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Currently, medical imaging has largely supplanted traditional methods in the realm of diagnosis and treatment planning. This shift is primarily attributable to the non-invasive nature, rapidity, and user-friendliness of medical-imaging techniques. The widespread adoption of medical imaging, however, has shifted the bottleneck to healthcare professionals who must analyze each case post-image acquisition. This process is characterized by its sluggishness and subjectivity, making it susceptible to errors. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), a frequently injured knee ligament, predominantly affects a youthful and sports-active demographic. ACL injuries often leave patients with substantial disabilities and alter knee mechanics. Since some of these cases necessitate surgery, it is crucial to accurately classify and detect ACL injury. This paper investigates the utilization of pre-trained convolutional neural networks featuring residual connections (ResNet) along with image-processing methods to identify ACL injury and differentiate between various tear levels. The ResNet employed in this study is not the standard ResNet but rather an adapted version capable of processing 3D volumes constructed from 2D image slices. Achieving a peak accuracy of 97.15% with a custom split, 96.32% through Monte-Carlo cross-validation, and 93.22% via five-fold cross-validation, our approach enhances the performance of three-class classifiers by over 7% in terms of raw accuracy. Moreover, we achieved an improvement of more than 1% across all types of evaluation. It is quite clear that the model's output can effectively serve as an initial diagnostic baseline for radiologists with minimal effort and nearly instantaneous results. This advancement underscores the paper's focus on harnessing deep learning for the nuanced detection and classification of ACL tears, demonstrating a significant leap toward automating and refining diagnostic accuracy in sports medicine and orthopedics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Endometrial carcinoma is one of the most common gynecological cancers, and benign lesions such as endometrial hyperplasia, polyps, adenomyosis and leiomyomas should be included in the differential diagnosis. Magnetic resonance imaging has an important role in evaluating endometrial cancer and assessing the depth of myometrial invasion, and it closely correlates with the prognosis of the patient. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the MRI semiology of the endometrial carcinomas that mimic benign lesions, the main factors that may affect the correct diagnosis and the feasibility of magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate the depth of the myometrial invasion of endometrial cancer. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of 45 patients that underwent MRI examinations and the lesions were pathologically diagnosed as endometrial carcinoma after surgical resection. This study evaluated the staging accuracy of T2-weighted imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), ADC mapping and T1-weighted imaging with fat saturation before and after gadolinium injection. Results: In 36 of the 45 cases, the MRI of the lesion showed the characteristics of endometrial cancer and the diagnosis was certain. Nine lesions (20%) were described as unequivocal and had unspecific MR appearance. In eight of the nine cases (89%), the histopathologic report revealed the presence of leiomyomas and two of these cases (22%) were also associated with adenomyosis. The cause of underestimation in these patients was coexisting lesions exhibiting heterogenous intensity and contrast enhancement, which made it difficult to detect the margins of the lesions. The depth of the myometrial invasion was underestimated in nine cases and overestimated in three cases. The staging accuracy with MRI was 74%. There was a significant correlation between MR imaging and histopathologic finding in the assessment of myometrial invasion (p < 0.001). Cervical extension was noted in eight cases (18%), but was missed on MR imaging in two patients and overstaged in none. Six of them were associated with myometrial invasion in more than 50% of the thickness. There was a significant correlation between MR imaging and histopathologic finding in the assessment of cervical extension (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our data confirm the high accuracy of MRI in the diagnosis and local staging of endometrial carcinoma. The information provided by MRI has an important role in planning the treatment and the prognosis of the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The premise of this paper starts from the fact that a more precise definition related to the intensity of the lesions on the ADC sequence can lead to a new subclassification of PI-RADS 3 lesions in the transitional zone and to an improvement of the specificity of the PI-RADS classification. The study was retrospective and included only patients who, based on prostate MRI examinations, contained exclusively PI-RADS 3 lesions, without other PI-RADS 4 or 5 lesions. The number of cases that meet all these conditions was reduced to 18, where a series of characteristics were noted for each one: PI-RADS 3 lesion area on the ADC sequence, the minimum and average ADC value of the lesion, the average ADC value of the transitional zone outside the lesion, PSA, prostatic volume, PSA density and biopsy result. The average ADC value of the negative lesions was 865(±165) µm2/sec, and of the positive ones was 869(±118) µm2/sec, which denies the hypothesis that there could be a value limit ADC to delimit PI-RADS 3 from PI-RADS 2 or 4 in this sample of patients. Furthermore, we reported the average ADC value of each such lesion to the adjacent unchanged transitional zone and obtained a greater difference of 432(±163) µm2/sec between the negative lesions and their adjacent transitional zone, compared to the difference of 399(±127) µm2/sec between the positive lesions and their adjacent ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study seeks to study the accuracy of the ellipsoidal formula in prostate MRI of different sizes and to establish the limits of its use. The study included 31 patients with a well-visualized, intact prostatic capsule, excluding malignantly transformed prostates, as well as treated prostates, in which the contrast between the prostatic capsule and parenchyma is reduced. Each patient's prostatic volume was recalculated according to the ellipsoidal formula, and then it was compared with the prostatic volume calculated