Docetaxel monotherapy induces necrotic acute pancreatitis.

INTRODUCTION: Drug-induced acute pancreatitis (AP) is uncommon and represents 0.1 to 2% of all AP cases. Chemotherapy-induced AP is very rare. Docetaxel monotherapy-induced AP has been reported only once in the literature. Herein we report the second case of docetaxel-related AP and the first case of necrotic AP induced by this agent. CASE REPORT: We describe the case of a severe docetaxel-induced AP classified as stage E Balthazar in a 55-year-old female treated with adjuvant docetaxel for localized breast cancer. Symptoms occurred five hours following the first infusion of docetaxel. MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOME: The patient was hospitalized for 15 days for appropriate management. According to the CTCAE (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events) version 5.0 this was a grade 4 toxicity and chemotherapy was withdrawn thereafter. Drug rechallenge was not possible because of the severity of the presentation. DISCUSSION: Medical oncologists should be aware that docetaxel may induce severe pancreatitis. Therefore, they should prompt testing of serum lipase when patients consult for unusual abdominal pain following chemotherapy infusion. Recognizing this entity is paramount to allow early and appropriate management.

Unusual cause of laryngeal dyspnea and swallowing troubles in a 2-year old child.

Plexiform neurofibromas are rare benign tumors developed from peripheral nervous system often associated with neurofibromatosis type 1. We report the case of multifocal plexiform neurofibromas in a 2-year-old child with cervical mass obstructing the trachea causing respiratory distress. A cervical ultrasound examination was performed followed by enhanced CT and MRI. Imaging revealed an expansive cervical mass extended from the base of the skull to the mediastinum associated with similar pelvic and sacral foraminal masses. The target like MRI aspect on T2-weighted images was suggestive of the neural origin. Biopsy under ultrasound control confirmed the diagnosis of plexiform neurofibroma.

Deep learning-based CAD schemes for the detection and classification of lung nodules from CT images: A survey.

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world. Computed tomography (CT) is the standard medical imaging modality for early lung nodule detection and diagnosis that improves patient's survival rate. Recently, deep learning algorithms, especially convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have become a preferred methodology for developing computer-aided detection and diagnosis (CAD) schemes of lung CT images. OBJECTIVE: Several CNN-based research projects have been initiated to design robust and efficient CAD schemes for the detection and classification of lung nodules. This paper reviews the recent works in this area and gives an insight into technical progress. METHODS: First, a brief overview of CNN models and their basic structures is presented in this investigation. Then, we provide an analytic comparison of the existing approaches to discover recent trend and upcoming challenges. We also introduce an objective description of both handcrafted and deep learning features, as well as the types of nodules, the medical imaging modalities, the widely used databases, and related works in the last three years. The articles presented in this work were selected from various databases. About 57% of reviewed articles published in the last year. RESULTS: Our analysis reveals that several methods achieved promising performance with high sensitivity rates ranging from 66% to 100% under the false-positive rates ranging from 1 to 15 per CT scan. It can be noted that CNN models have contributed to the accurate detection and early diagnosis of lung nodules. CONCLUSIONS: From the critical discussion and an outline for prospective directions, this survey provide researchers valuable information to master the deep learning concepts and to deepen their knowledge of the trend and latest techniques in developing CAD schemes of lung CT images.

Spontaneous hemothorax and neurofibromatosis type 1: How to explain it, how to explore it and how to treat it?

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), also known as Von Recklinghausen's disease is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder. It is the most common of phacomatoses. Pulmonary complications have been rarely described in the literature. It is generally a benign disease, but has the potential for rare and fatal complications, such as spontaneous hemothorax. We reported two cases of patients with a history of von Recklinghausen's disease. Both of them suffered sudden chest pain. Chest-X ray revealed a hemi-thoracic opacity. Enhanced chest computed tomography showed massive hemothorax, but no evidence of tumors or an obvious bleeding point in the thorax. After we had ensured a stable hemodynamic condition, we performed video-assisted thoracic surgery to remove the hematoma. No evidence of bleeding was noticed in the first patient whereas an active bleeding was observed in the second patient. We could not determine which vessel was responsible of the hemorrhage. Electrocoagulation and clot removal were performed.  Evolution was favorable for both patients. Spontaneous hemothorax is a rare and potentially life threatening NF1's complication. A tumor like neurofibroma or more rarely vascular involvement of large or small caliber arteries may be at hemothorax's origin.

Interstitial lung diseases: Imaging contribution to diagnosis and elementary radiological lesions.

Interstitial pneumonias comprise a heterogeneous group of disorders in which a multidisciplinary approach is important for accuracy in diagnosis; indeed, one might say, even mandatory. The team of collaborators should include radiologists, because high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the thorax is the first, and most of times, the only imaging examination to be prescribed after chest X-ray. Elementary lesions of the interstitium can be accurately described with HRCT, inasmuch as lung windowing with sharp filtering in this technique reproduces the microscopic features of the lung. Guidance of bronchoalveolar lavage and biopsy procedures is also possible with HRCT.

