Factors associated with radiological misstaging of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: A retrospective observational study.

PURPOSE: Accurate staging of disease is vital in determining appropriate care for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). It has been shown that the quality of scans and the experience of a radiologist can impact computed tomography (CT) based assessment of disease. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the impact of the rereading of outside hospital (OH) CT by an expert radiologist and a repeat pancreatic protocol CT (PPCT) on staging of disease. METHODS: Patients evaluated at the our institute's pancreatic multidisciplinary clinic (2006 to 2014) with OH scan and repeat PPCT performed within 30 days were included. In-house radiologists staged disease using OH scans and repeat PPCT, and factors associated with misstaging were determined. RESULTS: The study included 100 patients, with a median time between OH scan and PPCT of 19 days (IQR: 13-23 days.) Stage migration was mostly accounted for by upstaging of disease (58.8 % to 83.3 %) in all comparison groups. When OH scans were rereviewed, 21.5 % of the misstaging was due to missed metastases, however, when rereads were compared to the PPCT, occult metastases accounted for the majority of misstaged patients (62.5 %). Potential factors associated with misstaging were primarily related to imaging technique. CONCLUSION: A repeat PPCT results in increased detection of metastatic disease that rereviews of OH scans may otherwise miss. Accessible insurance coverage for repeat PPCT imaging even within 30 days of an OH scan could help optimize delivery of care and alleviate burdens associated with misstaging.

Screening for Asymptomatic Osteonecrosis of the Hip in Systemic Lupus Erythematous: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of MRI-Based Prevalence.

Objective. This paper aims to estimate asymptomatic hip osteonecrosis prevalence in SLE patients using MRI examination and to determine the prevalence among higher risk subpopulations. Materials and Methods. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and SCOPUS were searched from inception to May 9th, 2023. Studies on patients who were clinically diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus without reported symptoms attributable to hip osteonecrosis were included. Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. Data collected from each study include the study year, the number of hips screened, the number of hips with osteonecrosis, demographics, laboratory data, medications, follow-up time, radiological protocols, and MRI-based osteonecrosis detection and grading criteria. Results. Eleven eligible studies including 503 participants (15-35 years old; 74-100% female) with SLE were identified. Significant risk of bias was determined in one study. The overall prevalence of osteonecrosis of the hip was found to be 14% (184/1006 hip joints, 95% confidence interval: 7-22%, number needed to scan: 7.1). SLE patients who received corticosteroid treatment had a higher prevalence of asymptomatic hip osteonecrosis (18%) compared to non-corticosteroid users (0%, p-value < 0.01). Additionally, meta-regression results revealed that daily corticosteroid dose was associated with increased prevalence of asymptomatic osteonecrosis (0.5%/milligram, p-value < 0.01). Conclusions. The high prevalence of asymptomatic hip osteonecrosis in SLE patients raises concerns about the timeliness of interventions. The limitations of this study include a relatively low number of identified studies; and one study lacked full-text availability.

Opportunistic Screening for Coronary Artery Disease: An Untapped Population Health Resource.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. At-risk asymptomatic adults are eligible for screening with electrocardiogram-gated coronary artery calcium (CAC) CT, which aids in risk stratification and management decision-making. Incidental CAC (iCAC) is easily quantified on chest CT in patients imaged for noncardiac indications; however, radiologists do not routinely report the finding. OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical significance of CAC identified incidentally on routine chest CT performed for noncardiac indications. DESIGN: An informationist developed search strategies in MEDLINE, Embase, and SCOPUS, and two reviewers independently screened results at both the abstract and full text levels. Data extracted from eligible articles included age, rate of iCAC identification, radiologist reporting frequency, impact on downstream medical management, and association of iCAC with patient outcomes. RESULTS: From 359 unique citations, 83 research publications met inclusion criteria. The percentage of patients with iCAC ranged from 9% to 100%. Thirty-one investigations measured association(s) between iCAC and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and 29 identified significant correlations, including nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal myocardial infarction, major adverse cardiovascular event, cardiovascular death, and all-cause death. iCAC was present in 20% to 100% of the patients in these cohorts, but when present, iCAC was reported by radiologists in only 31% to 44% of cases. Between 18% and 77% of patients with iCAC were not on preventive medications in studies that reported these data. Seven studies measured the effect of reporting on guideline directed medical therapy, and 5 (71%) reported an increase in medication prescriptions after diagnosis of iCAC, with one confirming reductions in low-density lipoprotein levels. Twelve investigations reported good concordance between CAC grade on noncardiac CT and Agatston score on electrocardiogram-gated cardiac CT, and 10 demonstrated that artificial intelligence tools can reliably calculate an Agatston score on noncardiac CT. CONCLUSION: A body of evidence demonstrates that patients with iCAC on routine chest CT are at risk for cardiovascular disease events and death, but they are often undiagnosed. Uniform reporting of iCAC in the chest CT impression represents an opportunity for radiology to contribute to early identification of high-risk individuals and potentially reduce morbidity and mortality. AI tools have been validated to calculate Agatston score on routine chest CT and hold the best potential for facilitating broad adoption.