by the segmentation method. The two calculated volumes were similar, in some cases almost identical, with a slight tendency to underestimate prostate volume below 100cm3, in total in 18 cases, on average by 7.6% (+/-6%), overestimation of those with a volume over 100cm3, a total of 13 cases, on average by 3.2% (+/-2.5%), and of all, in 4 cases the difference between the two formulas was below 1%. There was no statistical difference between the two variables, Student's t-test p-value=0.039. With a precision of 92% (+/-6%), the ellipsoidal formula can be considered accurate when it is correctly performed, but if we take into account the importance that PSA density is starting to have in diagnosis, treatment and follow-up, the calculation of a secondary value through the segmentation method or high-precision software can be motivated when the ellipsoidal formula returns a value close to a threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with primary colorectal cancer can present with obstructions, tumor bleeding, or perforations, which represent acute complications. This paper aimed to analyze and compare the clinical and pathological profiles of two patient groups: one with colorectal cancer and a related complication and another without any specific complication. We performed a five-year retrospective study on colorectal cancer patients admitted to a surgery unit and comparatively explored the main clinical and pathological features of the tumors belonging to the two groups. A total of 250 patients with colorectal cancer were included in the analysis. Of these, 117 (46.8%) had presented a type of complication. The comparative analysis that examined several clinical and pathological parameters showed a statistically significant difference for unfavorable prognosis factors in the group with complications. This was evident for features such as vascular and perineural invasion, lymph node involvement, pathological primary tumor stage, and TNM stage. Colorectal cancers with a related complication belonged to a group of tumors with a more aggressive histopathologic profile and more advanced stages. Furthermore, the comparable incidence of cases in the two groups of patients warrants further efforts to be made in terms of early detection and prognosis prediction of colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arterial dissection is the result of blood entering along the intima-media plane through a breach produced either spontaneously or traumatically. Cervical arterial dissections are an important cause of acute ischemic stroke in children, young adults, and patients with cranio-cervical traumatic injuries. Arterial dissections occur either spontaneously, in genetic diseases, the most important association being with fibromuscular dysplasia. In most of the cases dissection involve the extracranial portions of the internal carotid and vertebral arteries. Magnetic resonance with T1 fat-saturation (T1 FS) sequence of the cervical region or computed tomography (CT) with computed tomography angiography (CTA) shows a very high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of cervical artery dissections. Therapeutic options are still debatable in patients with acute ischemic stroke and vertebral or carotid artery dissection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted medical care systems, by decreasing patient addressability to outpatient care. The main objective of this study was to compare the patient’s addressability to breast imaging techniques for diagnosis, and follow-up in the Clinical Emergency County Hospital of Craiova, Romania. We selected the mammographies performed over a period of 4 years (2018-2021) in our clinic. We divided the patients into four groups, one for each year (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). Furtherly, we merged the data into two groups, one group for the pre-pandemic years (2018 and 2019) and one for the pandemic years (2020 and 2021). In our clinic, the number of mammographies plummeted to 0 during the month of April 2020 due to the lockdown and closure of non-urgent outpatient services in hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, and slowly creeped to 11 in the month of May and peaked to 160 in July (for the rest of the year). There was a huge difference regarding the patient’s addressability to mammography immediately after the lockdown, with a 95.2% less addressability compared to the pre-pandemic period (May 2020 compared to May 2018). As an overall, by comparing both pre-pandemic years included in the study with the pandemic years, we obtained an addressability reduced with 37.3% suggesting the possible future delays in diagnosing breast tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although medicine is constantly evolving, hepatocellular carcinoma remains a pathology with a poor prognosis due to the frequent delayed diagnosis and the aggressiveness of the disease. Aim: Our objective was to evaluate liver function and stage of disease of newly diagnosed HCC patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study between July 2016 and January 2021 and we included hospitalized patients within the Department of Gastroenterology of the Emergency County Hospital of Craiova. We identified 119 newly diagnosed patients and we collected data from patient history, contrast-enhanced imaging and laboratory analysis. Results: 81 patients were diagnosed in BCLC Stage A and B. Liver function was not significantly modified, despite 91.5% of the patients presented with elevated AST levels. Because of the cirrhotic liver already affected, 73 patients had thrombocytopenia. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound was performed in 79 patients, as a complementary imaging exploration. Alfa-fetoprotein values could not be correlated with the severity of disease. Conclusions: Early diagnosis was mostly established. It is mandatory for treatment management and overall survival to follow a rigorous surveillance of patients at risk for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The skull base is one of the most complex anatomic structures of the skeleton that is responsible for protecting and supporting the brain and is also involved in the development of the facial structures. The main objective of our study was to evaluate skull base abnormalities in a group of patients diagnosed with Turner syndrome by assessing lateral cephalometric radiographs. A total of 7 patients diagnosed with Turner syndrome in the Endocrinology Department of the Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Craiova were included in the study. The following cephalometric variables were