Hazard function estimation is an important part of survival analysis. Interest often centers on estimating the hazard function associated with a particular cause of death. We propose three nonparametric kernel estimators for the hazard function, all of which are appropriate when death times are subject to random censorship and censoring ...

ABSTRACTBackground: The purpose of the study was to translate the Interview for Deterioration in Daily Living Activities in Dementia (IDDD) into German and to evaluate the construct and concurrent validity in people with mild to moderate dementia.Methods: IDDD data of two pooled samples (n = 301) were analyzed regarding ceiling ...

The optimisation of drug absorption through skin is of great value in modern therapy. Phonophoresis is the use of therapeutic ultrasound to increase percutaneous drug absorption. However, few studies have compared pulsed and continuous modes of therapeutic ultrasound. This study compared these two modes by investigating the effect of lidocaine ...

Infection with CagA-positive Helicobacter pylori is the strongest risk factor for gastric carcinoma. Upon delivery into gastric epithelial cells, CagA disturbs cellular functions by physically interacting with and deregulating intracellular signaling molecules via both tyrosine phosphorylation-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Runx3 was suggested to be a tumor suppressor and closely associated ...

Cover: Morphological organization of NMVMs adherent onto HYALONECT®meshes. See article in this issue by Gallina et al., pages 800-807.

New spiroaminoborate esters derived from 1,1-diphenylprolinol, ephedrine and dihydroquinine with different alkoxy substituents were prepared as stable crystalline compounds and characterized by spectroscopical analysis and specific rotation. The structure of the spiroborate 4 derived from 1,1-diphenylprolinol and dicyclohexyl-1,1'-diol was confirmed by X-ray analysis.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the very large effects of saccadic latency distribution, generated by deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nuclei are reflected in quantitatively corresponding changes for manual responses, rather than representing a reflection of the specific role of the subthalamus in controlling saccades. ...

To review the appropriate preparation of bevacizumab for intravitreal injection by compounding pharmacies with specific recommendations designed to prevent microbial contamination. Perspective. A review and discussion of compounding issues with supporting literature, clinical experience, illustrations, and expert opinion. Closer examination of the events surrounding the recent clusters of infectious endophthalmitis ...

To report a series of patients with Streptococcus endophthalmitis after injection with intravitreal bevacizumab prepared by the same compounding pharmacy. Noncomparative consecutive case series. Medical records and microbiology results of patients who presented with endophthalmitis after injection with intravitreal bevacizumab between July 5 and July 8, 2011, were reviewed. Twelve ...

To report incidence rates of legal blindness from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other causes in Denmark from years 2000 to 2010 in the age group at risk of AMD aged 50 years and older. Population-based observational registry study. settings: Membership register of the Danish Association of the Blind, the ...

To evaluate time trends in the incidence and causes of new cases of blindness in Israel between 1999 and 2008. Descriptive, retrospective population-based study. During the decade of the study, 19 862 inhabitants of Israel were newly registered as legally blind. Data were retrieved from the 1999 to 2008 annual ...

Autophagy is a highly conserved bulk protein degradation pathway involved in cellular homeostasis. Although emerging evidence indicates involvement of autophagy in various conditions, efforts to clarify the role of autophagy in renal tubules are beginning to be elucidated. In the present study, we examined the hypothesis that autophagy guards against ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease appears to occur slowly and progressively over many years, with both genetic factors and environmental modifiers contributing to its pathogenesis. Although the c-Jun/activator protein 1 transcriptional factor regulates cell proliferation, apoptosis, and inflammatory responses, its role in lung pathogenesis is largely unknown. In this study, we ...

Nearly 3 million patients present to US emergency departments (EDs) annually with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain. Little is known about short- and longer-term outcomes in this group. We seek to describe the pain and functional outcomes 1 week and 3 months after discharge in a sample of ED patients ...

OBJECTIVE: Women at high risk for breast cancer and women with newly diagnosed breast cancer often undergo breast MRI. With the increasing availability of MRI-guided biopsy, high-risk lesions are not infrequently encountered. These high-risk lesions include atypical ductal hyperplasia, lobular carcinoma in situ, atypical lobular hyperplasia, papilloma, radial scar, and ...

OBJECTIVE: This article focuses on four high-risk lesions: lobular neoplasia, benign papilloma, radial scar, and flat epithelial atypia. Controversies exist in the management after core biopsy of each of these lesions-whether to perform immediate surgical excision so as not to miss an associated malignancy or imaging follow-up because concomitant malignancy ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to describe the different imaging appearances of benign and malignant papillary lesions of the breast as well as to point out potential errors of interpretation that can lead to misdiagnosis. CONCLUSION: There is a wide spectrum of appearances of papillary lesions of the ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether breast MRI can be used to rule out malignancy in patients with high-risk lesions diagnosed at imaging-guided core needle biopsy. The subjects were women consecutively registered between October 2004 and April 2010 who had high-risk lesions diagnosed at mammographically or sonographically ...

