Completely isolated enteric duplications cysts: a survey of four cases.

Enteric duplication cysts are uncommon congenital abnormalities with epithelial lining. They are cystic or tubular structures intimately attached to a portion of the gastrointestinal tract; they are usually located on the mesenteric site of the digestive tract sharing common blood supply. Isolated cystic duplications are an extremely rare variant with their own blood supply: in literature only five cases have been reported. We present our four cases series of this uncommon anomaly.

Imaging techniques in the diagnosis and management of rhinosinusitis in children.

Sinusitis in children is a common problem. The diagnosis of both acute and chronic rhinosinusitis in the pediatric population, should be made first of all clinically, and not on the basis of imaging findings alone. Plain radiography may be used as a screening method for various pathological conditions of sinuses, but computed tomography (CT) remains the study of choice for the imaging evaluation of acute and chronic rhinosinusitis. In acute sinusitis, CT is indicated in patients with symptoms persisting after 10 days of appropriate therapy and in patients with suspected complications (especially in the brain and in the orbit). In addition to CT scanning, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the sinuses, orbits, and brain should be performed whenever extensive or multiple complications of sinusitis are suspected. In chronic sinusitis, CT scanning is the 'gold standard' for the diagnosis and the management, because it also provides an anatomic road map, when surgery is required. Nuclear medicine studies and ultrasound are rarely indicated in acute and chronic rhinosinusitis.

Hippocampal infolding angle changes during brain development assessed by prenatal MR imaging.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Epileptic syndromes or neurodevelopmental delay may be associated with congenital anomalies of the shape or the orientation of the hippocampus. Scarce data are available about quantitative hippocampal developmental changes during fetal life, in particular about the progressive rotational changes of the hippocampal infolding angle (HIA), which can be considered a hallmark of hippocampal development. We hypothesized that prenatal MR imaging could demonstrate the progressive rotation of the hippocampus, providing quantitative data by means of the HIA determination. METHODS: We retrospectively selected 62 fetal MR imaging cases with normal brain at prenatal and postnatal imaging. The gestational age ranged from 20 to 37 weeks. The coronal section encompassing the pons was used to perform the measurement of HIA. HIA was defined as the angle between the line connecting the lateral margin of the cornu ammonis with the medial superior margin of the subiculum and the line passing through the midline structures. RESULTS: A significant positive correlation was found between the HIA value and the gestational age. The HIA was generally below 70 degrees before the gestational week 25 and above 70 degrees after week 30. CONCLUSION: Prenatal MR imaging allowed the progressive rotation of hippocampus to be detected during fetal life, providing normative data about HIA changes. These data could support further investigations to assess how fetal HIA anomalies might affect postnatal neurologic outcome.