Multisystemic BCGitis: A rare complication of intravesical BCG immunotherapy for bladder cancer.

Intermediate- to high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer is preferably treated with transurethral resection followed by adjuvant intravesical immunotherapy with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). BCG acts as an immune stimulator, inducing a complex inflammatory response that selectively targets tumoral cells. Mild side effects of BCG instillation, such as fever, malaise, and bladder irritation are frequent, while severe treatment-associated complications of the genito-urinary tract are rare. "Distant" complications are even rarer and, since BCG is able to disseminate hematogenously, virtually all organs and systems can be involved, with the lungs, liver and musculoskeletal system being most commonly affected. Vascular complications of BCG immunotherapy are exceedingly rare and difficult to diagnose, because they can mimic other vascular infections and may occur several years after treatment. Knowledge of previous BCG immunotherapy and awareness about treatment-related complications is essential to avoid misdiagnosis, and to guide appropriate treatment.

Extensive Colonic Pneumatosis, Pneumoperitoneum, Pneumomediastinum and Subcutaneous Emphysema - a Rare Pattern of Complications in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Teaching Point: Intestinal pneumatosis associated with pneumoperitoneum, pneumomediastinum, and subcutaneous emphysema is an extremely rare complication of leukemia; even though its imaging appearance can be alarming, a benign treatment-associated etiology should always be considered in this subset of patients so that unnecessary interventions can be avoided.

Kimura's disease: a rare cause of facial mass in a caucasian male patient.

Kimura's disease is an uncommon inflammatory disorder of unclear aetiology, mainly affecting young Asian descent males among their second and fourth decades of life. The disease typically emerges as a long-standing and painless subcutaneous mass lesion in the head and neck region, frequently associated with swelling of major salivary glands, particularly the parotid gland, and regional lymphadenopathy. Peripheral eosinophilia and high serum immunoglobulin E are also characteristic findings. We report a case and describe the imaging and pathological features of the disease in a 19-year-old Caucasian male, with review of the literature.

Diffuse smoking-related lung diseases: insights from a radiologic-pathologic correlation.

Cigarettes are well-recognized risk factors responsible for the emergence of a variety of pathologic conditions affecting both the airways and the lungs. Smoking-related lung diseases can be classified as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and several types of interstitial diseases, such as pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis, bronchiolitis, desquamative interstitial pneumonitis, acute eosinophilic pneumonia, and interstitial fibrosing lung diseases. The evidence of combined lower lung fibrosis and predominant upper lung emphysema is renowned as a distinct clinical entity, named combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema. Although computerized tomography permits an adequate classification and distinction of these diseases, the clinical, imaging, and histological features often overlap and coexist in a single patient. Therefore, a combined radiologic and pathologic approach, in the appropriate clinical setting, is useful for best comprehension and distinction of these entities. Our goals are to describe the imaging features in smoking-related lung diseases and how the pathological manifestations translate on high-resolution computerized tomography.

Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of the female pelvic floor-a pictorial review.

Pelvic floor dysfunctions represent a range of functional disorders that frequently occur in adult women, carrying a significant burden on the quality of life, and its incidence tends to increase attending to the expected aging of the population. Pelvic floor dysfunctions can manifest as incontinence, constipation, and prolapsed pelvic organs. Since pelvic floor weakness is frequently generalized and clinically underdiagnosed, imaging evaluation is of major importance, especially prior to surgical correction. Given some interobserver variability of soft-tissue measurements, MR defecography allows a noninvasive, radiation-free, multiplanar dynamic evaluation of the three pelvic compartments simultaneously and with high spatial and temporal resolution. Both static/anatomic and dynamic/functional findings are important, since pelvic disorders can manifest as whole pelvic floor weakness/dysfunction or as an isolated or single compartment disorder. Imaging has a preponderant role in accessing pelvic floor disorders, and dynamic MR defecography presents as a reliable option, being able to evaluate the entire pelvic floor for optimal patient management before surgery. The purpose of this article is to address the female pelvic anatomy and explain the appropriate MR Defecography protocol, along with all the anatomic points, lines, angles, and measurements needed for a correct interpretation, to later focus on the different disorders of the female pelvic floor, illustrated with MR defecography images, highlighting the role of this technique in accessing these pathologic conditions.

