The objective of this study was to determine the level of the aortic bifurcation in relation to the lumbar spine by MRI and the effect of lumbosacral anomalies on the aortic bifurcation. A prospective study of 441 patients was performed. Sagittal MR images of the entire spine were obtained along with the standard protocol for imaging of the lumbar spine. The vertebrae were counted caudally from C2 instead of cranially from the presumed L5 vertebra. The aortic bifurcation in relation to the lumbar vertebrae was determined. The aorta bifurcated at the L4 vertebral body in 67% of cases. In patients with sacralization of L5 the aortic bifurcation was at the L3 vertebral body in 59%. In those patients with lumbarization of S1 the aorta bifurcated at the level of the L4 vertebral body in 40% and at the L4/5 disc space in 33%. There was no demographic variation of the aortic bifurcation in relation to age or sex. The aorta bifurcated at L4 in two-thirds of cases and was variably located in the remaining third. The stability of this as a landmark is disturbed by the significant high incidence of lumbosacral transitional segments.

The effect of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) on imaging indication quality had only been measured in one institution’s emergency department using a homegrown electronic health record with faculty physicians, and only with one instrument. To better understand how many US hospitals’ recent CPOE implementations had affected indication quality, we measured its effect in a generalizable inpatient setting, using one existing and one novel instrument. We retrospectively analyzed the indications for 100 randomly selected inpatient abdominal computed tomography studies during two calendar months immediately prior to a 3/3/2012 CPOE implementation (1/1/2012–2/29/2012) and during two subsequent calendar months (5/1/2012–6/30/2012). We excluded two intervening months to avoid behaviors associated with adoption. We measured indication quality using a published 8-point explicit scoring scale and our own, novel, implicit 7-point Likert scale. Explicit scores increased 93% from a pre-CPOE mean ±95% CI of 1.4 ±0.2 to a CPOE mean of 2.7 ±0.3 (p<0.01). Implicit scores increased 26% from a pre-CPOE mean of 4.3 ±0.3 to a CPOE mean of 5.4 ±0.2 (p < 0.05). When presented with a statement that an indication was “extremely helpful,” and choices ranging from “strongly disagree” = 1 to “strongly agree” = 7, implicit scores of 4 and 5 signified “undecided” and “somewhat agree,” respectively. In an inpatient setting with strong external validity to other US hospitals, CPOE implementation increased indication quality, as measured by two independent scoring systems (one pre-existing explicit system and one novel, intuitive implicit system). CPOE thus appears to enhance communication from ordering clinicians to radiologists.

We report a patient with solitary fibrous tumor of the liver, a rare fibrous neoplasm which to our knowledge has been reported in only 21 patients in the English literature. Most frequently, solitary fibrous tumors arise in the thoracic cavity, particularly in the pleura. Hypoglycemia has rarely been associated with these mesenchymal tumors. The presentation of this patient with hypoglycemic coma without preceding symptomatology, to our knowledge, has never been reported.

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