Pelvic floor failure is a common disorder that can seriously jeopardize a woman's quality of life by causing urinary and fecal incontinence, difficult defecation, and pelvic pain. Multiple congenital and acquired risk factors are associated with pelvic floor failure, including altered collagen metabolism, female sex, vaginal delivery, menopause, and advanced age. A complex variety of fascial and muscular lesions that range from stretching, insertion detachment, denervation atrophy, and combinations of pelvic floor relaxation to pelvic organ prolapse may manifest in a single patient. Thorough preoperative assessment of pelvic floor failure is necessary to reduce the rate of relapse, which is reported to be as high as 30%. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the pelvic floor is a two-step process that includes analysis of anatomic damage on axial fast spin-echo (FSE) T2-weighted images and functional evaluation using sagittal dynamic single-shot T2-weighted sequences during straining and defecation. This article presents high-resolution FSE T2-weighted MR images that permit detailed assessment of anatomic lesions and briefly describes pelvic floor pathophysiology, associated clinical symptoms, and patterns of dysfunction seen with dynamic MR imaging sequences. MR imaging is a powerful tool that enables radiologists to comprehensively evaluate pelvic anatomic and functional abnormalities, thus helping surgeons provide appropriate treatment and avoid repeat operations.

Histopathologic patterns and breast cancer biomarkers determine differences in US imaging that can guide radiologists in better understanding the development of breast cancer and its prognosis.

In the framework of a collaboration between clinicians and engineers (namely, the Department of Radiology of the Brotzu Hospital in Cagliari and the group of experimental hydraulics at DICAAR - University of Cagliari), methodologies for the application of the in vitro study of the cardiovascular fluid mechanics to the support of the physical interpretation of the diagnostic imaging data are being tested. To this aim, we set up a mock-loop able to reproduce the physiologic pulsatile flow and designed to host a replica of aortic root made of transparent silicon rubber. Then, we developed a procedure to obtain a transparent and compliant replica of a patient specific ascending aorta from diagnostic images. The patient specific aorta model can be inserted in the mock-loop to study the fluid dynamics by means of particle image velocimetry techniques. We compared the flow in three cases, corresponding to physiological conditions, mild and severe aortic root dilation, observing significant differences in the redirection of the transvalvular jet and vortex evolution in the aortic flow. The observed fluid dynamics differences may have relevant implications on the thromboembolism and vascular tissue damage potential.