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Background: Umbilical Venous Catheter (UVC) are commonly used in neonatal period; they can be not correctly positioned and could be associated with complications. The purpose of this article is to suggest a flow-chart to evaluate the placement of UVC, testing it in young radiologists-in-training. Method: We developed a simple flow-chart to asses, steps by step, UVC placement considering its course and tip location (ideally placed in the atriocaval junction). We tested the flow-chart impact asking to 20 residents to evaluate the placement of 10 UVC before and after they familiarized with the flow-chart and the anatomical findings of a newborn. The agreement among the 20 students was evaluated too. Results: The number of correct characterizations was different due to the administration of the flow-chart. One hundred and six correct UVC assessments at the beginning switched to 196 after the administration of the flow-chart (p=0.0001). The observed agreement among the twenty radiology residents was statistically significant, both before (kappa=0.41, p&nbsp

Objective: To investigate diagnostic performance of 3D contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) compared with 2D CEUS in the assessment of therapeutic response of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with locoregional therapies (LRT). Materials and methods: Twenty-three consecutive patients (13 men and 10 women; mean age 65.5years) with 23 HCCs (size range 1.2–7.2cm; mean size 2.9±1.4cm) treated by means of radiofrequency ablation (RFA n=9), transarterial chemoembolization (TACE n=8), combined RFA and TACE (n=3), percutaneous alcoholization (n=2), and wedge resection (n=1) underwent 2D and 3D CEUS 1month (30±2days) after treatment. Magnetic resonance (n=17) and computed tomography (n=6) acted as standard of reference (SOR). Two radiologists assessed the absence (complete response CR) or presence (residual tumor RT) of any nodular arterially enhancing area within or along the margin of the treated HCC. Results: Both 2D and 3D CEUS observed CR in 10/23 (43.5%) HCCs and RT in 11/23 (47.8%) HCCs. In 1/23 (4.3%) HCC, RT was documented by SOR and 2D CEUS, but it was not appreciable at 3D CEUS. In 1/23 (4.3%) HCC, the presence of peripheral residual tumor was suspected by both 2D and 3D CEUS, but it was not confirmed by SOR. No statistically significant difference between 2D and 3D CEUS in depicting either CR or RT was found (p>0.05). Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy of 3D CEUS were 91.7% [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.760–1.073], 90.9% (95% CI 0.739–1.079), 91.7, 90.9, and 91.3%, respectively. Conclusion: 2D and 3D CEUS provided similar diagnostic performance in the assessment of therapeutic response of HCC treated with LRT.

Purpose. The authors sought to assess the incidence of new foci of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in patients treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Materials and methods. Two readers retrospectively reviewed by consensus the follow-up MDCT studies of 125 patients (88 men and 37 women; mean age 68 years) with 141 HCCs (size 1–5.2 cm; mean 2.2 cm) treated with RFA. MDCT follow-up was performed at 1 and 3 months and every 6–12 months thereafter. Reviewers assessed: (1) the presence of new HCC foci in the same liver segment or in a different segment; (2) complete or incomplete tumor ablation; (3) tumour progression. Results. A total of 113 new HCCs (size 0.7–4.8 cm; mean 1.7 cm) were detected in 69/125 (55.2%) patients (mean follow-up 30.38±19.14 months). Of these, 86 (76.1%) new HCCs were multiple (p