er tract metastasis was commonly overlooked by radiologists, reported in only 39% of cases.
 • Catheter tract metastasis (CTM), resulting from indwelling pleural catheter to manage malignant pleural mesothelioma, invariably manifested on CT as a focal subcutaneous lesion at the site of insertion, more commonly after catheter removal. • Ipsilateral muscle enlargement is a newly described CT finding that can assist in the detection and diagnosis. • Catheter tract metastasis was commonly overlooked by radiologists, reported in only 39% of cases.
  • Claustrophobia, a phobic anxiety disorder, is a well-known relative contraindication for MR, and anxiety or fear is triggered by confinement or the prospect of confinement in the MR environment.• Within the field of MR, claustrophobia is generally counteracted by reducing or deflecting attention from triggering stimuli in the MR environment by technical means, which increases relaxation and comfort and thus improves compliance.• Psychological interventions and self-empowerment of patients might become the next level of coping strategies.
 • Claustrophobia, a phobic anxiety disorder, is a well-known relative contraindication for MR, and anxiety or fear is triggered by confinement or the prospect of confinement in the MR environment.• Within the field of MR, claustrophobia is generally counteracted by reducing or deflecting attention from triggering stimuli in the MR environment by technical means, which increases relaxation and comfort and thus improves compliance.• Psychological interventions and self-empowerment of patients might become the next level of coping strategies.
  Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can be diagnosed non-invasively with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in cirrhosis if the characteristic pattern of arterial phase hyperenhancement followed by hypoenhancement is present. Recent studies suggest that diagnosis based on this "hyper-hypo" pattern needs further refinement. This study compares the diagnostic accuracies of standardized CEUS for HCC according to the current guideline definition and following the newly developed CEUS algorithms (CEUS LI-RADS®, ESCULAP) in a prospective multicenter real-life setting.
 
  Cirrhotic patients with liver lesions on B-mode ultrasound were recruited prospectively from 04/2018 to 04/2019, and clinical and imaging data were collected. The CEUS standard included an additional examination point after 4-6 min in case of no washout after 3 min. The diagnostic accuracies of CEUS following the guidelines ("hyper-hypo" pattern), based on the examiner's subjective interpretation ("CEUS subjective"), and based on the CEUS algorithms Eut after 3 min, is vital.
  To investigate the association between longitudinal total pulmonary infection volume and volume ratio over time and clinical types in COVID-19 pneumonia patients.
 
  This retrospective review included 367 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. All patients underwent CT examination at baseline and/or one or more follow-up CT. Patients were categorized into two clinical types (moderate and severe groups). The severe patients were matched to the moderate patients via propensity scores (PS).  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/vu0463271.html  The association between total pulmonary infection volume and volume ratio and clinical types was analyzed using a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM).
 
  Two hundred and seven moderate patients and 160 severe patients were enrolled. The baseline clinical and imaging variables were balanced using PS analysis to avoid patient selection bias. After PS analysis, 172 pairs of moderate patients were allocated to the groups; there was no difference in the clinical and CT characteristics between the two groups (p > 0.05). A total oThe impact of total pulmonary infection volume and volume ratio over time was significantly affected by the clinical types (p for interaction = 0.01 and 0.01, respectively) using the GAMM. • Total pulmonary infection volume and volume ratio of the severe group increased by 14.66 cm3 (95% CI 3.92 to 25.40) and 0.45% (95% CI 0.13 to 0.77) every day, respectively, compared to that of the moderate group.
  This study aimed to determine the ultrasound (US) image plane appropriate for evaluating the taller-than-wide (TTW) sign in the risk stratification of thyroid nodules using the five widely used risk stratification systems (RSSs).
 
  A total of 1905 consecutive thyroid nodules with final diagnoses were included. The TTW sign was prospectively assessed in the transverse and longitudinal US image planes. The diagnostic performances of the TTW sign and biopsy criteria by the RSSs for malignancy were compared by sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis between the two criteria of TTW signs according to image planes (criterion 1, transverse plane; criterion 2, either transverse or longitudinal plane).
 
  Of all 1905 nodules, 1481 (77.7%) were benign and 424 (22.3%) were malignant. The criteria 1 and 2 of TTW signs had similar sensitivities (37.5% and 38.7%) and specificities (94.8% and 94.4%) with minimal differences, and the area under the curve (AUC) of TTW signs for malignanles.
 • The diagnostic performance of the taller-than-wide sign by ROC analysis was not significantly different between US image plane criteria (transverse plane vs. either transverse or longitudinal plane). • The diagnostic performances of biopsy criteria for malignancy by the five risk stratification systems were similar between the two taller-than-wide sign criteria. • The taller-than-wide sign using the transverse plane may be appropriate in the risk stratification of thyroid nodules.
  To explore the potential correlation between baseline interleukin (IL) values and overall survival or objective response in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) receiving sorafenib.
 
  A subset of patients with HCC undergoing sorafenib monotherapy within a prospective multicenter phase II trial (SORAMIC, sorafenib treatment alone vs. combined with Y90 radioembolization) underwent baseline IL-6 and IL-8 assessment before treatment initiation. In this exploratory post hoc analysis, the best cut-off points for baseline IL-6 and IL-8 values predicting overall survival (OS) were evaluated, as well as correlation with the objective response.
 
  Forty-seven patients (43 male) with a median OS of 13.8months were analyzed. Cut-off values of 8.58 and 57.9pg/mL most effectively predicted overall survival for IL-6 and IL-8, respectively. Patients with high IL-6 (HR, 4.1 [1.9-8.9], p < 0.001) and IL-8 (HR, 2.4 [1.2-4.7], p = 0.009) had significantly shorter overall survival than patients with low IL values. Multivariate analysis confirmed IL-6 (HR, 2.