La Radiologia medica
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La Radiologia medica · Nov 2002
Upper thoracic sympathetic chain neurolysis under CT guidance. A two year follow-up in patients with palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis.
To evaluate the efficacy, safety and middle-term results of upper thoracic sympathetic chain neurolysis performed under CT guidance in patients with palmar/axillary hyperhidrosis. ⋯ Upper thoracic sympathetic chain neurolysis performed under CT guidance in patients with palmar/axillary hyperhidrosis is a safe procedure, with low rate of complications and good results at 2 years follow-up.
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La Radiologia medica · Jul 2002
Comparative StudySpiral CT evaluation of pulmonary emphysema using a low-dose technique.
To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and clinical acceptability of low-dose spiral CT for determining pulmonary volumes and emphysema extension in patients with pulmonary emphysema, in comparison with studies based on spiral CT at conventional dose. ⋯ Quantitative low-dose spiral CT is a very good method to quantify pulmonary volumes and calculate the extension of the anatomic emphysema. The reduction of mA from 240 to 80 lowers the estimated dose by 30%, without compromising the accuracy of the results. Our study achieved a highly significant correlation between the results obtained with the two spiral CT techniques and between these results and the respiratory function tests. In clinical practice, the easiest way to reduce the dose in spiral CT of the lung is to reduce the tube current. The low-dose method allows a significant reduction in radiation exposure. Further studies are required to establish to what extent the dose can be reduced without increasing in quantum noise and thereby compromising the quality of the study.
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To evaluate the predictive value of sentinel lymph node biopsy versus axillary node dissection on lymph node status in patients with T1-T2 breast cancer. ⋯ In agreement with previous studies, our results showed that sentinel lymph node radioguided biopsy is a simple and reliable method for predicting axillary lymph nodes status and for avoiding axillary dissection in early breast cancer patients with sentinel node free of metastases.
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La Radiologia medica · Apr 2002
Interventional radiology techniques in the treatment of complications due to videolaparoscopic cholecystectomy.
The development of videolaparoscopic cholecystectomy (VLC) has represented an important achievement in the search for minimally invasive surgical procedures, and especially in the surgical management of such a common and costly disease as cholelithiasis. However, the literature shows that, while VLC carries a similar mortality rate to open surgery, it has a greater incidence (2-5 times) of iatrogenic injury to the biliary tract and hepatic hilum [3, 5, 10, 25, 28]; this incidence further increases in cases of so-called "hard cholecystis" [10, 13, 25, 28, 30]. An equally minimally invasive technique is therefore needed to treat these lesions; this technique should be effective and safe, allow for shorter hospital stays and lower costs, and be made available at all the centres where VLC is performed. ⋯ Interventional radiology carried out according to indications seems to be the most natural way to treat the complications of VLC. It spares the patients, who opted for a minimally invasive technique like VLC, the need to undergo open surgery, and allows for shorter hospital stays and more efficient cost management for the hospital.