[The 'dizziness handicap inventory': initial psychometric evaluation of the German version]. / Das "Dizziness Handicap Inventory": Erste psychometrische Kennwerte einer Deutschen Version.

BACKGROUND: Dizziness has a clear impact on quality of life of patients. Standardized instruments such as the "Dizziness Handicap Inventory" (DHI) help clinicians assess this impact systematically. The purpose of this study was to analyse the psychometric quality of a German version of the DHI. METHODS: One hundred and five patients with dizziness as their primary complaint have completed the DHI and undergone vestibular examination. The structure of the DHI was determined with a factor analysis, a principal component analysis with a Varimax rotation. To evaluate the reliability, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was estimated. RESULTS: A three-factor solution was extracted. The factors obtained from the German version of the DHI related to (1) activity and participation limitations (2) emotional problems and (3) motion sensitivity in everyday life of patients. Overall, there was a close correspondence of the factors of the German and the original version. The correlation analysis indicated a close relationship between the DHI-scores and the frequency of dizziness attacks. CONCLUSION: The German version of the DHI exhibited a multidimensional structure and good psychometric quality to assess the impact of dizziness in every day life.

Staging of gynecologic malignancies.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is gaining momentum for staging gynecologic malignancies. MRI staging is an adjunct to clinical and surgical staging in women with cervical or endometrial cancer, respectively. For women with possible adnexal pathology, MRI is useful for lesion characterization. In patients with ovarian cancer, MRI determination of disease extent helps treatment planning, either as a surgical roadmap or to identify nonresectable patients.

Nondiffuse fatty change of the liver: discerning pseudotumor on MR images enhanced with ferumoxides-initial observations.

PURPOSE: To clarify the findings of nondiffuse fatty change of the liver on ferumoxides-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of 202 patients who underwent ferumoxides-enhanced MR imaging, eight who had nondiffuse fatty change of the liver at computed tomography (CT) were examined as study subjects. MR imaging findings before and 1 hour after ferumoxides administration were compared with CT findings. RESULTS: Focal fatty areas of the liver showing low attenuation on CT images were depicted as areas of relatively high intensity on the ferumoxides-enhanced T1-weighted images in all patients. On enhanced T2-weighted images, focal fatty change showed relatively high intensity in three and isointensity in one of the four patients. Focal spared areas appearing as areas of relatively high attenuation on CT images were depicted as areas of relatively low intensity on the ferumoxides-enhanced T1- and T2-weighted images in all patients. CONCLUSION: Although prior reports of hepatic MR imaging with ferumoxides indicated that there is accumulation of ferumoxides within focal fatty areas that are no longer seen after the administration of contrast medium, this study revealed that focal fatty change and focal spared areas of fatty liver may be pseudotumors because of the relatively high intensity of fatty areas of the liver. Radiologists can distinguish these conditions from hepatic tumors by using the opposed-phase gradient-echo sequence or the fat-saturation technique.

Borderline Brenner tumor of the ovary: MRI findings.

Ovarian Brenner tumor is an uncommon epithelial tumor that accounts for 1.5% to 2.5% of all ovarian neoplasms. These tumors are usually benign. Whereas the magnetic resonance imaging features of benign Brenner tumors have been described, reports of malignant findings are limited. We report a case of borderline malignant Brenner tumor that imaged as a cystic lesion with papillary projections and solid elements.