Dynamic US allows excellent depiction of finger pulley injuries in extreme rock climbers.

Objective. To determine the value of microbubble contrast agents for color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) compared with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the detection of active sacroiliitis.Methods. An observational case-control study of 103 consecutive patients (206 sacroiliac [SI] joints) with inflammatory low back pain according to the Calin criteria and 30 controls (60 SI joints) without low back pain was conducted at the University Hospital of Innsbruck. All patients and controls underwent unenhanced and contrast-enhanced CDUS and MRI of the SI joints. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of unenhanced and contrast-enhanced CDUS were evaluated. Results. Forty-three patients (41%) with 70 of 206 SI joints (34%) and none of the controls nor the 60 control SI joints demonstrated active sacroiliitis on MRI. Unenhanced CDUS showed a sensitivity of 17%, a specificity of 96%, a PPV of 65%, and an NPV of 72%; contrast-enhanced CDUS showed a sensitivity of 94%, a specificity of 86%, a PPV of 78%, and an NPV of 97%. Detection of vascularity in the SI joint was increased by contrast administration (P < 0.0001). Clustered receiver operating curve analysis demonstrated that enhanced CDUS (A z ‫؍‬ 0.89) was significantly better than unenhanced CDUS (A z ‫؍‬ 0.61) for the diagnosis of active sacroiliitis verified by MRI (P < 0.0001; 2-sided test). Conclusion. Microbubble contrast-enhanced CDUS is a sensitive technique with a high NPV for detection of active sacroiliitis compared with MRI.

These preliminary results show that virtual CT gastroscopy is able to provide insights into the upper gastrointestinal tract similar to those of fiberoptic endoscopy. However, due to the limited spatial resolution of the CT protocol used, as well as inherent image artifacts associated with the Navigator program's reconstruction algorithm, the form of virtual CT gastroscopy studied was not capable of competing with the imaging quality provided by fiberoptic gastroscopy.

Relevant dose reductions can be achieved by applying the Smart-Scan-Technique in spiral computed tomography.

Objective. To assess the value of gray-scale ultrasound (US), color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS), contrast-enhanced CDUS, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnostic evaluation of the hands in patients with remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE). Methods. Eight patients (5 men, 3 women; mean ؎ SD age 69.3 ؎ 7.2 years) with clinical diagnosis of RS3PE syndrome underwent US, CDUS, contrast-enhanced CDUS, and MRI. US was performed with a linear array transducer operating at 12 MHz. The US contrast agent (SHU 508; Levovist, Schering, Germany) was intravenously infused in a concentration of 300 mg/ml at a rate of 1 ml/minute. Results. All patients showed symmetric subcutaneous edema and synovitis of tendons and finger joints on both US and MRI. Vascularity was detected subcutaneously in tendon sheaths and in the joint synovia on CDUS and MRI. Detection of increased vascularity was improved after contrast administration compared with unenhanced CDUS (P < 0.01). Conclusion. Ultrasound, CDUS, contrast-enhanced CDUS, and MRI are valuable tools in the diagnostic evaluation of involved anatomic structures in patients with RS3PE. Contrast-enhanced CDUS is superior to CDUS in assessment of inflammatory edema, effusion, and synovitis.