Caseous mitral annulus calcification: A forgotten benign condition mimicking cardiac mass, a case report.

Key Clinical Message: Caseous mitral annulus calcification is a rare benign condition that can be misdiagnosed on echocardiography especially when it presents as a mass. This report highlights the contribution of cardiac MRI and computed tomography to the diagnosis through the case of a patient previously treated for breast cancer. Abstract: We report the case of a patient, previously treated for breast cancer, in whom echocardiography suggested the diagnosis of a cardiac tumor due the presence of a mass on the posterior mitral annulus. Cardiac magnetic resonance was inconclusive. Computed tomography confirmed the diagnosis of caseous mitral annulus calcification.

Anaphylaxis following a pleural puncture bringing back a rock water-like liquid.

INTRODUCTION: Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening medical emergency. Its occurrence in the hospital environment should lead to the first evocation of a drug allergy or a latex allergy. However, many other etiologies need to be investigated early. We publish this case report to highlight a rare differential diagnosis of drug allergy, namely hypersensitivity caused by Ecchinoccocus granulosis. CLINICAL CASE: An 18-year-old female patient with no previous pathological history, from a rural environment, consulted for a 4-month history of right basi-thoracic pain without any other associated clinical sign. Her physical examination revealed a right pleuritic syndrome. Chest radiograph showed a right pleural opacity. The patient had a pleural puncture bringing back a rocky water-like fluid. Five minutes later, the patient had an injection of paracetamol to relieve the pain. Thirty minutes later, plaques of urticaria on the extremities and trunk and arterial hypotension occurred. The diagnosis of grade III anaphylaxis was retained. Following vascular filling and administration of antihistamines, the evolution was rapidly favorable. The thoraco-abdominal ultrasound showing the presence of a ruptured liver hydatid cyst in the pleura. A surgical treatment was thus proposed. Despite contact with latex gloves and the administration of paracetamol after surgery, the patient did not present any allergic reaction. Thus the retained cause of the anaphylaxis was ecchinoccocus granulosis. CONCLUSION: Anaphylaxis following a pleural puncture bringing back a rock water-like liquid must suggest the diagnosis of complicated hydatic cyst.

Drainage of tuberculous pneumothorax in a Northern African country: Characteristics and difficulties.

INTRODUCTION-AIM: Tuberculous pneumothorax (TP) is a serious complication of cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis. The aim of this study was to identify TP drainage characteristics and difficulties. METHODS: This was a retrospective multicenter study of patients hospitalized for TP between 1999 and 2021 in three hospitals from Tunis (Tunisia): Abderahmen Mami, La Rabta, and Charles Nicolle. Clinical, biological, radiological, therapeutic and evolutionary data were collected. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients were enrolled. The mean±standard-deviation (SD) of age was 37±17 years. The sex ratio was 3.3. TP was isolated in 39 patients (53.4%) and was associated with a purulent effusion in 34 patients (46.6%). It was bilateral in three patients (4.1%). Chest drainage was indicated in 67 patients (91.7%). It was performed with a chest drain in 61 cases, with a pleuro-catheter in one case, and with a pleuro-catheter then a chest drain in five cases. The mean±SD (ranges) duration of drainage was 43±39 (3-175) days. Drainage was prolonged in 36 cases (53.7%). The duration of drainage for pyopneumothorax was significantly longer than for isolated TP (p=0.04). The mean±SD (ranges) number of drains inserted in each patient was 2.02 ±1 (1-7) drains. Spontaneous drain fall was observed in 13 patients. Drainage failure was observed in 16 patients, and was more frequent in cases of pyopneumothorax (p=0.039). Recurrence of pneumothorax was noted in nine patients (13.4%). CONCLUSION: The drainage of TP is often extended and requires the use of multiple drains. It is associated with several complications. Failure of thoracic drainage is not negligible.

Posterior mediastinal angiomyxolipoma with spinal canal extension.

BACKGROUND: Angiomyxolipoma is a benign tumor considered as a variant of lipoma and that occurs mainly in the subcutis. The mediastinal location hasn't been previously reported. AIM: To describe the radiological features of this tumor in its posterior mediastinal location and to confront them to the pathological features. CASE REPORT: We report the case of a 49-year-old woman who was admitted for chest wall pain and neurologic disturbance of her two lower limbs. The chest X-ray showed a posterior mediastinal opacity. On CT examination, this mass contained some small areas of fat and enhanced intensely. Microscopic examination of the excised mass confirmed the diagnosis of posterior mediastinal angiomyxolipoma. CONCLUSION: Mediastinal location of angiomyxolipoma hasn't been previously reported. Clinicians and radiologists should be aware that this diagnosis should be suggested, among others, when there is a posterior mediastinal mass that contains fat and that intensely enhances with a possible spinal cord extension.