The objective of our study was to show the importance of surgical excision after the diagnosis of lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) based on needle core biopsy. Retrospective evaluation of all cases of LCIS diagnosed at needle core biopsy from 2000 to 2011 was performed; 60 patients with 64 diagnoses ...

The aims of our study were to determine the frequency of malignancy after surgical excision of biopsy-proven lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) or atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH) lesions, to assess any difference between pure LCIS and pure ALH lesions regarding their radiologic presentation and the malignancy upgrade rate after surgical ...

The purpose of this article is to correlate 9-gauge MRI-guided vacuum-assisted breast biopsy with surgical histologic findings to determine the upgrade rate and to correlate the frequency of MRI-guided vacuum-assisted breast biopsy cancer diagnosis with breast MRI indications and enhancement characteristics of targeted lesions. A database search was performed of ...

OBJECTIVE: Müllerian duct anomalies can adversely affect pregnancy outcomes and can result in clinical symptoms. This article will review the appropriate management of patients with müllerian duct abnormalities. CONCLUSION: Whereas uterine and vaginal septa, vaginal agenesis, and unicornuate uterus can be managed surgically, other uterine anomalies tend to be managed ...

OBJECTIVE: In this article, we review the clinical significance of abnormal placentation and the role of MRI in diagnosis and management of this potentially morbid condition. We present our clinical perspective on diagnosing this challenging problem with MRI and review the imaging findings that can lead to a correct diagnosis. ...

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this article are to discuss the conventional imaging algorithms after breast-conserving surgery and radiation therapy and to review the expected chronologic imaging appearances of the conservatively treated breast. CONCLUSION: Imaging the treated breast presents challenges because of its limited compressibility and the overlapping features of benign ...

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this article are to highlight the imaging findings of tumor recurrence and other long-term potential sequelae after breast-conserving surgery and radiation therapy, including increased risk of infection and radiation-induced malignancies. The role of MRI as a problem-solving tool in evaluating the conservatively treated breast will also ...

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the utility of a tool in quantifying the peak antegrade velocity when assessing patients with cardiac valvular pathology. Directionally independent peak velocity evaluation (MaxVelocity, Siemens Healthcare) phase-contrast cardiac MRI was performed for 44 patients referred to our institution with a diagnosis or ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to address the implications of invasive diagnostic procedures recommended by a lung cancer screening protocol. In particular, we assess how many invasive procedures were recommended for benign nodules. MATERIALS AND METhODS: Between 2003 and 2009, 4782 high-risk current and former smokers were enrolled ...

The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of CT-derived tumor volume, with control for other prognostic factors, for stratifying survival after surgery-based multimodality treatment of a large cohort of patients with epithelial malignant pleural mesothelioma. We retrospectively reviewed 338 patients with mesothelioma who underwent extrapleural pneumonectomy between ...

OBJECTIVE: Cardiovascular complications in patients with HIV infection include myocardial, endocardial, pericardial, and vascular diseases. The complications are caused by the HIV infection itself, opportunistic infections, HIV-related tumors, and the side effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy. The article reviews the CT and MRI findings suggestive of HIV-related cardiovascular diseases. ...

The purposes of this study were to describe the spectrum of cross-sectional imaging findings of pathologically proven hepatoportal sclerosis and to compare the features of advanced and nonadvanced hepatoportal sclerosis. Eighteen patients with a histopathologic diagnosis of hepatoportal sclerosis who had concurrent MRI or CT images participated in the study. ...

The objective of our study was to retrospectively determine whether minimal fat renal angiomyolipoma can be differentiated from clear cell or papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in small renal masses using attenuation measurement histogram analysis on unenhanced CT. Twenty minimal fat renal angiomyolipomas were compared with 22 clear cell RCCs ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate with immunohistochemical validation whether dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI with small-molecule contrast medium is useful for monitoring the effects of the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib on prostate carcinomas in rats. Copenhagen rats (n = 20) into which prostate carcinoma (MAT-Ly-Lu-B2) had been implanted subcutaneously were ...

The purpose of our study was to compare the effects of IV iohexol and iopamidol on renal function in outpatients undergoing CT. We performed a prospective, double-blind, randomized clinical trial of 389 adults with low risk for contrast-induced nephropathy, comparing IV iohexol with iopamidol (300 mg I/mL). Serum creatinine (SCr) ...