Systematic Evaluation of Imaging Features of Early Bladder Cancer Using Computed Tomography Performed before Pathologic Diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer is the sixth most common malignancy in the United States (US). Despite its high prevalence and the significant potential benefits of early detection, no reliable, cost-effective screening algorithm exists for asymptomatic patients at risk. Nonetheless, reports of incidentally identified early bladder cancer on CT/MRI scans performed for other indications are emerging in the literature. This represents a new opportunity for early detection, with over 80 million CT scans performed in the US yearly, 40% of which are abdominopelvic CTs. This investigation aims to define the imaging features of early bladder cancer, with the mission of facilitating early diagnosis. METHODS: Following IRB approval with a waiver of informed consent, a retrospective review was performed, identifying 624 patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer diagnosed at Johns Hopkins Hospital between 2000 and 2019. Of these patients, 99 patients underwent pelvic CT within the 5 years preceding pathologic diagnosis. These imaging studies were reviewed retrospectively to evaluate for the presence and features of any focal bladder wall abnormality. RESULTS: Median age at the time of pathologic diagnosis was 70 years (range: 51-88 years), and 82% (81/99) of patients were male. A total of 226 CT studies were reviewed. The number of studies per patient ranged from 1 to 33. Median time interval between all available imaging and pathologic diagnosis was 14 months. A total of 62% (141/226) of the scans reviewed were performed for indications other than suspected urinary tract cancer (UTC). A bladder wall mass was visualized in 67% (66/99) of patients and on 35% (78/226) of scans performed before diagnosis. The majority (84%, 67/80) of masses were intraluminal. Mean transverse long- and short-axis measurements were 24 mm and 17 mm, respectively, with long dimension measurements ranging between 5 and 59 mm. CONCLUSIONS: Early bladder cancer was visualized on CT preceding pathologic diagnosis in more than 2/3 of patients, and the majority of scans were performed for indications other than suspected urinary tract cancer/UTC symptoms. These results suggest that cross-sectional imaging performed for other indications can serve as a resource for opportunistic bladder cancer screening, particularly in high-risk patients.

An Approach to Leadership in Academic Medicine: Lessons Learned From the Experience of Dr. John L. Cameron.

OBJECTIVE: Dr. John L. Cameron was appointed the chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins in 1984. He subsequently built the largest group of clinician-scientists anywhere in the world who were focused on pancreatic cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Trainees were selected over the decades to join the group based on characteristics including self-confidence, a sense of humor, a collegial and congenial personality, and a strong previous track record. Resume items such as prior leadership positions, academic achievements, and participation in team sports can all prove to be important predictors for future success. RESULTS: Many of the trainees that were molded by that group have perpetuated its ideals by pursuing academic careers. Dr Cameron's approach can be distilled to 3 key points: work hard and lead by example, make diamonds by applying the right amount of pressure, and serve your people and give the impression that you are working for your trainees and junior people. CONCLUSIONS: With those leadership principles, it should still be possible to build successful academic programs, despite the significant challenges that have arisen.

Value of acute neurovascular imaging in patients with suspected transient ischemic attack.

PURPOSE: Acute neurovascular imaging including MRA and/or CTA are routinely performed in the emergency departments (ED) for patients who present with suspected transient ischemic attacks (TIA). Given the current emphasis on mitigating the rising cost of health care nationally, and promoting high value practice, we sought to determine 1) the value of acute neurovascular imaging in patients presenting to the ED with TIA-like symptoms, and 2) whether these neurovascular studies led to a difference in management strategies. METHOD: We retrospectively reviewed 398 ED patients who presented with transient neurological deficits and underwent neurovascular imaging from 2015 to 2018. We reviewed diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and neurovascular results by patient demographics, baseline risk factors, final diagnosis, treatment/management dispositions and three-month follow-up. RESULTS: 28.1% (112/398) of patients were diagnosed with true TIA, whereas 71.9% patients were deemed to have a non-vascular etiology. Total rates of positive MRA/CTA for severe intracranial (>50%) and cervical vessel (>70%) stenosis were 10.5% and 1.7%. Patients with positive DWI scans had significantly higher rates of severe vascular stenosis (24.4% versus 7.8% intracranially and 2.4% versus 0.9% in the neck) compared to those with negative DWI scans. All patients were treated with multi-pronged medical therapies with no immediate surgical intervention. A follow-up stroke was equally likely in TIA patients with or without severe vascular stenosis. CONCLUSIONS: In patients presenting with TIA-like symptoms and DWI negative scans, the overall rate of positive neurovascular studies is very low. Triaging with DWI can reduce the frequency of unnecessary neurovascular imaging.

