Body packing is described as using the abdominal or pelvic cavity for concealing illegal drugs. Leakage from the packets may cause catastrophic effects on smugglers and medical history is not reliable in these patients. Moreover, new sophisticated smuggling techniques make it imperative that radiologists and emergency physicians understand and familiarize themselves with the different radiological manifestations of ingested drug packets. Currently, there is no gold standard for imaging patients suspected of body packing; nevertheless, computed tomography (CT) seems to be the best modality for packet detection and unenhanced CT without bowel preparation is a reliable technique for detection of ingested packets. On abdominal radiography, packets may be visualized as oval or round radiopaque foreign bodies surrounded by a gas halo. In the literature, sensitivity of abdominal radiography is reported from 74% to 100%. Visualization of the drug packets may be strikingly hampered by administration of oral or intravenous contrast medium in abdomino-pelvic CT; hence, contrast-enhanced CT does not seem to be a suitable modality for searching the ingested packets in suspicious smugglers.
Acute leukemia is the most common malignancy in childhood, which mainly involves children less than 15 years of age. The growing skeleton is the main site of involvement in children. Leukemic cells proliferate within the massive red bone marrow in children. So besides the pallor, petechia, purpura and ecchymosis in the skin and mucosal surfaces, bone pain and other bony lesions are other manifestations of leukemia.On the other hand, bony lesions are more prevalent in children than adults with no poor prognosis in comparison to patients without bone lesions. These bony lesions may precede other laboratory tests so familiarity with these presentations is very important for earlier diagnosis.In this pictorial essay, we tried to gather the most common bony lesions that may be seen in acute leukemia in different cases admitted to our hospital with general malaise and localized tenderness and discomfort leading us to perform plain X-ray for further evaluation. Finding these bony lesions helps clinicians to reach the diagnosis quickly. These findings include metaphyseal lucent band and erosion, periosteal reaction, small lucent bone lesion and permeative appearance, reduced bone density and collapsed vertebra.
There is a remarkable gap between detection of existence and number of packets/baggies reported by the radiologists and the real condition of the patients. A close teamwork between radiologists and toxicologists is needed to manage these problematic cases.
Background:Abdominopelvic fluid collection and abscess management and their outcomes have improved in the recent years due to innovation of the image-guided drainage technique and improvement of surgical proceduresObjectives:This study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of CT-guided percutaneous drainage in treating abdominopelvic abscesses.Patients and Methods:In this study, the data of 41 patients who had abdominal abscess or fluid collections, and underwent treatment by percutaneous CT-guided drainage were analyzed. Treatment was assessed by reduction of collection size, relief of symptoms and signs including abdominal pain and fever and imaging findings. Any morbidity such as wound infection, sepsis, hematoma formation or peritonitis was followed up to six months after the procedure.Results:The average age of the patients was 54 years (range 12 to 79), including 21 (51%) men and 20 (49%) women. The common signs and symptoms were pain (83%) and fever (80.5%). The most prevalent abdominal abscess etiology was previous surgery in 31 cases (75.5%). Abscess diameter ranged between 5 and 12 cm (mean, 7.8 cm). The average hospital stay was 8 days (4-15). Thirty five cases (86%) were successfully treated. Only one case (2.5%) developed complication (peritonitis) after the procedure.Conclusions:According to our findings, CT-guided percutaneous drainage is a safe and effective procedure in the treatment of abdominal abscess and fluid collection.
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