Current and new imaging techniques in risk stratification of asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis.

Aortic stenosis (AS) is one of the most common valvular diseases in clinical practice. The prevalence of calcified AS with moderate or severe stenosis exceeds 2% after 75 years. The optimal timing of intervention for asymptomatic severe AS is uncertain and controversial. Identification of high-risk patients is based on echocardiographic parameters (left ventricular dysfunction, AS severity and progression), hemodynamic response to exercise, pulmonary hypertension, and elevated brain natriuretic peptides. However, early surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR), when compared to the watchful waiting approach, was associated with survival advantage. Moreover, new insights into pathophysiology of AS and advances in imaging modalities were helpful in the management of asymptomatic AS. In this report, we detail the potential role of echocardiography to guide timing of surgery and we discussed the use of early risk features based on recent imaging modalities.

Cystic adventitial disease of the popliteal artery with unusual spontaneous regression: A case report with literature review.

This report highlights the case of cystic adventitial disease of the left popliteal artery in a 45-year-old male patient. Imaging modalities confirmed the diagnosis and high resolution MRI found a cystic connection to the adjacent knee joint. The evolution was unusual with spontaneous regression of the symptoms.

How MRI can contribute to the diagnosis of acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis in children.

OBJECTIVE: To illustrate through 10 pediatric cases, the clinical features, course, and importance of neuroimaging (especially MRI) in guiding the diagnosis of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and controlling patients after treatment. METHODS: A retrospective review of 10 pediatric cases of ADEM, with special regard to the MRI features, presenting to the Pediatric Departments, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia between January 2002 and December 2008. RESULTS: Children with ADEM presented with variable and multiple neurological signs most often occurring after an infectious episode, especially after upper respiratory tract infection. The MRI permitted confirmation of the diagnosis by showing demyelinating lesions either in the brainstem, the cerebellum, the cerebral white and grey matter, or in the spine of all patients. CONCLUSION: Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis is characterized by multifocal demyelinating lesions resulting in varied neurological signs. The MRI is the technique of choice to show these lesions.

A bilinear convolutional neural network for lung nodules classification on CT images.

PURPOSE: Lung cancer is the most frequent cancer worldwide and is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Its early detection and treatment at the stage of a lung nodule improve the prognosis. In this study was proposed a new classification approach named bilinear convolutional neural network (BCNN) for the classification of lung nodules on CT images. METHODS: Convolutional neural network (CNN) is considered as the leading model in deep learning and is highly recommended for the design of computer-aided diagnosis systems thanks to its promising results on medical image analysis. The proposed BCNN scheme consists of two-stream CNNs (VGG16 and VGG19) as feature extractors followed by a support vector machine (SVM) classifier for false positive reduction. Series of experiments are performed by introducing the bilinear vector features extracted from three BCNN combinations into various types of SVMs that we adopted instead of the original softmax to determine the most suitable classifier for our study. RESULTS: The method performance was evaluated on 3186 images from the public LUNA16 database. We found that the BCNN [VGG16, VGG19] combination with and without SVM surpassed the [VGG16]2 and [VGG19]2 architectures, achieved an accuracy rate of 91.99% against 91.84% and 90.58%, respectively, and an area under the curve (AUC) rate of 95.9% against 94.8% and 94%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The proposed method improved the outcomes of conventional CNN-based architectures and showed promising and satisfying results, compared to other works, with an affordable complexity. We believe that the proposed BCNN can be used as an assessment tool for radiologists to make a precise analysis of lung nodules and an early diagnosis of lung cancers.

Distance education in times of covid 19: a leap into the future?

INTRODUCTION: Online education has grown a lot in recent months in our country during the global health crisis (COVID19). It has been widely used at all levels and fields of education ranging from elementary school to graduate and postgraduate studies. The aim of this study is to evaluate this teaching method compared to classical face-to-face teaching by referring to the learner's point of view. METHODS: It was a prospective and descriptive cross-sectional study targeting residents in medical imaging (all levels approximately 200 people) It was based on an online questionnaire sent to all residents after attending synchronous online teaching sessions at the College of Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine. The assessment was done by the learners using a 5 points Likert scale. RESULTS:    Ninety-seven residents answered the questionnaire. Sixty percent of our learners were satisfied with this new way of teaching. 73% of the students found the logistical means suitable for this course. The main advantages noted by our residents were accessibility to sessions from any location and the ability to replay lessons later. The weaknesses put forward were the lack of interaction with the teacher compared to face-to-face teaching and the occurrence of technical problems which could sometimes hamper the smooth running of the sessions. CONCLUSION: Our study allowed us to get feedback from our learners on this teaching. The multiplication of learning means, in particular a hybrid education should be considered to overcome the shortcomings of exclusive online teaching.

