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Purpose: To examine if RARE urography may replace conventional intravenous urography in patients with suspected urinary obstruction in pelvic tumours., Materials and Methods: In a prospective trial on 120 patients with pelvic tumours scheduled for operation, biplanar RARE urography was performed and compared to conventional intravenous urography and ultrasound findings., Results: In 30 out of 120 patients an ureteric obstruction was diagnosed by ultrasound. Sensitivity of RARE urography for obstruction was 98% as compared to 60% in conventional intravenous urography. In 12 patients additional retrograde cystoureterography showed a sensitivity of 83%. Specificity of RARE urography and intravenous urography was 100%. In combination with axial MR tomography RARE urography yielded a more precise localisation of the site of obstruction and the underlying cause (98%) as compared to conventional urography (60%) and ultrasound (56%)., Conclusion: By use of RARE urography urinary obstruction can be reliably demonstrated or ruled out. Combining RARE urography with tomographic MR imaging allows the precise depiction of the site of the obstruction and may demonstrate the underlying pathology.

Purpose: In an experimental study, the correlation between the trabecular bone density of the different regions of the proximal femur and the fracture load in the setting of femoral neck fractures was examined., Methods: The bone mineral density of 41 random proximal human femora was estimated by single-energy quantitative CT (SE-QCT). The trabecular bone density was measured at the greatest possible extracortical volume at midcapital, midneck and intertrochanteric level and in the 1 cm3 volumes of the centres of these regions in a standardised 10 mm thick slice in the middle of the femoral neck axis (in mg/ml Ca-hydroxyl apatite). The proximal femora were then isolated and mounted on a compression/bending device under two-legged stand conditions and loaded up to the point when a femoral neck fracture occurred., Results: Statistical analysis revealed a linear correlation between the trabecular bone density and the fracture load for the greater regions, with the highest value in the maximal area of the head (coefficient factor r = 0.76)., Conclusion: According to our data, the measurement of the trabecular bone by SE-QCT at the femoral head is a more confident adjunct than the neck or trochanteric area to predict a femoral neck fracture.

Purpose: In a retrospective study the diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography for the differentiation of benign from malignant adrenal masses in patients with extra-adrenal malignancies was evaluated. For this differentiation a new score system was tested., Patients and Methods: Size, density, structure, and borders of adrenal masses in 60 patients with extra-adrenal tumours were analysed and scored. The single criteria and the total score values were correlated with the final diagnosis achieved either by histology or by follow-up CT examinations., Results: Score values above 4 indicated always metastases and score values below 2 were benign lesions. An overlap occurred at score values between 2 and 3 resulting in an overall accuracy of 83.3%., Conclusion: Single CT criteria are not reliable enough to differentiate benign from malignant adrenal lesions: better results are achieved by using our scoring system.