measured in our study: total skull base (N-Ba): Nasion (N)-Basion (Ba); anterior skull base (N-S): Nasion (N)-Sella (S); posterior skull base (S-Ba): Sella (S)-Basion (Ba). Regarding the investigated cephalometric variables, the mean±standard deviation (SD) recorded values in our study were 86.34±4.26mm for the total skull base (N-Ba), 63.87±2.54mm for the anterior skull base (N-S) and 38.33±4.87mm for the posterior skull base (S-Ba). The results of our study were compared to the ones provided by one of the most representative studies described in the literature. A reduced size of the posterior base of the skull is considered pathognomonic in subjects diagnosed with Turner syndrome. Also, the posterior base of the skull directly influences the maxillomandibular skeletal relationships and it is therefore necessary to calculate this cephalometric variable, which is easily highlighted on a lateral cephalometric radiograph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently the most common liver disease that progressively develops in four stages (steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-NASH, fibrosis, cirrhosis). In order to accurately evaluate the amount of fat content inside the hepatocytes, non-invasive imaging studies such as magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the liver can be used as an alternative method to the traditional invasive liver biopsy. The main objective of our study was to quantitatively assess hepatic steatosis before and after treatment using liver MRS. The study group included 35 patients diagnosed with NAFLD who freely expressed their agreement to take part in this study. The treatment lasted 6 months and consisted of administering a local commercially available liver protection supplement combined with dietary and lifestyle adjustments. The initial quantitative assessment of the liver fat content using MRS revealed a hepatic lipid accumulation ranging from 15.70% to 68.03%, with a mean value of 41.26%. The subsequent liver MRS performed after 6 months of proper treatment indicated a fat content inside the liver parenchyma ranging from 15.47% to 58.98%, with a mean value of 36.07%. The therapeutic measures that were applied to the patients managed to reduce the amount of fat content inside the liver parenchyma in 24 patients (68.57%), while in 11 patients (31.43%) the results revealed an increase in hepatic lipid content. In conclusion, the current study reached its initial objective and offered a modern approach regarding the pre and post-treatment evaluation of hepatic steatosis using MRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pancreatic cancers are often an aggressive type of malignancy, with a 5-year survival rate estimated at around 5%. The main purpose of our study was to determine whether or not tumor dimensions influence the presence of jaundice and the diameters of the CBD and Wirsung duct. Material and methods: The study group included 32 patients (19 males, 13 females) diagnosed with various histological types of pancreatic head cancers who were hospitalized in the Surgery Department of the County Clinical Emergency Hospital of Craiova during 2016-2018. All 32 patients underwent an initial abdominal ultrasonography (US), followed by an abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan and an abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) sequences. Results: Based on tumor dimensions, 19 (59.38%) were equal to or larger than 30mm, while 13 (40.62%) were smaller than 30mm. The average age of male patients was 65.15 years, while the average age of female patients was 60.07 years. Tumor dimensions ranged between 22mm and 52mm (33.53mm on average). Furthermore, the diameter of the CBD ranged from 5mm to 20mm (13.40mm on average), while the diameter of the Wirsung duct ranged from 3mm to 12mm (5.75 mm on average). Conclusion: In conclusion, our study reached its' initial purpose and revealed a significant association between the tumor dimensions and the diameter of the Wirsung duct and also between the diameter of the CBD and the presence of jaundice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoarthrosis is one of the most common degenerative diseases, affecting most of the middle and advanced age population. It is responsible for joint pain, and reduces mobility to functional impotence, thus becoming a public health problem. It is characterized by the destruction of articular cartilage and bone structures forming joints. Although osteoarthritis is considered a disease that occurs predominantly in the elderly, we present herein the case a young female patient, known for pelvic limb inequality and flat leg with advanced arthrosis in the left ankle, secondary to multiple surgical interventions performed at the lower limb. Because of the degenerative phenomena, the patient had reduced mobility, functional impairment and local pain. For the quantification and therapeutic management of degenerative changes produced by this pathology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exploration technique is recommended, allowing visualization of alterations in bone structures and cartilage. This is the standard diagnosis method due to important details on bone structures and cartilages, even in the early stages of the disease. The importance of this case is suggested by the young age of the patient (28 years old) and the advanced stage of the degenerative phenomenon, being rare at this age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of our study was to test the feasibility of a new developed RFA probe made especially for EUS use and also capable of injecting iron oxide nanoparticles within the targeted liver area. The procedures were performed on domestic pigs, divided in groups: A.liver RFA was performed; B-IONs were injected in the liver followed by EUS-RFA in the same area; C.local EUS-guided liver IONs injection were performed. After EUS measurements for the ablation areas, group A had a mean of 4.9 cm, while group B had a mean of 5.2 cm (Fig.3, 4). IONs exposure was on a median area of 3.1 cm. EUS imaging pointed out a regular oval shape in group A, and a slightly irregular outline on group B, with more echo bubbles around. MRI sections revealed different patterns for each group separately. In group A and B, RFA lesions were easily identified with specific liver parenchyma changes. Group B revealed few deposits of nanoparticles further away from the targeted point. The last group pointed out a large amount of IONs within the injection region and a larger amount of dispersed IONs within the liver than group B. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]