Radiofrequency ablathermia of pulmonary nodules : CT follow-up and prognostic study.

INTRODUCTION: Radiofrequency ablathermia of pulmonary nodules is a local curative treatment whose efficacy assessment is still a current topic. AIMS: To specify the monitoring protocol, the scannographic aspects of treated lesions, deduce criteria of incomplete ablation, and identify the prognostic factors influencing overall and progression-free survivals. METHODS: A prognostic descriptive retrospective study conducted in the medical imaging department of Abderrahman Mami Hospital. The nodules were monitored at 24-hour, 2.4,6,9,12,15,18 and 24 months after treatment and then once a year. The study of overall and progression-free survivals was done using Kaplan Meier's method. RESULTS: Sixteen patients with 21 nodules were included, 20% of them were pulmonary carcinomas and 80% were secondary nodules. 6 nodules presented an incomplete response.The appearance of a convex outline was the first sign of incomplete ablation. 5 out of 6 nodules had a nodular focal enhancement. The cumulative probability of overall survival at 12, 36, and 60 months was 80%, 66% and 39% with a median survival of 31 months. The number of nodules treated was found to be directly related to overall survival. The cumulative probability of progression-free survival was 65% at 12, 36 and 60 months. Pleural contact was the factor influencing progression-free survival. CONCLUSION: Radiofrequency ablathermia is an effective technique. Regular CT monitoring allows early detection of tumor recurrence.

Diagnostic accuracy of strain imaging in predicting myocardial viability after an ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

In the acute phase of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) viability imaging techniques are not validated and/or not available.This study aimed to evaluate the ability of strain parameters assessed in the acute phase of STEMI, to predict myocardial viability after revascularization.Thirty-one STEMI patients whose culprit coronary artery was recanalized and in whom baseline echocardiogram showed an akinesia in the infarcted area, were prospectively included. Bidimensional left ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLS), and territorial longitudinal strain (TLS) in the territory of the infarct related artery were obtained within 24 hours from admission. Delayed enhancement (DE) cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) was used as a reference test to assess post-revascularization myocardial viability. DE-CMR was performed 3 months after percutaneous coronary intervention. According to myocardial viability, patients were divided into 2 groups; CMR viable myocardium patients with more than half of infarcted segments having a DE <50% (group V) and CMR nonviable myocardium patients with half or more of the infarcted segments having a DE >50% (group NV).GLS and TLS were lower in group V compared to group NV (respectively: -14.4% ±â€Š2.9% vs -10.9% ±â€Š2.4%, P = .002 and -11.0 ±â€Š4.1 vs -3.2 ±â€Š3.1, P = .001). GLS was correlated with DE-CMR (r = 0.54, P = .002) and a cut off value of -13.9% for GLS predicted viability with 86% sensitivity (Se) and 78% specificity (Sp). TLS showed the strongest correlation with DE-CMR (r = 0.69, P < .001). A cut off value of -9.4% for TLS yielded a Se of 78% and a Sp of 95% to predict myocardial viability.GLS and TLS measured in the acute phase of STEMI predicted myocardial viability assessed by 3 months DE-CMR. They are prognostic indicators and they can be used to guide the priority and usefulness of percutaneous coronary intervention in these patients.

Interstitial pneumonia in a glassblower: think to chronic beryllium disease!

Chronic beryllium disease (CBD) is an occupational illness with varying severity. In this report, we describe a 27 year old man, glassblower, who developed a fatal CBD after six months of unknown Beryllium's exposure. The diagnosis was suspected on histological examination and then consolidated by confirmation of Beryllium's exposure at the working area. Physicians should be aware of the potential risk to develop CBD in glassblowers. These workers should benefit from early medical surveillance using the Beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT) and therefore from suitable management.

Angiofibrolipoma of Posterior Mediastinum with Transforaminal Extension.

Angiofibrolipoma is a histological variant of lipoma, which commonly occurs in subcutaneous tissues. In the present report we illustrate the case of an angiofibrolipoma of the posterior upper mediastinum in a 75-year-old man presented with progressive chest pain. Xray chest showed a homogeneous opacity vertically oriented along the right lateral aspect of thoracic vertebrae with an obtuse angle to the mediastinum. The upper extremity of the mass extended above the superior clavicle, suggestive of a posterior mediastinal lesion. Thoracic magnetic resonance imaging revealed a posterior mediastinal mass, in keeping with a nonaggressive lesion, with particular endocanalar extension and heterogeneous signal and enhancement patterns that was highly suggestive of a mixed mesenchymal tumor. The tumor was incompletely removed by right postero-lateral thoracotomy with final diagnosis of angiofibrolipoma. To the author's knowledge, such a case of angiofibrolipoma located in the posterior mediastinum has not been previously reported in the literature.