Imaging and Management of Pancreatic Cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease with rising incidence and high mortality despite advances in imaging and therapeutic options. Surgical resection is currently the only curative treatment, with expanding roles for adjuvant and neoadjuvant chemoradiation. Accurate detection, staging, and post-treatment monitoring of pancreatic cancer are critical to improving survival and imaging plays a central role in the multidisciplinary approach to this disease. This article will provide a broad overview of the imaging and management of pancreatic cancer with a focus on diagnosis and staging, operative and nonoperative treatments, and post-therapeutic appearances after surgery and chemoradiation therapy.

Trauma on the high seas: an overview of recreational water use injuries.

Recreational water use (RWU) injuries span from superficial lacerations to even death. Given the global popularity of RWU, radiologists should be aware of the common mechanisms and key imaging findings related to injuries in this setting. The goal of this article is to depict common RWU injuries and their emergent radiographic findings, which may have both important surgical and management implications. We present a broad review with case illustrations of these injuries seen at our level 1 trauma center showing the breadth of injury that can occur, general mechanisms and sample imaging findings.

Rapid Nuclear Medicine Blood Volume Analysis for Emergency Assessment.

Assessment of fluid status can play a critical role in the diagnosis and management of emergent conditions such as trauma, shock, decompensated heart failure, syncope, and hypertension. Unfortunately, common methods are all qualitative and/or indirect, and often inaccurate. With the recent introduction of a modernized method of nuclear medicine blood volume analysis (NM-BVA), offering results in 90 min or less as well as improved precision and ease of performance, this decade-old technique is for the first time a viable tool in the emergent setting. In this review, we discuss the history of NM-BVA, the modern method, and our institution's experience implementing this method.

Making Sense of MACRA: A Guide for Diagnostic Radiologists.

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 was signed into law on April 16, 2015, fundamentally altering the way clinicians are reimbursed for the treatment of Medicare patients starting in 2017. Under this new pay-for-performance model, reimbursement will be tied to multiple metrics related to quality and cost of care. A scaled scoring system will require providers to compete for positive reimbursement adjustments, while also penalizing poor performers with negative adjustments. A firm understanding of this new system will be essential for all physicians looking to maximize their reimbursement, particularly diagnostic radiologists and members of other highly focused fields where special considerations lead to alterations in the scoring system.

Machine Perfusion of Porcine Livers with Oxygen-Carrying Solution Results in Reprogramming of Dynamic Inflammation Networks.

Background:Ex vivo machine perfusion (MP) can better preserve organs for transplantation. We have recently reported on the first application of an MP protocol in which liver allografts were fully oxygenated, under dual pressures and subnormothermic conditions, with a new hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC) solution specifically developed for ex vivo utilization. In those studies, MP improved organ function post-operatively and reduced inflammation in porcine livers. Herein, we sought to refine our knowledge regarding the impact of MP by defining dynamic networks of inflammation in both tissue and perfusate. Methods: Porcine liver allografts were preserved either with MP (n = 6) or with cold static preservation (CSP; n = 6), then transplanted orthotopically after 9 h of preservation. Fourteen inflammatory mediators were measured in both tissue and perfusate during liver preservation at multiple time points, and analyzed using Dynamic Bayesian Network (DyBN) inference to define feedback interactions, as well as Dynamic Network Analysis (DyNA) to define the time-dependent development of inflammation networks. Results: Network analyses of tissue and perfusate suggested an NLRP3 inflammasome-regulated response in both treatment groups, driven by the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-18 and the anti-inflammatory mediator IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA). Both DyBN and DyNA suggested a reduced role of IL-18 and increased role of IL-1RA with MP, along with increased liver damage with CSP. DyNA also suggested divergent progression of responses over the 9 h preservation time, with CSP leading to a stable pattern of IL-18-induced liver damage and MP leading to a resolution of the pro-inflammatory response. These results were consistent with prior clinical, biochemical, and histological findings after liver transplantation. Conclusion: Our results suggest that analysis of dynamic inflammation networks in the setting of liver preservation may identify novel diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.

