 to 2023. Models were based on computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging studies, optimized for 3D imaging. The feasibility and creation of the models is reviewed, including specific techniques, software, and printing materials from our institution. Clinical implications for surgical planning are also described, along with detailed preoperative and intraoperative images. RESULTS: 3D modeling and printing was performed for four pediatric patients diagnosed with extracranial solid tumors. Diagnoses included Ewing sarcoma, hepatoblastoma, synovial sarcoma, and osteosarcoma. No intraoperative complications or discrepancies with the preoperative 3D-printed model were noted. No evidence of local recurrence was identified in any patient thus far. CONCLUSION: Our institutional series demonstrates a wide spectrum of clinical application for 3D modeling and printing technology within pediatric surgical oncology. This technology may aid in surgical planning for both resection and reconstruction, can be applied to a diverse breadth of diagnoses, and may potentially augment patient and/or family education about their condition.

Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program: an overview for the pediatric radiologist.

In terms of number of beneficiaries, Medicaid is the single largest health insurance program in the US. Along with the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid covers nearly half of all births and provides health insurance to nearly half of the children in the country. This article provides a broad introduction to Medicaid and CHIP for the pediatric radiologist with a special focus on topics relevant to pediatric imaging and population health. This includes an overview of Medicaid's structure and eligibility criteria and how it differs from Medicare. The paper examines the means-tested programs within the context of pediatric radiology, reviewing pertinent topics such as the rise of Medicaid managed care plans, Medicaid expansion, the effects of Medicaid on child health, and COVID-19. Beyond the basics of benefits coverage, pediatric radiologists should understand how Medicaid and CHIP financing and reimbursement affect the ability of pediatric practices, radiology groups, and hospitals to provide services for children in a sustainable manner. The paper concludes with an analysis of future opportunities for Medicaid and CHIP.

Development & validation of scales to assess stigma related to COVID-19 in India.

Background & objectives: COVID-19 pandemic has triggered social stigma towards individuals affected and their families. This study describes the process undertaken for the development and validation of scales to assess stigmatizing attitudes and experiences among COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 participants from the community. Methods: COVID-19 Stigma Scale and Community COVID-19 Stigma Scale constituting 13 and six items, respectively, were developed based on review of literature and news reports, expert committee evaluation and participants' interviews through telephone for a multicentric study in India. For content validity, 61 (30 COVID-19-recovered and 31 non-COVID-19 participants from the community) were recruited. Test-retest reliability of the scales was assessed among 99 participants (41 COVID-19 recovered and 58 non-COVID-19). Participants were administered the scale at two-time points after a gap of 7-12 days. Cronbach's alpha, overall percentage agreement and kappa statistics were used to assess internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Results: Items in the scales were relevant and comprehensible. Both the scales had Cronbach's α above 0.6 indicating moderate-to-good internal consistency. Test-retest reliability assessed using kappa statistics indicated that for the COVID-19 Stigma Scale, seven items had a moderate agreement (0.4-0.6). For the Community COVID-19 Stigma Scale, four items had a moderate agreement. Interpretation & conclusions: Validity and reliability of the two stigma scales indicated that the scales were comprehensible and had moderate internal consistency. These scales could be used to assess COVID-19 stigma and help in the development of appropriate stigma reduction interventions for COVID-19 infected, and mitigation of stigmatizing attitudes in the community.

A primer for pediatric radiologists on infection control in an era of COVID-19.

Pediatric radiology departments across the globe face unique challenges in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic that have not been addressed in professional guidelines. Providing a safe environment for personnel while continuing to deliver optimal care to patients is feasible when abiding by fundamental recommendations. In this article, we review current infection control practices across the multiple pediatric institutions represented on the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) Quality and Safety committee. We discuss the routes of infectious transmission and appropriate transmission-based precautions, in addition to exploring strategies to optimize personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies. This work serves as a summary of current evidence-based recommendations for infection control, and current best practices specific to pediatric radiologists.

Utility of Doppler Echocardiography to Estimate the Severity of Pulmonary Valve Regurgitation Fraction in Patients with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot.