Bowel wall thickening at CT: simplifying the diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: In this article we present a simplified algorithm-based approach to the thickening of the small and large bowel wall detected on routine computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen. BACKGROUND: Thickening of the small or large bowel wall may be caused by neoplastic, inflammatory, infectious, or ischaemic conditions. First, distinction should be made between focal and segmental or diffuse wall thickening. In cases of focal thickening further analysis of the wall symmetry and perienteric anomalies allows distinguishing between neoplasms and inflammatory conditions. In cases of segmental or diffuse thickening, the pattern of attenuation in light of clinical findings helps narrowing the differential diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Focal bowel wall thickening may be caused by tumours or inflammatory conditions. Bowel tumours may appear as either regular and symmetric or irregular or asymmetric thickening. When fat stranding is disproportionately more severe than the degree of wall thickening, inflammatory conditions are more likely. With the exception of lymphoma, segmental or diffuse wall thickening is usually caused by benign conditions, such as ischaemic, infectious and inflammatory diseases. KEY POINTS: • Thickening of the bowel wall may be focal (<5 cm) and segmental or diffuse (6-40 cm or >40 cm) in extension. • Focal, irregular and asymmetrical thickening of the bowel wall suggests a malignancy. • Perienteric fat stranding disproportionally more severe than the degree of wall thickening suggests an inflammatory condition. • Regular, symmetric and homogeneous wall thickening is more frequently due to benign conditions, but can also be caused by neoplasms such as well-differentiated adenocarcinoma and lymphoma. • Segmental or diffuse bowel wall thickening is usually caused by ischaemic, inflammatory or infectious conditions and the attenuation pattern is helpful in narrowing the differential diagnosis.

Peripheral inflammatory pseudotumor of the liver and extensive thrombosis of the portal venous system in a child.

We report a case of a peripheral inflammatory pseudotumor of the right lobe of the liver with extensive thrombosis of the portal venous system in a 9-year-old boy. Local thrombosis of the portal vein is a known complication of the inflammatory pseudotumor, especially in the hepatic hilum. The extent of the thrombosis in this case was unexpected, considering the peripheral location and the benign nature of the lesion. To our knowledge, thrombosis of this degree has not been described.

MR imaging of liver fibrosis: current state of the art.

Chronic liver disease is a major public health problem worldwide. Liver fibrosis, a common feature of almost all causes of chronic liver disease, involves the accumulation of collagen, proteoglycans, and other macromolecules within the extracellular matrix. Fibrosis tends to progress, leading to hepatic dysfunction, portal hypertension, and ultimately cirrhosis. Liver biopsy, the standard of reference for diagnosing liver fibrosis, is invasive, costly, and subject to complications and sampling variability. These limitations make it unsuitable for diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring in the general population. Thus, development of a noninvasive, accurate, and reproducible test for diagnosis and monitoring of liver fibrosis would be of great value. Conventional cross-sectional imaging techniques have limited capability to demonstrate liver fibrosis. In clinical practice, imaging studies are usually reserved for evaluation of the presence of portal hypertension or hepatocellular carcinoma in cases that have progressed to cirrhosis. In response to the rising prevalence of chronic liver diseases in Western nations, a number of imaging-based methods including ultrasonography-based transient elastography, computed tomography-based texture analysis, and diverse magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-based techniques have been proposed for noninvasive diagnosis and grading of hepatic fibrosis across its entire spectrum of severity. State-of-the-art MR imaging-based techniques in current practice and in development for noninvasive assessment of liver fibrosis include conventional contrast material-enhanced MR imaging, double contrast-enhanced MR imaging, MR elastography, diffusion-weighted imaging, and MR perfusion imaging.

Epiploic appendagitis: an entity frequently unknown to clinicians--diagnostic imaging, pitfalls, and look-alikes.

OBJECTIVE: Epiploic appendagitis is an ischemic infarction of an epiploic appendage caused by torsion or spontaneous thrombosis of the epiploic appendage central draining vein. When it occurs on the right side of the abdomen, it can mimic appendicitis and right-sided diverticulitis; whereas when it occurs on the left side of the abdomen, it is often mistaken for sigmoid diverticulitis. The purpose of this article is to review the diagnostic imaging of this entity. CONCLUSION: Epiploic appendagitis is self-limited and spontaneously resolves without surgery within 5-7 days. Therefore, it is imperative for radiologists to be familiar with this entity.