Acta radiologica
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Preoperative embolization of spinal tumors is often used to reduce blood loss from surgery. Intraoperative blood loss, even in patients who undergo embolization, is potentially multifactorial; embolization techniques, surgical procedures or tumor characteristics may affect intraoperative blood loss. ⋯ Embolization technique or completeness has a limited effect on operative blood loss after preoperative spinal tumor embolization. Operative blood loss from spinal surgery is dependent primarily on the invasiveness of the surgery. Although preoperative embolization is a relatively safe procedure, there remains a risk of cord ischemia.
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Right ventricular function predicts outcome in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH). Therefore accurate assessment of right ventricular function is essential to graduate severity, assess follow-up, and response to therapy. ⋯ CT-RVEF and CT-RVCO measured on ECG-gated CT are significantly correlated, respectively, to mPAP and RHC-CO in this population with severe reduction of the right ventricular ejection fraction and could be useful for evaluating and following patients with PH.
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Plasma D-dimer measurement is used in the assessment of the clinical probability of pulmonary embolism (PE), in order to minimize the requirement for pulmonary computed tomography angiography (CTA). ⋯ Adjusting the D-dimer cut-off value for the emergency department community population and patient age increases the yield and specificity of the ELISA D-dimer assay for the exclusion of PE without reducing sensitivity.
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The incidence and clinical significance of pulmonary residual thrombosis 6 months after an acute pulmonary embolism (PE) are still not well-known. ⋯ Persistent pulmonary vascular obstruction on 6-month CTPA did not predict long-term adverse outcome events.
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Spin-lattice relaxation in the rotating frame, or T(1ρ) relaxation, is normally described by a mono-exponential decay model. However, compartmentation of tissues and microscopic molecular exchange may lead to bi-exponential or multi-exponential T(1ρ) relaxation behavior in certain tissues under the application of spin lock pulse field strength. ⋯ Bi-exponential relaxation components were detected in rat muscles. The long and the short T(1ρ) relaxation component are thought to correspond to the restricted intracellular water population and the hydrogen exchange between amine and hydroxyl groups, respectively.