Diagnostic Radiology

Background Currently, breast cancer (BC) is considered one of the most prevalent cancer worldwide in women and represents a global health challenge. Early diagnosis is the keystone in the management of BC patients. This study aims to assess the utility of ultrasonography (US) features of malignancy in the diagnosis of BC. Methods This retrospective cross-sectional study involved the electronic records of 326 female patients who were diagnosed with BC. A cross-tabulation test was performed to identify the association between the presence of each US feature (yes/no), and the final US diagnosis (benign/malignant). The strength of association of each feature was measured using the odds ratio (OR) which was assumed to be significant when > 1, with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results The mean age of the female patients involved in this study was 45.36 ±12.16 years old (range, 17-90 years). Cross-tabulation test showed a significant association between the malignancy tumor and the irregular shape of the lesion (p < 0.001, OR=7.162, CI 2.726-18.814), non-circumscribed margins (p < 0.001, OR = 9.031, CI 3.200-25.489), tissue distortion (p < 0.001, OR = 18.095, CI 5.944-55.091), and the lymph node enlargement (p < 0.001, OR = 5.705, CI 2.332-13.960). Conclusion US imaging features of malignancy have a high sensitivity and positive predictive value for detection of the BC. However, the specificity of breast US imaging features is much lower because of the overlapping features in benign and malignant breast lesions. Breast lesions with an irregular shape, not circumscribed irregular or spiculated margins, hypo-echogenicity, tissue distortion, and those with lymphadenopathy have the highest likelihood of malignancy despite the low specificity. US is a highly valuable, safe, and affordable imaging modality with high diagnostic accuracy for BC.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a rare chronic inflammatory disease in which multifocal fibrosis of bile ducts causes eventually narrowing and even blocking, forming multifocal strictures alternated to dilatations. Here, we reported an extremely rare case of PSC associated with ulcerative colitis (UC) and coexisting with cholangiocarcinoma in a 33-year-old male presented with right upper quadrant pain and dark urine. Liver function tests were deranged, and ERCP found a beaded cholangiography appearance due to multifocal bile duct strictures alternating with normal and dilated segments of the common hepatic duct and the intrahepatic bile ducts. We aim to document this typical case of PSC associated with UC and coexisted with cholangiocarcinoma to add the existing data on these rare pathologies.

Twin reversed arterial perfusion (TRAP) sequence is a rare pregnancy complication occurs in an identical twin pregnancy that share a single placenta. TRAP sequence is a twin's pregnancy includes a normal-developed viable pump fetus and an abnormal usually nonviable acardiac fetus. The nonviable acardiac fetus depends on the pump fetus for his blood supply and put the pump fetus at risk of high cardiac output heart failure and congenital anomalies with high mortality rate. Gray-scale ultrasound and color and pulsed Doppler imaging is a noninvasive accessible imaging modality for the diagnosis of TRAP sequence. Early diagnosis of such conditions is mandatory in order to apply the proper therapeutic measures and to help the normal developed pump fetus to survive. The main goal of management is to interrupt blood supply to the nonviable acardiac fetus to reduce the strain on the heart of the pump fetus thus, increase the chance of survival.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis which primarily affects the lungs; however, it can affect any organ in the body. Brain tuberculous infection usually comes via hematogenous spread from a pulmonary focus and rarely via direct spread from ear, cranial vault or spine. It can present in various conditions including the following: tuberculous meningitis (TBM), brain or spinal cord tuberculoma, miliary TB, tuberculous abscess, tuberculous encephalopathy, and even intracranial hemorrhage. Here, we report an extremely rare case of intramedullary spinal cord tuberculoma in a 30-year-old man presented with paraparesis in a patient under treatment for TBM. Our case report highlights that tuberculoma should be considered as a differential diagnosis for intramedullary space occupying lesions. The clinical features and medical imaging supplemented by advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques helps in evaluating different types of tuberculous lesions and in making the diagnosis of brain and spine TB confidently.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis; it is a public health problem worldwide and one of the leading causes of mortality. Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented health challenges and disrupted the TB health services, especially in high-burden countries with ever-increasing prevalence. Extrapulmonary and even pulmonary TB are an important cause of nonspecific clinical and radiological manifestations and can masquerade as any benign or malignant medical case, thus causing disastrous conditions and diagnostic dilemmas. Clinical manifestations and routine laboratory tests have limitations in directing physicians to diagnose TB. Medical-imaging examinations play an essential role in detecting tissue abnormalities and early suspecting diagnosis of TB in different organs. Radiologists and physicians should be familiar with and aware of the radiological manifestations of TB to contribute to the early suspicion and diagnosis...

