Multimodality Screening of Hepatic Nodules in Patients With Congenital Heart Disease After Fontan Procedure: Role of Ultrasound, ARFI Elastography, CT, and MRI.

OBJECTIVE: Currently, there is no consensus in the literature regarding the screening of hepatic nodules in patients who have undergone the Fontan procedure. The objectives of this study are to evaluate in this population the frequency of hepatic nodules at ultrasound (US), CT, and MRI; to measure liver stiffness using acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography; and to investigate predictive factors for hepatic nodules. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 49 patients who underwent the Fontan procedure were prospectively recruited from August 2014 through June 2016. These patients underwent clinical evaluation for hepatic disorders, ARFI elastography, US, CT, and MRI. RESULTS: Most of the patients had no symptoms, and hepatic nodules were detected in three of 49 (6.1%) patients at US, 14 of 44 (31.8%) patients at CT, and 19 of 48 (39.6%) patients at MRI. Liver stiffness at ARFI elastography was significantly higher in patients with hepatic nodules than in patients without such nodules (2.64 ± 0.81 m/s vs 1.94 ± 0.49 m/s; p = 0.002) and was a significant predictor of hepatic nodule (AUC, 0.767; p = 0.002). No clinical or laboratory data had any significant correlation with the existence of hepatic nodules, including time since Fontan procedure. CONCLUSION: In our study, more than one-third of patients had hepatic nodules at CT or MRI, but US did not detect most hepatic nodules. Liver stiffness at ARFI elastography was significantly higher in patients with hepatic nodules, and it may help guiding which patient should be further imaged with CT or MRI.

Inter- and intraobserver agreement in computed tomography enterography in inflammatory bowel disease.

AIM: To evaluate intra- and interobserver agreement in imaging features in inflammatory bowel disease and comparison with fecal calprotectin (FC) levels. METHODS: Our institutional computed tomography enterography (CTE) database was retrospectively queried to identify patients who underwent CTE from January 2014 to June 2015. Patient inclusion criteria were confirmed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and FC collected < 4 mo after CTE without any change in clinical treatment or surgical treatment during this interval. The exclusion criterion was poor image quality. Two blinded abdominal radiologists, with 12 and 3 years of experience analyzed the CTE regarding localization (small bowel, colonic, both, or no disease detected); type of IBD (inflammatory, stenosing, fistulizing, > 1 pattern, or normal); and signs of active disease (present or absent). In 42 of 44 patients evaluated, routine CTE reports were made by one of the readers who re-evaluated the CTEs ≥ 6 mo later, to determine the intraobserver agreement. FC was considered a sign of disease activity when it was higher than 250 µg/g. RESULTS: Forty-four patients with IBD (38 with Crohn's disease and 6 with ulcerative colitis) were included. There was a moderate interobserver agreement regarding localization of IBD (κ = 0.540), type of disease (κ = 0.410) and the presence of active signs in CTE (κ = 0.419). There was almost perfect intraobserver agreement regarding localization, type and signs of active disease in IBD. The κ values were 0.902, 0.937 and 0.830, respectively. After a consensus between both radiologists regarding inflammatory activity in CTE, we found that 24 (85.7%) of 28 patients who were classified with active disease had elevated FC, and six (37.5%) of 16 patients without inflammatory activity in CTE had elevated FC (P = 0.003). The correlation between elevated FC and the presence of active disease in CTE was significant (κ = 0.495, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: We found almost perfect intraobserver and moderate interobserver agreement in the signs of active disease in CTE with concurrence of high FC levels.