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The aim of our study was to evaluate the accuracy of MDCT in the study of gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST), and to compare CT results with histological findings.MDCT exams of 18 patients with 19 lesions, with histological proven GISTs diagnosis, were retrospectively evaluated in order to assess the localization, the size, the contours, as well as the CT pattern and enhancement of the lesions. All the tumors were recorded with Fletcher and Miettinen classification, which evaluate the risk assessment in the gastrointestinal stromal tumours. CT findings were correlated with histological results after surgery.MDCT properly identified the localization and the size in all cases. CT features essentially agreed with histological features.The immunopositivity to c-KIT (CD117) is the key to making a diagnosis of GIST. CT is the modality of choice to study these neoplasms, evaluating the tumour's site and size with high accuracy. In our experience MDCT proved to be a valid diagnostic tool, highly correlated with histological features.

The diagnosis of abdominal neoplasm in children is often delayed because the presenting symptoms tend to be nonspecific and common with the benign conditions. The most frequent clinical presentation of paediatric abdominal neoplasm is a palpable mass, frequently in an emergency department as the first access. The history and physical examination, together with the age of the patient and the help of specific laboratory tests and imaging evaluations, can lead to the diagnosis. Abdominal mass is most often found in children less than 5 years of age, generally with a retroperitoneal location. The most common malignant abdominal tumour in infants is neuroblastoma followed by Wilms tumour. Other abdominal tumours in this age range include hepatoblastoma, germ cell tumours and soft tissue sarcomas. After 10 years of age, this tumour became less frequent, but sarcomas, germ cell tumours and abdominal lymphomas increase in incidence. The most frequent neonatal abdominal masses (younger than 1 year of age) are the congenital mesoblastic nephroma, the haemangioendothelioma and the sacrococcygeal teratoma.

We show a new approach for detecting hotspots in spatial analysis based on the Extended Gustafson-Kessel clustering method encapsulated in a Geographic In-formation System tool. This algorithm gives (in the bidimensional case) ellipses as cluster prototypes to be considered hotspots on the geographic map and we study their spatio-temporal evolution. The data consist of geo-referenced patterns corresponding to positions of Taliban’s attacks against civilians and soldiers in Afghanistan happened during the period 2004÷2010.