BACKGROUND: In patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF), pulmonary regurgitation (PR) leads to significant morbidity. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) is the gold standard to assess severity of PR in rTOF patients. We compared Doppler echocardiography derived indices of PR with CMR to find the best predictive parameter for hemodynamically significant (hs) PR. METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of echocardiogram and CMR measurements. Doppler indices obtained included: PR deceleration slope, pressure half time (PHT) and PR index. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to optimize the sensitivity and specificity of selected variables in predicting hsPR. Inter-observer variability of the Doppler parameters was assessed in a random sample of 25 Doppler spectral recordings. RESULTS: Our cohort (n = 96) comprised of 52 (54.2%) males. The mean (SD) age at CMR was 22.9 (10.3) years. 83.4% patients underwent complete repair with transannular patch. 78 (81%) patients had hsPR as defined by CMR PR > 20%. Doppler parameters with the values of; PR index of < 0.86, PR deceleration slope of > 375 cm/s2 and a PHT < 130 ms, demonstrated high sensitivity (93%) and high negative predictive values (98-99%). All the Doppler indices demonstrated minimal inter-observer variability (PHT = 0.9, 95% CI 0.69-0.97; PRi = 0.95, 95%CI 0.83-0.98). CONCLUSION: Our data, with its high negative predictive values, show that Doppler derived echocardiography indices have an ability to rule out hsPR, as measured by CMR. PHT, PR index and deceleration slope correlate with hsPR and can be used as screening tools for further testing.

Bilateral branch pulmonary artery valve implantation in repaired tetralogy of fallot.

BACKGROUND: Transcatheter, bilateral branch pulmonary artery (PA) valve implantation is a novel treatment for patients with severe pulmonary insufficiency and oversized right ventricle (RV) outflow tract. There is scarce data on efficacy and safety of this approach. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 8 patients with repaired tetralogy of fallot (TOF) who underwent bilateral branch PA valve implantation. Demographics, echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, and axial imaging data were reviewed. Variables were compared by a paired sample t-test. RESULTS: All patients were adult sized (weight 43-99 kg) with oversized RV outflow tract not suitable for conventional transcatheter pulmonary valve implantation. Staged bare metal PA stenting followed by valve implantation (interval 3-5 months) was technically successful in 7 patients with one stent embolization. In another patient, proximal stent migration prevented placement of bilateral pulmonary valve stents. There were a total of 14 valved branch PA stents placed (Melody valve n = 9, Sapien XT n = 2, Sapien 3 n = 3). In the 7 patients undergoing successful branch pulmonary valve placement, at median follow up of 10 months (range 3 months to 6 years), 13 (93%) valves had none/trivial insufficiency on echocardiography. Prevalve and postvalve implantation cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in five patients showed significant reduction of indexed RV end-diastolic volume (152 ± 27 to 105 ± 15 mL/m2 , P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Transcatheter, bilateral branch PA valve implantation was technically feasible with satisfactory efficacy and safety in patients with repaired TOF, severe pulmonary insufficiency, and oversized RV outflow tracts. Elimination of pulmonary insufficiency with this method resulted in reduced RV end-diastolic volume. This approach can be offered as an alternative to surgery, particularly in patients considered high risk for standard surgical placement and who are not candidates for the newer self-expanding valve prosthesis for placement in RV outflow tracts larger than 30 mm diameter.

Serial assessment of biochemical changes in irradiated red blood cells.