Aim: The aim of this study is to characterize the site, types and radiological features of gliomas, such as edema, mass effect, and type of enhancement on CT-scan and MRI imaging. Patients and methods: Thirty-three patients were studied retrospectively from the PACS system of multi-slice CT-scanner and MRI using the protocol of imaging of the head and spine. Results: Gliomas involved male patients more than females (60.1% vs. 39.9%). About 96.9% of the gliomas were in the brain and only 3.1% was in the cervical spine. Nearly 51.5% of the gliomas showed radiographic features of low-grade gliomas and 48.5% showed radiographic features of high-grade gliomas. Approximately 30% of gliomas were located at the parietal lobe of the brain. Nearly 45.5% of the gliomas showed heterogenous enhancement, 36.4% marginal enhancement and 5.1% had no enhancement after contrast administration. Conclusion: Gliomas were more common in male than female and high grade in elderly while low-grade gliomas in children. Gliomas were mostly involving the parietal lobes. The majority of gliomas showed heterogeneous enhancement after contrast administration. Magnetic resonance imaging is the most effective imaging method to characterize gliomas.

Background & Objective: Chronic rhino sinusitis (CRS) is an inflammatory condition of the paranasal sinuses and the nasal passage lasting more than three months either with or without sinonasal polyps. This study aimed to report the common sinonasal lesions associated with CRS according to the histopathology results, to compare between clinical and histopathological diagnoses, and to compare between radiological and histopathological diagnoses of the sinonasal lesions. Methods: A retrospective study of the electronic records of 82 patients diagnosed with CRS with nasal polyps. All patients underwent endoscopic sinus surgery and histopathological examination of surgical biopsies. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS program. Coparison between clinical and histopathological diagnoses was done. This study was conducted at Alsafwa Consultative Medical center (ACMC) in Almukalla city, Hadhramout province in Republic of Yemen. Results: Out of 82 patients, the ages ranged from 4 to ...

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare autosomal dominant genetic syndrome that is caused by mutations in the tumour suppressor genes TSC1 or TSC2 which causes multiorgan growths. TSC presents at any age as a wide range of clinical and phenotypic manifestations with varying severity. The main goal of this article was to state two cases of TSC and review the most commonly reported major and minor diagnostic clinical features and the most common features that led to an investigation of possible TSC diagnosis. Herein, we report two cases of TSC, which both presented with seizures during the first 6 months of life. Case 1 presented with multiple types of seizures from 6 months of age and was diagnosed by multiple calcified subependymal nodules (SENs) detected by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Case 2 presented with seizures from 3 months of age and was diagnosed prenatally when a tumour was seen in her heart during antenatal ultrasonography. In conclusion, the literature review revealed that neurological manifestations (mainly seizures) were the main feature that led to investigation and diagnosis of TSC followed by abdominal manifestations (mainly renal features) and antenatal follow-up imaging. Other manifestations in skin, chest, eyes, teeth and heart rarely led to TSC diagnosis. In some cases, TSC was incidentally discovered by medical imaging. The cortical tubers, SENs, and subependymal giant cell astrocytomas brain lesions were the most commonly reported major features. Skin features including angiofibromas, ungual fibromas and shagreen patch were the second most common major features reported in the literature. However, skin manifestations were not a common led to investigation and diagnosis of TSC. Renal features, mainly angiomyolipomas (AMLs), were the third most common major feature reported. Medical imaging plays an essential role in diagnosis of TSC, and clinical features are important clues that lead to investigation for the disease.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the implications of low radiation dose in abdominal computed tomography (CT) when combined with noise reduction filters and to see if this approach can overcome the challenges that arise while scanning obese patients. Anthropomorphic phantoms layered with and without 3-cm-thick circumferential animal fat packs to simulate different sized patients were scanned using a 128-slice multidetector CT (MDCT) scanner. Abdominal protocols (n = 12) were applied using various tube currents (150, 200, 250, and 300 mA) and tube voltages (100, 120, and 140 kVp). MOSFET dosimeters measured the internal organ dose. All images were reconstructed with filtered back projection (FBP) and different iterative reconstruction (IR) strengths (SAFIRE 3, SAFIRE 4, and SAFIRE 5) techniques and objective noise was measured within three regions of interests (ROIs) at the level of L4–L5. Organ doses varied from 0.34–56.2 mGy; the colon received the highest doses for both phant...

