Overall, diagnosis was best with unenhanced T2-weighted images, but in patients with adnexal or pelvic sidewall recurrence and in patients with treatment complications (eg, fistula formation), contrast enhancement did help.
Objective: To evaluate the inter-observer relationship of the "lumbar facet hypersignal classification" and the correlation with disc degeneration. Methods: Retrospective study of magnetic resonance images obtained from 24 (N=24) patients (9 males and 15 females), aged 35 to 79 years, mean age 48 years and 1 month. The images were reviewed by two spine surgeons, by five orthopedists in training in the specialty of spine surgery and one radiologist to evaluate and quantify the presence of hypersignal lumbar facet and the Pfirrmann Classification for disc degeneration. Results: One hundred and twenty lumbar discs and their joint facets were evaluated by the eight examiners, with data analyzed by the Cronbach test and the Spearman Correlation Analysis with statistically high results, confirming good inter-observer relation for the "Lumbar Facet Hypersignal Classification" and for the classification of Pfirrmann. There was no statistically significant relationship between facet arthrosis and disc degeneration. Conclusions: The results confirm that there is good inter-observer relationship for the classification of Facet Hypersignal and for the Classification of Pfirrmann. However, in spite of a positive relationship, a correlation between facet arthrosis and disc degeneration was not statistically significant. Level of Evidence III; Retrospective Comparative Study.
To assess the value of proton-selective fat-saturation magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in differentiating teratomas from cystic hemorrhagic masses, 38 patients with 48 lesions (21 teratomas, 27 cystic hemorrhagic masses) detected at prior ultrasound or computed tomography were imaged with standard T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo (SE) sequences. Twenty-one patients with 28 lesions (13 teratomas, 15 cystic hemorrhagic masses) were imaged with an additional T1-weighted fat-saturation sequence. On standard T1- and T2-weighted SE images, 43% of the teratomas and 52% of the cystic hemorrhagic masses were characterized correctly with signal intensity criteria. Sixty-two percent of the teratomas and 100% of the cystic hemorrhagic masses were characterized correctly with chemical shift artifact criteria. With fat-saturation images alone, the characterization sensitivity for teratomas and cystic hemorrhagic masses increased to 92% and 100%, respectively. Fat-saturation MR imaging was statistically superior to standard T1- and T2-weighted imaging in characterizing teratomas.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.