The good, the bad, and the ugly: uncommon CT appearances of pheochromocytoma.

Pheochromocytoma is a neuroendocrine tumor arising in the adrenal medulla with varied imaging appearances and associated risk of serious cardiovascular complications if left undiagnosed and untreated. It is discovered incidentally in up to 70% of cases due to the increase in use of CT in clinical practice. Biopsy can have life-threatening consequences, so imaging is crucial for diagnosis and surgical planning. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate unusual CT appearances of pheochromocytoma and enhance diagnostic confidence in cases discovered incidentally. High level of suspicion for pheochromocytoma based on CT findings, along with urinary metanephrine levels, can obviate the need for additional expensive imaging.

CT of acute abdominopelvic hemorrhage: protocols, pearls, and pitfalls.

Abdominal and pelvic hemorrhage may be secondary to a number of causes and is often a medical emergency. Patient presentation ranges from obvious trauma with evidence of hemodynamic instability to vague symptoms. CT has become the imaging modality of choice for identifying abdominopelvic hemorrhage. Recognizing acute hemorrhage as well as identifying its location and severity are key to expediting management. In the Emergency Department, ultrasound often used in the initial evaluation of trauma patients, but is not sensitive for subtle bleeds or injuries. CT is the best first-line imaging tool to identify abdominal hemorrhage and, compared with angiography, has been shown to be superior in detecting intra-abdominal bleeding, especially when the bleeding rate is low. Depending on location and etiology, abdominopelvic hemorrhage may have a characteristic appearance, such as the "sentinel clot" sign associated with blunt trauma to the solid organs or the "triangle sign" of a mesenteric bleed. The following pictorial essay reviews CT technique, study interpretation, and interpretative pearls and pitfalls in the recognition of acute abdominopelvic hemorrhage.

When More Is Better: Underused Advanced Imaging Exams That Can Improve Outcomes and Reduce Cost of Care.

Appropriate use of resources is a tenet of care transformation efforts, with a national campaign to reduce low-value imaging. The next level of performance improvement is to bolster evidence-based screening, imaging surveillance, and diagnostic innovation, which can avert more costly, higher-risk elements of unnecessary care like emergent interventions. Clinical scenarios in which underused advanced imaging can improve outcomes and reduce total cost of care are reviewed, including abdominal aortic aneurysm surveillance, coronary artery disease diagnosis, and renal mass characterization. Reliable abdominal aortic aneurysm surveillance imaging reduces emergency surgery and can be driven by radiologists incorporating best practice standardized recommendations in imaging interpretations. Coronary computed tomography angiography in patients with stable and unstable chest pain can reduce downstream resource use while improving outcomes. Preoperative 99mTc-sestamibi single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) reliably distinguishes oncocytoma from renal cell carcinoma to obviate unnecessary nephrectomy. As technological advances in diagnostic, molecular, and interventional radiology improve our ability to detect and cure disease, analyses of cost effectiveness will be critical to radiology leadership and sustainability in the transition to a value-based reimbursement model.

Development of a Simple Index to Measure Overuse of Diagnostic Testing at the Hospital Level Using Administrative Data.

OBJECTIVE: We developed a diagnostic overuse index that identifies hospitals with high levels of diagnostic intensity by comparing negative diagnostic testing rates for common diagnoses. METHODS: We prospectively identified candidate overuse metrics, each defined by the percentage of patients with a particular diagnosis who underwent a potentially unnecessary diagnostic test. We used data from seven states participating in the State Inpatient Databases. Candidate metrics were tested for temporal stability and internal consistency. Using mixed-effects ordinal regression and adjusting for regional and hospital characteristics, we compared results of our index with three Dartmouth health service area-level utilization metrics and three Medicare county-level cost metrics. RESULTS: The index was comprised of five metrics with good temporal stability and internal consistency. It correlated with five of the six prespecified overuse measures. Among the Dartmouth metrics, our index correlated most closely with physician reimbursement, with an odds ratio of 2.02 (95% CI, 1.11-3.66) of being in a higher tertile of the overuse index when comparing tertiles 3 and 1 of this Dartmouth metric. Among the Medicare county-level metrics, our index correlated most closely with standardized costs of procedures per capita, with an odds ratio of 2.03 (95% CI, 1.21-3.39) of being in a higher overuse index tertile when comparing tertiles 3 and 1 of this metric. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a novel overuse index that is preliminary in nature. This index is derived from readily available administrative data and shows some promise for measuring overuse of diagnostic testing at the hospital level.