Purpose: To investigate the diagnostic performance of Color Doppler Flow Imaging (CFI) vascularity score in comparison to the ACR TI-RADS for prediction of malignancy in thyroid nodules (TNs). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional prospective study design was used. Patients underwent thyroid ultrasound imaging for TNs which classi ed the TNs using ACR TI-RADS and CFI vascularity score. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to compare between the CFI vascularity score and ACR TI-RADS. Results:A total of 222 patients participated in this study, 76.6% of them were female, with a mean age of 44.73 ± 13.31 years (range, 18 to 85). Ultrasound imaging classi ed TNs as: (TI-RADS 4= 41%), (TI-RADS 5=30.6%), and (TI-RADS 3= 28.4%). TNs of TIRADS 3, 4, and 5 and with CFI vascularity score category 1 were100% benign, and TNs of TIRADS 3, 4, and 5 and with CFI vascularity score category 4 were malignant in 82.5%, 91.3%, 100%, respectively, (p<0.001). A signi cant difference in the area under ROC curve among CFI vascularity scores and ACR TI-RADS was found. CFI vascularity showed sensitivity of 85.2%, speci city of 86.8%, PPV of 86% and NPV of 86.1%, in prediction malignancy in TNs, where CFI scores>2. However, the ACR TI-RADS showed sensitivity 57.4%, speci city 94.7%, PPV 91.2% and NPV 70.1% in prediction malignancy, in ACR TI-RADS ≥ 4, (p<0.001). Conclusion:Combining CFI vascularity score and TI-RADS can be consider as a safe and non-invasive diagnostic method for accurate risk strati cation of TNs and can resolve the gap in follicular TNs.

A pharyngeal hairy polyp (HP) is a rare benign mass that can be surgical detached with few complications. In this report, we describe a hairy polyp in a 7-day-old neonate presented with intermittent respiratory distress and feeding difficulties since birth. Neck computed tomography was performed, and demonstrated a well-defined pedunculated heterogeneous mass arising from the right lateral wall of the nasopharynx extending downward and nearly completely obstructing of the nasopharynx and oropharynx. The central part of the mass was found relatively dense surrounded by low attenuation fatty components with enhancement of the outer wall of the mass. The provisional diagnosis was pharyngeal HP. After autoamputation at the seventh day old, HP was analyzed via histopathology examination that showed a mixture of various ectodermal and mesodermal tissues including skin, cartilage, adipose and fibrous tissue. The patient fully recovered with no residual clinical features. We report this case to elucidate the possibility of this strange behavior of pharyngeal HP.

Background and Objective: Nutritional support is an essential component of critical care with a significant effect on the outcomes of critically ill patients. Critical care nurses are in a central position to achieve nutritional goals and preserve the nutritional status of patients at best. This study aimed to investigate the critical care nurses' perceptions of the responsibility, knowledge, and documentation system support regarding enteral nutrition. Methods: Data were collected from 292 critical care nurses in different healthcare sectors in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, using a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional design. A self-administered questionnaire containing 50 items was used for data collection. The data were collected between March and June 2021. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 was used for the data analysis. Results: The study found that most critical care units did not have guidelines, protocols, or a nutritional support team, and the physicians prescribed enteral nutrition. The critical care nurses perceived they had a low responsibility, insufficient knowledge, and moderate documentation support regarding enteral nutrition. The nurses in private hospitals had the highest responsibility, the nurses who received in-service education about enteral nutrition reported the highest level of knowledge, and the nurses in the Neuro critical care units had the best support from a documentation system. Scientific workshops and conferences were the main sources of knowledge regarding enteral nutrition. The nurses' educational needs included the ability to evaluate the outcomes, goal setting, and nutritional assessment. Conclusions: The critical care nurses perceived a low responsibility, low level of knowledge, and moderate support from a documentation system regarding enteral nutrition. There is an urgent need to create or adopt enteral nutrition evidence-based guidelines and protocols and establish a multidisciplinary nutritional support team with clear roles and responsibilities. In-service education and training related to enteral nutrition are paramount.