AJR. American journal of roentgenology
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Jan 2013
Triage of patients presenting with chest pain to the emergency department: implementation of coronary CT angiography in a large urban health care system.
There is growing evidence supporting the use of coronary CT angiography (CTA) to triage patients in the emergency department (ED) with acute chest pain and low risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We hypothesized that coronary CTA can guide early management and safely discharge patients by introducing a dedicated patient management protocol. ⋯ Chest pain patients with negative or mild nonobstructive CTA findings can be safely discharged from the ED without further testing. Implementation of a dedicated chest pain triage protocol is critical for the success of a coronary CTA program.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Jan 2013
Benefit of computer-aided detection analysis for the detection of subsolid and solid lung nodules on thin- and thick-section CT.
The objective of our study was to evaluate the impact of computer-aided detection (CAD) on the identification of subsolid and solid lung nodules on thin- and thick-section CT. ⋯ Detection of GGO nodules and solid nodules is significantly improved with CAD. When interpretation is performed on thick sections, the benefit is greater when CAD marks are reviewed on thin rather than thick sections.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Jan 2013
Assessing the relation between bone marrow signal intensity and apparent diffusion coefficient in diffusion-weighted MRI.
The purposes of this study were to observe the relation between signal intensity (SI) on MR images with a high b value and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of bone marrow on body diffusion-weighted MR images, to determine cutoff values that enable separation of malignant and normal bone marrow, and to identify the upper ADC values of untreated multiple myeloma lesions and bone metastatic lesions of breast cancer. ⋯ Both tissue-normalized SI and ADC measurements allow differentiation between normal bone marrow and tumors of myeloma and breast cancer. The presence of a nonlinear relation between bone marrow SI and ADC values enables definition of an upper limit of ADC value for untreated myeloma lesions and metastatic lesions of breast cancer.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Jan 2013
Comparative StudyImage quality of thoracic 64-MDCT angiography: imaging of infants and young children with or without general anesthesia.
The purpose of this study was to compare the image quality of thoracic CT angiography (CTA) studies performed with two techniques--with general anesthesia and without general anesthesia--for infants and for children younger than 5 years. ⋯ There is no significant difference in image quality of thoracic CTA with 64-MDCT assessed by degree of motion artifact with and without general anesthesia. The results of this study support use of thoracic CTA without general anesthesia in the care of young pediatric patients who meet screening criteria for awake imaging studies.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Jan 2013
Improving the quality of manuscript reviews: impact of introducing a structured electronic template to submit reviews.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of structured electronic templates on the quality of manuscript reviews. ⋯ The introduction of a structured electronic template significantly improved the quality of manuscript reviews submitted.