Unsuspected COVID-19 pneumonia suggests need for higher level of personal protective equipment usage during routine radiologic examinations: Two case reports.

Two case reports demonstrating the need for enhanced usage of personal protective equipment of face shield, respirator, gloves, and gown during routine radiologic evaluation who may screen negative for COVID-19 and or atypical COVID-19 symptoms. First case is of a 42-year-old woman undergoing preoperative evaluation for endometrial cancer in the outpatient setting. The second case is of a 49-year-old woman presenting with abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting for abdominal CT imaging from the emergency department. Both cases demonstrate typical lung imaging finding of COVID-19. These cases highlight the need for additional precautions in the outpatient and emergency setting even for patients in whom COVID-19 infection is not suspected.

Use of Advanced Imaging for Radiographically Occult Hip Fracture in Elderly Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background The overall rate of hip fractures not identified on radiographs but that require surgery (ie, surgical hip fractures) remains unclear in elderly patients who are suspected to have such fractures based on clinical findings. Moreover, the importance of advanced imaging in these patients has not been comprehensively assessed. Purpose To estimate the frequency of radiographically occult hip fracture in elderly patients, to define the higher-risk subpopulation, and to determine the diagnostic performance of CT and bone scanning in the detection of occult fractures by using MRI as the reference standard. Materials and Methods A literature search was performed to identify English-language observational studies published from inception to September 27, 2018. Studies were included if patients were clinically suspected to have hip fracture but there was no radiographic evidence of surgical hip fracture (including absence of any definite fracture or only presence of isolated greater trochanter [GT] fracture). The rate of surgical hip fracture was reported in each study in which MRI was used as the reference standard. The pooled rate of occult fracture, diagnostic performance of CT and bone scanning, and strength of evidence (SOE) were assessed. Results Thirty-five studies were identified (2992 patients; mean age, 76.8 years ± 6.0 [standard deviation]; 66% female). The frequency of radiographically occult surgical hip fracture was 39% (1110 of 2835 patients; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 35%, 43%) in studies of patients with no definite radiographic fracture and 92% (134 of 157 patients; 95% CI: 83%, 98%) in studies of patients with radiographic evidence of isolated GT fracture (moderate SOE). The frequency of occult fracture was higher in patients aged at least 80 years (44%, 529 of 1184), those with an equivocal radiographic report (58%, 71 of 126), and those with a history of trauma (41%, 977 of 2370) (moderate SOE). CT and bone scanning yielded comparable diagnostic performance in the detection of radiographically occult hip fracture (P = .67), with a sensitivity of 79% and 87%, respectively (low SOE). Conclusion Elderly patients with acute hip pain and negative or equivocal findings at initial radiography have a high frequency of occult hip fractures. Therefore, the performance of advanced imaging (preferably MRI) may be clinically appropriate in all such patients. © RSNA, 2020 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

Decreasing Duplicative Imaging: Inpatient and Emergency Medicine Abdominal Ultrasound Within 72 Hours of Abdominal CT.

PURPOSE: The aim of this project was to reduce abdominal ultrasound examinations in patients who had undergone abdominal CT within 72 hours previously. METHODS: A best practice advisory (BPA) was created in the electronic medical record to advise against the use of abdominal ultrasound in adult inpatients and emergency department patients who had undergone abdominal CT within the preceding 72 hours. Acceptable acknowledgment reasons to proceed with the order were made available if providers chose to override. Frequency of BPA firing and subsequent ordering behavior were evaluated 6 months after integration of the BPA into the electronic medical record. Chart review was conducted for 100 patients whose orders were placed through an override of the alert to determine if the ultrasound study added value and for all patients whose ultrasound studies were canceled to confirm that patient care was not compromised by omitting the ultrasound study. RESULTS: In the first 6 months, a total of 614 inpatient and emergency department abdominal ultrasound orders triggered the BPA. A total of 16% of orders (n = 96) were canceled by the provider after the BPA, reflecting 518 overrides. The majority of retained orders were to evaluate the gallbladder (44% [227 of 518]). Chart review confirmed utility for gallbladder imaging and that the canceled ultrasound examinations would not have contributed value to patients' care. CONCLUSIONS: A recently performed abdominal CT scan may obviate the need for inpatient and emergency department abdominal ultrasound, particularly in the setting of hospital-acquired acute kidney injury. A BPA resulted in only 16% of orders' being canceled, whereas chart review revealed a much larger opportunity to avoid duplicative imaging.