Impact of chemically-modified tetracycline 3 on intertwined physiological, biochemical, and inflammatory networks in porcine sepsis/ARDS.

Sepsis can lead to multiple organ dysfunction, including the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), due to intertwined, dynamic changes in inflammation and organ physiology. We have demonstrated the efficacy of Chemically-Modified Tetracycline 3 (CMT-3) at reducing inflammation and ameliorating pathophysiology in the setting of a clinically realistic porcine model of ARDS. Here, we sought to gain insights into the derangements that characterize sepsis/ARDS and the possible impact of CMT-3 thereon, by combined experimental and computational studies. Two groups of anesthetized, ventilated pigs were subjected to experimental sepsis via placement of a peritoneal fecal clot and intestinal ischemia/reperfusion by clamping the superior mesenteric artery for 30 min. The treatment group (n = 3) received CMT-3 at 1 hour after injury (T1), while the control group (n = 3) received a placebo. Multiple inflammatory mediators, along with clinically relevant physiologic and blood chemistry variables, were measured serially until death of the animal or T48. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) inference were used to relate these variables. PCA revealed a separation of cardiac and pulmonary physiologic variables by principal component, and a decreased rank of oxygen index and arterial PO2/FiO2 ratio in the treatment group compared to control. DBN suggested a conserved network structure in both control and CMT-3 animals: a response driven by positive feedback between interleukin-6 and lung dysfunction. Resulting networks further suggested that in control animals, acute kidney injury, acidosis, and respiratory failure play an increased role in the response to insult compared to CMT-3 animals. These combined in vivo and in silico studies in a high fidelity, clinically applicable animal model suggest a dynamic interplay between inflammatory, physiologic, and blood chemistry variables in the setting of sepsis and ARDS that may be dramatically altered by pleiotropic interruption of inflammation by CMT-3.

Removal of inflammatory ascites is associated with dynamic modification of local and systemic inflammation along with prevention of acute lung injury: in vivo and in silico studies.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis-induced inflammation in the gut/peritoneal compartment occurs early in sepsis and can lead to acute lung injury (ALI). We have suggested that inflammatory ascites drives the pathogenesis of ALI and that removal of ascites with an abdominal wound vacuum prevents ALI. We hypothesized that the time- and compartment-dependent changes in inflammation that determine this process can be discerned using principal component analysis (PCA) and Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) inference. METHODS: To test this hypothesis, data from a previous study were analyzed using PCA and DBN. In that study, two groups of anesthetized, ventilated pigs were subjected to experimental sepsis via intestinal ischemia/reperfusion and placement of a peritoneal fecal clot. The control group (n = 6) had the abdomen opened at 12 h after injury (T12) with attachment of a passive drain. The peritoneal suction treatment (PST) group (n = 6) was treated in an identical fashion except that a vacuum was applied to the peritoneal cavity at T12 to remove ascites and maintained until T48. Multiple inflammatory mediators were measured in ascites and plasma and related to lung function (PaO2/FIO2 ratio and oxygen index) using PCA and DBN. RESULTS: Peritoneal suction treatment prevented ALI based on lung histopathology, whereas control animals developed ALI. Principal component analysis revealed that local to the insult (i.e., ascites), primary proinflammatory cytokines play a decreased role in the overall response in the treatment group as compared with control. In both groups, multiple, nested positive feedback loops were inferred from DBN, which included interrelated roles for bacterial endotoxin, interleukin 6, transforming growth factor ß1, C-reactive protein, PaO2/FIO2 ratio, and oxygen index. von Willebrand factor was an output in control, but not PST, ascites. CONCLUSIONS: These combined in vivo and in silico studies suggest that in this clinically realistic paradigm of sepsis, endotoxin drives the inflammatory response in the ascites, interplaying with lung dysfunction in a feed-forward loop that exacerbates inflammation and leads to endothelial dysfunction, systemic spillover, and ALI; PST partially modifies this process.