Radiologic clinics of North America
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Positron emission tomography (PET) is just beginning to emerge as a clinically useful tool in the thorax. Imaging with FDG is used primarily to differentiate benign from malignant abnormalities, including solitary pulmonary nodules, staging bronchogenic carcinoma, and differentiating recurrent tumor from fibrosis following treatment. This article discusses the fundamental properties of PET images, techniques, and current clinical indications in the thorax.
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Radiol. Clin. North Am. · Jul 1993
ReviewRole of radionuclide imaging in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism.
The accurate diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism often represents a challenge to clinicians. The ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) lung scan provides a safe, noninvasive technique, which has been widely used in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Although some controversy still exists in the management of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism, diagnostic strategies for investigating patients have incorporated V/Q scanning, noninvasive venous studies of the lower extremities and clinical assessment of the likelihood of pulmonary embolism. The combination of these strategies will provide acceptable diagnostic accuracy for evaluating patients with suspected pulmonary embolism in the majority of cases.
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Sonography is an extremely important tool in the evaluation of the chest in children. Its easy availability, versatility, and portability make it an obvious choice as the next diagnostic examination after an abnormal chest radiograph. ⋯ It is most helpful in the assessment of anterior and middle mediastinal masses, opaque chest, and pleural and juxta-diaphragmatic abnormalities; in the classification of perplexing radiographs; and in the assessment of peripheral chest lesions. Sonography provides guidance for diagnostic and therapeutic aspiration, providing not only excellent anatomic demonstration, tissue characterization, and vascular information but also immediate access to bacteriologic and tissue diagnosis when required.
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Radiol. Clin. North Am. · Jan 1993
Nonepithelial tumors of the paranasal sinuses and nasal cavity. Role of CT and MR imaging.
This article reviews some of the applications of computed tomographic (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the clinical investigation of nonepithelial tumors and tumorlike lesions of the sinonasal tract. Sixty selected patients primarily with various nonepithelial tumors of the sinonasal tract were included in this study. The MR characteristics of many of these lesions are described.
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Hypersensitivity pneumonitis is an immunologic mediated response in the lung to inhaled organic antigen. Farmer's lung and pigeon breeder's lung are the two most widely know disorders. ⋯ When abnormal, the distribution of disease favors the lung bases with acute disease and the upper lung zones with chronic disease. Computed tomography (CT) may be more sensitive in detecting parenchymal abnormalities, although the characteristic findings of hypersensitivity pneumonitis at CT or high-resolution CT are nonspecific.