Current Issue : July-September Volume : 2025 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
In recent years, the combination of endobronchial ultrasound and endoscopic ultrasound has enabled “medical exploration” of the mediastinum for the study of mediastinal lymphadenopathies. These techniques are particularly important for the diagnosis and staging of lung cancers. Progress has been made with the availability of new-generation cutting needles for endoscopic ultrasound and new cryobiopsy needles for endobronchial ultrasound to improve the quality of samples....
Objectives: Explore the effect of the introduction of a hybrid CT angio suite on the in-hospital workflow time of patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods: This was a retrospective observational case-control study. All consecutive patients admitted to our emergency department with suspected ischemic stroke who underwent stroke imaging and mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in the new hybrid CT angio suite from October 2023 to March 2024 were included in the study. The primary outcome was the evaluation of inhospital workflow times by the assessment of both the time from hospital admission to the beginning of the endovascular treatment (door-to-groin time, DTG) and the time from the interpretation of imaging to arterial puncture (CT-to-groin time, CTTG). The secondary aim was the evaluation of the clinical outcome through the evaluation of the mRS at 3 months. These data were compared to the control group. Results: Between October 2023 and March 2024, 50 consecutive patients with suspected ischemic stroke underwent neuroimaging and MT in the hybrid CT angio suite. We observed a significant reduction of the median DTG time from 71 min to 36 min (p < 0.001) and the median CT-to-groin time from 44 min to 12 min (p < 0.001) compared to the control group. Conclusions: The introduction of the hybrid CT angio suite dedicated to acute ischemic stroke has definitely reduced in-hospital delays, allowing better management of these patients....
Pneumonia is a deadly disease affecting millions worldwide, caused by microorganisms and environmental factors. It leads to lung fluid build-up, making breathing difficult, and is a leading cause of death. Early detection and treatment are crucial for preventing severe outcomes. Chest X-rays are commonly used for diagnoses due to their accessibility and low costs; however, detecting pneumonia through X-rays is challenging. Automated methods are needed, and machine learning can solve complex computer vision problems in medical imaging. This research develops a robust machine learning model for the early detection of pneumonia using chest X-rays, leveraging advanced image processing techniques and deep learning algorithms that accurately identify pneumonia patterns, enabling prompt diagnosis and treatment. The research develops a CNN model from the ground up and a ResNet-50 pretrained model This study uses the RSNA pneumonia detection challenge original dataset comprising 26,684 chest array images collected from unique patients (56% male, 44% females) to build a machine learning model for the early detection of pneumonia. The data are made up of pneumonia (31.6%) and non-pneumonia (68.8%), providing an effective foundation for the model training and evaluation. A reduced size of the dataset was used to examine the impact of data size and both versions were tested with and without the use of augmentation. The models were compared with existing works, the model’s effectiveness in detecting pneumonia was compared with one another, and the impact of augmentation and the dataset size on the performance of the models was examined. The overall best accuracy achieved was that of the CNN model from scratch, with no augmentation, an accuracy of 0.79, a precision of 0.76, a recall of 0.73, and an F1 score of 0.74. However, the pretrained model, with lower overall accuracy, was found to be more generalizable....
Background: To study whether infective endocarditis patients (IE-patients) with visceral embolic events (VEEs) at admission are at greater risk of developing visceral infectious aneurysms (VIAs) in left-sided infective endocarditis (LSIE) patients. Methods: We compared the data of prospectively collected 474 consecutive LSIE-patients (2005– 2020) with and without VIAs. A whole-body-CTA was part of the initial work-up for all patients. Results: A total of 24 patients (5.1%) with VIA were included, of whom 19 (79.2%) had at least one VEE, compared to a proportion of 34% (p < 0.001) in IE-patients without VIAs. Both groups also differed in terms of vegetation size (>15 mm: 48% vs. 18%, p < 0.001), microorganisms, Streptococcus spp. (68.5% vs. 42%, p= 0.003), rare microorganisms (36% vs. 8.3%, p < 0.001) and concomitant extra-visceral infectious aneurysms (42% vs. 12.8%, p < 0.001). Cardiac surgery was performed in 21 patients (87.5%) and in-hospital mortality occurred in 2 (8%). Conclusions: This study shows a different profile of VIA– LSIE patients compared to LSIE-patients without. Streptococcus species were the most frequent causal agents. Our study indicates that the presence of VEEs in LSIE-patients could suggest an increased risk of VIA. This study also shows the need for further abdominal- CTA in all cases of left sided IE to detect asymptomatic visceral aneurysms....
Background and Objectives: The utilization of non-metallic pedicle screws and rods has become a favored approach in the management of spinal tumors. An abundance of metal artifacts improves postoperative imaging and allows for precise radiation treatment planning. Under certain conditions, a vertebral body replacement (VBR) is necessary in addition to dorsal fixation. For a long time, VBR hardware was available as titanium implants only. Recently, other non-titanium products were introduced into the market. This study compares radiotherapy planning after VBR with titanium and non-titanium materials. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study in a single academic center setting. VBR was performed for thoracic spinal metastatic disease. Radiation plan quality was evaluated according to the criteria of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements, based on postoperative CT imaging. Results: Six patients with dorsal fixation and VBR were included, half of which were treated with titanium VBR and the other half with a minimum metallic implant. In addition, patients received different dorsal fixation hardware. No difference was found in terms of radiation plan quality. With non-titanium materials, visual demarcation during radiation planning was superior. Conclusions: This is the first study in the field to comprehensively compare radiation treatment planning after VBR using different materials. With minimum metallic implants, radiotherapy planning is equal in terms of planning but superior in terms of visual demarcation in comparison to standard titanium VBR, potentially enabling more precise radiotherapy approaches....
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