BACKGROUND: Transfusion associated graft vs host disease (TA-GVHD) is delayed effect of blood component therapy with a very high mortality rate. The use of irradiated blood components is the only proven method to prevent TA-GVHD in susceptible patients. AIM: Our study was designed to analyze the quality of irradiated PRBCs in terms of their biochemical parameters during a storage period up to 28 days post irradiation. METHODS: A total of 80 PRBC units were analyzed, 40 units each stored in CPDA-1 and additive solution-SAGM. The units were evaluated serially for the following biochemical parameters, plasma/ supernatant potassium, sodium, pH, glucose, lactate, plasma/supernatant hemoglobin and red cell ATP. We further evaluated the differences in these parameters between units irradiated on day 1 and day 7 of storage and stored these units up to 28 days and 35 days respectively. Ten units in each group were used as control. The assessment was done at weekly intervals from the day of irradiation. RESULTS: Within each group of red cells, there was a rise in mean concentration of plasma potassium (K(+)) from day 1 to last day of storage. There was a highly significant difference (P<0.01) between irradiated and control units after first week of storage in both types of PRBCs. Irradiated CPDA-1 PRBC had significantly higher (K(+)) than irradiated SAGM PRBC. Intergroup comparison revealed significantly higher (P<0.05) mean hemoglobin in irradiated CPDA-1 PRBC as compared to SAGM PRBC. The mean pH was significantly higher (P<0.05) in irradiated CPDA-1 PRBC as compared to irradiated SAGM PRBC only on day 7 of storage. ATP levels significantly decreased in irradiated units as compared to control units. SAGM PRBCs had significantly higher (P<0.05) mean ATP concentration than CPDA-1PRBCs. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that SAGM-PRBCs show better stability after irradiation compared to CPDA-1 PRBCs. The limits of safety for CPDA-1 PRBCs appear to be two weeks after irradiation. SAGM-PRBCs on the other hand show acceptable limits of safety up to three weeks of irradiation. The shelf life of irradiated PRBCs may vary depending upon the storage solution and day of irradiation.

Diagnosis of Mucormycosis Using Frozen Section, Histopathology, Culture, and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Techniques: A Comparative Study.

Mucormycosis usually occurs in immunocompromised patients or those with uncontrolled diabetes. Along the third wave of SARS-CoV-2, an associated angioinvasive opportunistic infection with Mucor, a life-threatening fungal infection, was rampant and emerging. With an increase in the usage of steroids in the COVID scenario, the rate of mucormycosis did take a rapid and alarming increase in King Edward Memorial Hospital, Pune, India. Any delay in the diagnosis and management of the disease was life-threatening. The most conventional methods to diagnose mucormycosis are microbiological culture and histopathology of the tissue. The microbiological culture method plays an important role in the diagnosis of mucormycosis. However, the technique is labour-intensive, taking seven to eight days. Histopathology leads to false-negative reports if the tissue is not biopsied from representative sites. On the other hand, molecular methods are rapid, reliable, and applicable to different body samples, such as tissue, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks, plasma, and urine. We aimed to use a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method to detect Mucor in plasma samples. Due to a lack of availability of fresh samples, nucleic acid was extracted from the tissue sections of 69 cases diagnosed as Mucor by histopathology. These samples were subjected to RT-PCR using the MucorGenius kit (Pathonostics, Maastricht, Netherlands). A total of 57 tissue samples were sent for culture, and 49% of our cases were positive by culture and equally by RT-PCR. There was 80% sensitivity and 76% specificity between culture and PCR techniques. However, the use of blood/plasma for RT-PCR for early diagnosis of mucormycosis will be the method of choice.

Lung T1 MRI assessments in children with mild cystic fibrosis lung disease.

RATIONALE: Lung T1 MRI is a potential method to assess cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease that is safe, quick, and widely available, but there are no data in children with mild CF lung disease. OBJECTIVE: Assess the ability of lung T1 MRI to detect abnormalities in children with mild CF lung disease. METHODS: We performed T1 MRI, multiple breath washout (MBW), chest computed tomography (CT), and spirometry in a cohort of 45 children with mild CF lung disease (6-11 years of age). MAIN RESULTS: Despite mean normal ppFEV1 values, the majority of children with CF in this study exhibited mild lung disease evident in lung clearance index (LCI) measured by MBW, chest CT Brody scores, and percent normal lung perfusion (%NLP) measured by T1 MRI. The %NLP correlated with chest CT Brody scores, as did LCI, but %NLP and LCI did not correlate with each other. Analysis of the Brody subscores showed that %NLP and LCI largely correlated with different Brody subscores. CONCLUSIONS: T1 MRI can detect mild CF lung disease in children and correlates with chest CT findings. The %NLP from T1 MRI and LCI correlate with different chest CT Brody subscores, suggesting they provide complementary information about CF lung disease.

Retroperitoneal aspergilloma.

