Search results for " diagnostic"

The Delayed Enhancement technique in patients with new diagnosed left ventricular systolic dysfunction

2013

Imaging features of adrenal masses

2019

Abstract The widespread use of imaging examinations has increased the detection of incidental adrenal lesions, which are mostly benign and non-functioning adenomas. The differentiation of a benign from a malignant adrenal mass can be crucial especially in oncology patients since it would greatly affect treatment and prognosis. In this setting, imaging plays a key role in the detection and characterization of adrenal lesions, with several imaging tools which can be employed by radiologists. A thorough knowledge of the imaging features of adrenal masses is essential to better characterize these lesions, avoiding a misinterpretation of imaging findings, which frequently overlap between benign …

A Comparison of Aspergillus and Mucorales PCR Testing of Different Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid Fractions from Patients with Suspected Invasive Pulmo…

2018

ABSTRACT In patients with hematological malignancies, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) specimens are commonly used for the diagnosis of mold infections. However, it is not clear whether the cell pellet (P) or the supernatant fraction (S) of the BALF specimen is optimal for molecular diagnostic testing. Thus, 99 BALF specimens were collected from 96 hematology patients with or without allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The cell pellets and supernatants were processed alone and in combination (S/P) for testing by two fungus-specific real-time PCR assays compliant with international recommendations. The results achieved with S/P were revealed to be superior in comparison to thos…

Diagnostic problems and postnatal follow-up in congenital toxoplasmosis

2007

Aim. In order to assess the consequences of different clinica] approaches in the prenata] management of congenital toxoplasmosis, we retrospectively reviewed 58 pregnant women with Toxoplasma seroconversion and prospec­ tively enrolled their 59 infants, referred to us from 1999 to 2004. Metbods. Data on clinica!, laboratocy and de­ mographic characteristics of the pregnant women were collected. Their children were entered intoa 48-month follow-up progcamme in which clinica , instrumental, ophthalmo­ logic and serologic evaluations were carried out at birth, at 1, 3, 6, 9, 15, 18, 24, 36 and at 48 months of life. Paediatric treatment with Spiramycin alone or alternated with Pyrime­ thamine-S…

Transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology at first episode psychosis: findings from the multinational EU-GEI study.

2019

Background\ud The value of the nosological distinction between non-affective and affective psychosis has frequently been challenged. We aimed to investigate the transdiagnostic dimensional structure and associated characteristics of psychopathology at First Episode Psychosis (FEP). Regardless of diagnostic categories, we expected that positive symptoms occurred more frequently in ethnic minority groups and in more densely populated environments, and that negative symptoms were associated with indices of neurodevelopmental impairment.\ud \ud Method\ud This study included 2182 FEP individuals recruited across six countries, as part of the EUropean network of national schizophrenia networks st…

Diagnostic performance of 2D-shear wave elastography in the diagnosis of breast cancer: a clinical appraisal of cutoff values

2022

Purpose To assess the role of 2D-shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) in differentiating benign from malignant focal breast lesions (FBLs), providing new vendor-specific cutoff values. Methods 158 FBLs (size: 3.5-50 mm) detected in 151 women (age: 21-87 years) were prospectively evaluated by means 2D-SWE. For each lesion, an expert radiologist assessed US BI-RADS category and calculated the following four 2D-SWE parameters: (1) elasticity maximum (E-max); (2) mean elasticity (E-mean); (3) minimum elasticity (E-min); (4) elasticity ratio (E-ratio). US-guided core-biopsy was considered as standard of reference for all the FBLs classified as BI-RADS 4 or 5. For each 2D-SWE parameter, the optimal c…

Diagnostic accuracy and potential clinical value of the LightCycler SeptiFast assay in the management of bloodstream infections occurring in neutrope…

2011

Summary Objectives The objectives of this study were to compare the performance of the LightCycler SeptiFast Test MGRADE and conventional blood culture in the etiological diagnosis of febrile episodes occurring in neutropenic and critically ill patients (in the intensive care unit; ICU), and to assess the potential clinical value of the SeptiFast test in patient management. Methods A total of 86 febrile episodes occurring in 33 neutropenic patients and 53 ICU patients were analyzed. Blood samples for blood culture and SeptiFast testing were obtained at the onset of fever, before the implementation of empirical antimicrobial therapy. Results The overall microorganism-to-isolate agreement bet…

Relationship between anxiety level and radiological investigation. Comparison among different diagnostic imaging exams in a prospective single-center…

2016

Objective: Every patient could feel anxious when he waits in a radiological department to undergo diagnostic exams. The aim of our study is to evaluate the impact of the radiological exams on patient anxiety. Materials and methods: We evaluated 343 patients (mean age 54.83 years) who underwent different types of diagnostic exams in the Department of Diagnostic Imaging at our Hospital from April 2013 to August 2014. We administered to patients the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory Test, which detected with high sensitivity both state anxiety and trait anxiety. A team of clinical psychologists and radiologists evaluated the scores obtained. Results: 83 out of 343 patients were excluded becaus…

Focal nodular hyperplasia: a weight-based, intraindividual comparison of gadobenate dimeglumine and gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI

2019

PURPOSE: We aimed to qualitatively and quantitatively compare the enhancement pattern of focal nodular hyperplasia after gadobenate dimeglumine and gadoxetate disodium injection in the same patient. METHODS: 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations of 16 patients with 21 focal nodular hyperplasias studied after the injection of both contrast media were evaluated. Both MRI studies were performed in all patients. A qualitative analysis was performed evaluating each lesion in all phases. For quantitative analysis we calculated signal intensity ratio, lesion-to-liver contrast ratio and liver parenchyma signal intensity gain on hepatobiliary phase. Statistical analysis was performed w…

Value of texture analysis on gadoxetic acid–enhanced MRI for differentiating hepatocellular adenoma from focal nodular hyperplasia

2019

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to assess the diagnostic performance of texture analysis (TA) on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MR images for differentiation of hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) from focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH).MATERIALS AND METHODS. This study included 40 patients (39 women and one man) with 51 HCAs and 28 patients (27 women and one man) with 32 FNH lesions. All lesions were histologically proven with preoperative MRI performed with gadoxetic acid. Two readers reviewed all the imaging sequences to assess the qualitative MRI characteristics. The T2-weighted fast spin-echo, hepatic arterial phase (HAP), and hepatobiliary phase (HBP) sequences were used for TA. Textural fea…