OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study is to improve radiologists' understanding of the clinical issues involved in making a diagnosis and to guide further diagnostic workup and treatment of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs). CONCLUSION Information on the morphologic and hemodynamic characteristics of SPNs provided by dynamic helical CT, with high specificity and reasonably high accuracy, can be ...

This article reviews the most relevant techniques currently used for the evaluation of patients with multiple myeloma. Although bone marrow morphologic examination and electrophoretic analysis of the monoclonal paraprotein and conventional x-rays remain the "gold standard" techniques for fast, accurate, and cost-effective diagnosis, other assays such as molecular cytogenetics, immunophenotyping...

Knowledge about fallopian tube disease is essential in the assessment of the pelvis in female patients. Primary and secondary changes in the tubes vary widely, regardless of whether associated changes in the ovaries are present. Ultrasonography is the initial technique in the study of adnexal disease because it is very sensitive and widely available; however, MRI is also very useful in this con...

The FAB classification of acute leukemias was proposed by a cooperative French-American-British group as an easily applied classification useful for uniform assessment of large clinical therapeutic trials. Although the classification is based on morphological criteria, cytochemical, biochemical, immunological and cytogenetic studies supplement the morphologic criteria for accurate identificatio...

Perfusion imaging of brain tumors has been performed by using various tracer and nontracer modalities and can provide additional physiologic and hemodynamic information, which is not available with routine morphologic imaging. Tumor vascular perfusion parameters obtained by using CT or MR perfusion have been used for tumor grading, prognosis, and treatment response in addition to differentiatin...

Venous invasion (VI) is a well-established independent prognostic indicator in colorectal cancer (CRC). Its accurate detection is particularly important in stage II CRC as it may influence the decision to administer adjuvant therapy. The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) of the United Kingdom state that VI should be detected in at least 30% of CRC resection specimens. However, our experien...

The role of radiologic imaging in evaluating patients with suspected GERD has been clarified in recent years. The barium esophagram is used primarily for detecting the gross morphologic changes of reflux esophagitis and is a reliable screening method for diagnosing the more severe grades of disease. Evaluation of gastroesophageal reflux by barium examination is less certain; the technique is po...

Background Assessment of erythrocytes and leucocytes in thin blood films can be used as an inexpensive diagnostic aid in a series of disease states, e.g. infections, anemia and hematological malignancies. Manual counting of cells is still considered the gold standard for example to establish the level of parasitemia in malaria. However, manual cell counting is time consuming and subject to vari...