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Background: Fat quantification methods in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been studied to differentiate bone marrow pathologies in adult patients; however, scarce literature is available in pediatric patients., Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of the T1 signal intensity value (T1-SIV), out-of-phase/in-phase signal ratio (OP/IP SR), and fat fraction (FF) to differentiate between normal, benign, and malignant pathological processes., Material and Methods: A total of 48 pediatric patients with lumbar and pelvic MRI were classified into three groups according to bone marrow pathology (group 1, normal; group 2, benign pathology/reconversion; group 3, malignant). The efficacy of T1-SIV, OP/IP SR, and FF values in differentiating these pathologies was evaluated using Kruskal-Wallis or analysis of variance and followed by Bonferroni or Dunn-Bonferroni tests. Cutoff values for malignant infiltration were defined using ROC analysis., Results: Although these values were significantly different in all three groups ( P  = 0.001-0.008), this difference was not sufficient to discriminate between all groups. Subgroup analyses showed significant differences in T1-SIV between groups 1-3, in OP/IP SR between groups 1-3, 2-3, and 1-2, in FF between groups 1-2 and 1-3 in various regions ( P  = 0.001-0.049). Cutoff values had a sensitivity and specificity of 90%-100% for OP/IP SR and FF., Conclusion: T1-SIV, OP/IP SR, and FF may potentially distinguish normal from pathological bone marrow. OP/IP SR and FF values detected malignant infiltration with high sensitivity and specificity in this study. However, only OP/IP SR may significantly differentiate benign and malignant bone marrow pathologies which needs to be confirmed in the future study with a larger patient population., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: The pulmonary artery area (PAA) is a valuable non-invasive method for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension., Purpose: To compare the change in PAA in patients with COVID-19 with the computed tomography (CT) severity index using follow-up imaging., Material and Methods: A total of 81 patients who were followed up and underwent CT assessment more than once at our hospital's pandemic department were evaluated retrospectively. Patients with progression were separated into three groups: progression ranging from mild-to-mild infiltration (Group A, CT severity index of 0-2); progression from mild to severe infiltration (Group B, CT severity index of 0-2 to 3-5); and progression from severe-to-severe infiltration (Group C, CT severity index of 3-5). The PAAs were calculated separately., Results: The mean age was 56 ± 12 years. In terms of those patients showing progression in the CT images, the number of patients in Groups A, B, and C was 29, 40, and 12 in the right lung; 32, 45, and 4 in the left lung; 23, 45, and 13 on both lungs, respectively. There was no significant difference between the main, right, and left PAAs in Group A ( P  > 0.05). In Group B, there were significant increases in the areas of the main, right, and left PAAs ( P  < 0.05). There were also significant increases in the areas of the right and main pulmonary arteries in Group C ( P  < 0.05)., Conclusion: PAAs increase as disease involvement advances in cases with COVID-19 pneumonia, which is thought to be correlated with progression.

Background: Cancellations of surgeries for elective cases and late admissions of symptomatic cases during the pandemic period might have increased the number of cases of acute cholecystitis and its complications., Purpose: To compare the severity of acute cholecystitis and complication rates during the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods., Material and Methods: We evaluated the computed tomography (CT) findings observed for the diagnosis of complications for both acute simple and acute complicated cholecystitis during both the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods. Patients admitted to the hospital between March 2020 and December 2020 made up the study group and the corresponding appropriate patients from one year earlier were studied as the control group. In addition to the CT findings, clinical and laboratory findings, co-morbidities such as diabetes, as well as the admission time to hospital from the onset of the initial symptoms to hospital admission were also evaluated., Results: A total of 88 patients were evaluated (54 in the study group, 34 in the control group; mean age = 64.3 ± 16.3 years). The male-to-female ratio was 51/37. The number of patients diagnosed with complicated cholecystitis were significantly higher in the study group ( P = 0.03). Murphy finding and diabetes status were similar between the two groups ( P  = 0.086 and P  = 0.308, respectively). Admission time to the hospital was significantly different for study and control groups in simple cholecystitis patients ( P = 0.045); with no significant difference in cases of complicated cholecystitis ( P = 0.499)., Conclusion: Our study reveals the course of acute cholecystitis during the pandemic period was much more serious with higher complications.