We report a previously healthy 8-year-old boy who presented to the hospital with a palpable abdominal mass, fever and abdominal pain. CT and MRI scans confirmed a large mass that was centered in the retroperitoneum. The lesion was biopsied and the histology showed branching hyphae. Tissue cultures grew Aspergillus fumigatus and a diagnosis of aspergilloma was made. The immunological work-up did not reveal an immunodeficiency. This case is a unique presentation of aspergilloma presenting in an unusual location and in an immunocompetent patient.

Is There Gender Bias in Radiology Job Postings?

BACKGROUND: Words can convey subtle cultural stereotypes and perpetuate subconscious gender biases. Wording in job advertisements that appeals to 1 gender and deters others may unintentionally skew the applicant pool and affect the early phase of the recruitment process. "Masculine" tone can lead to decreased interest among women applicants while 'feminine' wording may not affect a man's decision to apply for the job. In this study, we evaluated the presence and extent of subtle gender bias in job advertisements for radiology faculty positions. METHODS: All job postings for faculty radiologists were retrieved from the American College of Radiology Career Center website in July 2020. The complete job advertisement was analyzed using Gender Decoder, a publicly available web-based application, to determine number and percentage of female or male coded words and the overall tone of the ad. The job posts were also stratified by subspecialty, leadership positions and academic versus private practice environments. RESULTS: Of the 623 job postings reviewed, a little over half (52.0%) of job postings were feminine coded, 26.6% had a masculine tone and 21.3% had a neutral tone. Of the leadership (division director) positions, 50.0% (4/8) had a masculine tone, 37.5% had a feminine tone, and 12.5% had a neutral tone. Among various specialties, pediatric radiology had the lowest percentage of job posts with a masculine tone (10.5%) while nuclear medicine had the highest percentage (41.7%). The most commonly used feminine words were: "support," "responsible," "commitment" and the most common masculine words were: "competitive," "leader," "active." CONCLUSIONS: Most of the imaging job advertisements were feminine coded, with masculine tone in overall 26.6% posts and neutral tone in about a fifth. Leadership posts had a higher percentage of masculine tone. Awareness of these biases is important to enable diversity in recruitment and to ensure a diverse applicant pool.

Effects of Mitral Valve Prolapse on Quantification of Mitral Regurgitation and Ejection Fraction Using Cardiac MRI.

Purpose: To determine the impact of prolapsed volume on regurgitant volume (RegV), regurgitant fraction (RF), and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP) using cardiac MRI. Materials and Methods: Patients with MVP and mitral regurgitation who underwent cardiac MRI from 2005 to 2020 were identified retrospectively from the electronic record. RegV is the difference between left ventricular stroke volume (LVSV) and aortic flow. Left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) and LVSV were obtained from volumetric cine images, with prolapsed volume inclusion (LVESVp, LVSVp) and exclusion (LVESVa, LVSVa) providing two estimates of RegV (RegVp, RegVa), RF (RFp, RFa), and LVEF (LVEFa, LVEFp). Interobserver agreement for LVESVp was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). RegV was also calculated independently using measurements from mitral inflow and aortic net flow phase-contrast imaging as the reference standard (RegVg). Results: The study included 19 patients (mean age, 28 years ± 16 [SD]; 10 male patients). Interobserver agreement for LVESVp was high (ICC, 0.98; 95% CI: 0.96, 0.99). Prolapsed volume inclusion resulted in higher LVESV (LVESVp: 95.4 mL ± 34.7 vs LVESVa: 82.4 mL ± 33.8; P < .001), lower LVSV (LVSVp: 100.5 mL ± 33.8 vs LVSVa: 113.5 mL ± 35.9; P < .001), and lower LVEF (LVEFp: 51.7% ± 5.7 vs LVEFa: 58.6% ± 6.3; P < .001). RegV was larger in magnitude when prolapsed volume was excluded (RegVa: 39.4 mL ± 21.0 vs RegVg: 25.8 mL ± 22.8; P = .02), with no evidence of a difference when including prolapsed volume (RegVp: 26.4 mL ± 16.4 vs RegVg: 25.8 mL ± 22.8; P > .99). Conclusion: Measurements that included prolapsed volume most closely reflected mitral regurgitation severity, but inclusion of this volume resulted in a lower LVEF.Keywords: Cardiac, MRI© RSNA, 2023See also commentary by Lee and Markl in this issue.