OBJECTIVE: Patients presume safety in radiologic services, but the potential to do harm exists in every area of imaging. Radiology department personnel need to understand basic regulatory requirements for safety and how to promote and improve safety in the future. CONCLUSION: This article reviews key safety metrics that we think ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined potential of 80-kV CT and noise reduction using a projection space denoising algorithm to reduce radiation dose reduction or to improve the image quality of hepatic CT. MATERIALS AND METhODS: Twenty patients with 56 liver lesions underwent dual-energy (80 and ...

The purpose of our study was to accurately estimate the radiation dose to skin and the eye lens from clinical CT brain perfusion studies, investigate how well scanner output (expressed as volume CT dose index [CTDI(vol)]) matches these estimated doses, and investigate the efficacy of eye lens dose reduction techniques. ...

The purpose of our study was to determine if six MRI findings of the proximal hamstrings differ in frequency in hamstrings with and without symptoms of tendinopathy. We reviewed the MRI examinations of 118 consecutive patients who had undergone pelvis MRI and evaluation by a musculoskeletal clinical specialist. The proximal ...

The purpose of this study, with wrist arthroscopy as the reference standard, was to assess the usefulness of MRI in the detection of tears of the radioscaphocapitate and long radiolunate extrinsic carpal ligaments. The cases of 26 patients consecutively registered from 2003 to 2009 who underwent wrist arthroscopy and wrist ...

The purpose of this study was to show the usefulness of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and to determine the optimal time window in MRI for differentiating between septic arthritis and transient synovitis in painful hip joints. Eighteen patients who underwent DCE-MRI were enrolled, and the final diagnoses were septic arthritis ...

The purpose of this study was to assess the manual compressibility of thyroid masses with an ultrasound probe and to determine whether this ultrasound feature can be used to differentiate benign from malignant thyroid lesions. We prospectively compared images obtained during compression with an ultrasound probe and noncompressed ultrasound images ...

Limited information is available about the development of focal cortical gyration anomalies in the human brain. Using prenatal MRI, we characterized focal cortical gyration anomalies at an early formative stage and sought clues about the mechanisms of their development. From a large prenatal MRI database, 30 cases (gestational age, ≤ ...

Although the demand for pediatric MRI is increasing, it is uncommon to find sedation being offered at community hospital-based outpatient centers. We present our safety, efficacy, and outcome data at a community hospital-based outpatient imaging center. IV dexmedetomidine sedation was administered as a bolus of 3 μg/kg and maintained with ...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of airway complications and survival with special reference to radiation therapy in the care of patients undergoing covered stent placement for malignant esophageal strictures. A total of 208 patients who underwent stent placement with or without palliative radiation therapy for ...

The objective of our study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a venotomy and manual propulsion technique that is performed to treat failed native arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) with chronic organized thrombi. For this study, we retrospectively reviewed a total of 69 venotomy and manual propulsion procedures performed from ...

The purpose of this study is to determine whether complications associated with combining biopsy and percutaneous fiducial seed placement in the abdomen and pelvis exceeds that of either procedure alone or prohibits completion of the combined procedure. A retrospective review was performed of 188 consecutive patients who underwent CT- or ...

Abstract Background and purpose. According to studies of patients with cancer, support groups can help in three areas: 1) improve mood; 2) introduce new, adaptive ways of handling potentially difficult situations; and 3) impart strategies for managing stress. Nevertheless, the decrease in the quality of life of cancer patients or ...

The objective of our study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) using internally cooled wet electrodes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). From March 2008 to October 2010, 122 patients with 129 HCCs (mean size, 2.2 ± 0.6 [SD] cm; range, 0.7-4 cm) were ...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of transhepatic drainage of inaccessible postoperative intraabdominal abscesses under sonographic and fluoroscopic guidance. Between February 2005 and September 2010, 30 abscesses were treated in 30 patients. Procedures were performed with sonographic and fluoroscopic guidance under IV sedation and ...

OBJECTIVE: Patients with vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are predisposed to premature vascular complications. The objective of this article is to review the CT findings and current thoughts about the management of vascular pathologic abnormalities and diseases in patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. CONCLUSION: The manifestation of vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome frequently involves multiple ...

OBJECTIVE: The CT and MRI features of ovarian torsion are illustrated with gross pathologic correlation. Ovarian enlargement with or without an underlying mass is the finding most frequently associated with torsion, but it is nonspecific. A twisted pedicle, although not often detected on imaging, is pathognomonic when seen. Subacute ovarian ...