Objective: To evaluate the imaging features of spondyloarthritis on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the sacroiliac (SI) joints in terms of topography (in thirds) and affected margin, since this aspect is rarely addressed in the literature. Methods: Cross-sectional study with MRI (1.5 T) evaluation of the SI in 16 patients with diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis regarding the presence of acute (subchondral bone edema, enthesitis, synovitis and capsulitis) and chronic changes (erosions, subchondral bone sclerosis, bone bridging and fatty replacement), performed by two radiologists, blinded to clinical data. MRI findings were correlated with clinical data including age, disease duration, medications, HLA-B27, BASDAI, ASDAS-VHS and ASDAS-PCR, BASMI, BASFI, and mSASSS. Results: Bone edema pattern and erosions showed predominance in the upper third of SI (p = 0.050, p = 0.0014, respectively). There was a correlation between the time of disease and structural changes by affected third (p = 0.028-0.037), as well as the presence of bone bridges with BASMI (p = 0.028) and mSASSS (p = 0.014). Patients with osteitis of the lower third had higher ASDAS values (ESRV: p = 0.011 and CRP: p = 0.017). Conclusion: Chronic inflammatory changes and the pattern of bone edema predominated in the upper third of the SI, but there was also concomitant involvement of the middle or lower thirds of the joint. The localization of involvement in the upper third of the SI was insufficient to differentiate between degeneration and inflammation.
Colorectal cancer is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in Colombia. Magnetic resonance imaging is the ideal modality for the evaluation of colorectal cancer, since it allows staging by determining invasion beyond the muscularis propria, extension towards adjacent organs, identification of patients who are candidates for chemotherapy or pre-surgical radiotherapy and planning of the surgical procedure. The key point is based on the differentiation between T2 and T3 stages through the use of sequences with high-resolution T2 information. In addition to this, it allows the assessment of the size and morphology of the lymph nodes, and considerably increases the specificity for the detection of lymph node involvement. MRI is a technique with high specificity and high reproducibility.
The human brain has been described as a complex system. Its study by means of neurophysiological signals has revealed the presence of linear and nonlinear interactions. In this context, entropy metrics have been used to uncover brain behavior in the presence and absence of neurological disturbances. Entropy mapping is of great interest for the study of progressive neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of this study was to characterize the dynamics of brain oscillations in such disease by means of entropy and amplitude of low frequency oscillations from Bold signals of the default network and the executive control network in Alzheimer’s patients and healthy individuals, using a database extracted from the Open Access Imaging Studies series. The results revealed higher discriminative power of entropy by permutations compared to low-frequency fluctuation amplitude and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations. Increased entropy by permutations was obtained in regions of the default network and the executive control network in patients. The posterior cingulate cortex and the precuneus showed differential characteristics when assessing entropy by permutations in both groups. There were no findings when correlating metrics with clinical scales. The results demonstrated that entropy by permutations allows characterizing brain function in Alzheimer’s patients, and also reveals information about nonlinear interactions complementary to the characteristics obtained by calculating the amplitude of low frequency oscillations.
Clinical/methodological problem: The identification of clinically significant prostate carcinomas while avoiding overdiagnosis of low-malignant tumors is a challenge in routine clinical practice. Standard radiologic procedures: Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the prostate acquired and interpreted according to PI-RADS (Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System Guidelines) is accepted as a clinical standard among urologists and radiologists. Methodological innovations: The PI-RADS guidelines have been newly updated to version 2.1 and, in addition to more precise technical requirements, include individual changes in lesion assessment. Performance: The PI-RADS guidelines have become crucial in the standardization of multiparametric MRI of the prostate and provide templates for structured reporting, facilitating communication with the referring physician. Evaluation: The guidelines, now updated to version 2.1, represent a refinement of the widely used version 2.0. Many aspects of reporting have been clarified, but some previously known limitations remain and require further improvement of the guidelines in future versions.
Amyloidosis is a systemic disorder produced by the deposition of insoluble protein fibrils that fold and deposit in the myocardium. Patients with amyloidosis and cardiac involvement have higher mortality than patients without cardiac involvement. The two most prevalent forms of amyloidosis associated with cardiac involvement are AL amyloidosis, due to the deposition of immunoglobulin light chains, and ATTR amyloidosis, due to the deposition of the transthyretin (TTR) protein in mutated or senile form. This article aims to review the different cardiac imaging modalities (echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medicine and tomography) that allow to determine the severity of cardiac involvement in patients with amyloidosis, the type of amyloidosis and its prognosis. Finally, we suggest a diagnostic algorithm to determine cardiac involvement in amyloidosis adapted to locally available diagnostic tools, with a practical and clinical approach.
The integration of medical images is the process of registering and fusing them to obtain a greater amount of diagnostic information. In this work an analysis is performed for the integration of images obtained through computed axial tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, for which a tool was developed in the Matlab program, where the registration is implemented through equivalent features; in addition, the pairs of images are compared by several fusion rules, with a view to identify the best algorithm in which the resulting fused image contains the most information from the original representations.
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