The Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of Jaws (MRONJ) diagnosis process and its prevention play a role of great and rising importance, not only on the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients, but also on the decision-making process by the majority of dentists and oral surgeons involved in MRONJ prevention (primary and secondary). The present paper reports the update of the conclusions from the Consensus Conference—held at the Symposium of the Italian Society of Oral Pathology and Medicine (SIPMO) (20 October 2018, Ancona, Italy)—after the newest recommendations (2020) on MRONJ were published by two scientific societies (Italian Societies of Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Pathology and Medicine, SICMF and SIPMO), written on the inputs of the experts of the Italian Allied Committee on ONJ (IAC-ONJ). The conference focused on the topic of MRONJ, and in particular on the common practices at risk of inappropriateness in MRONJ diagnosis and therapy, as well as on MRONJ prevention and the dental management of patients at risk of MRONJ. It is a matter of cancer and osteometabolic patients that are at risk since being exposed to several drugs with antiresorptive (i.e., bisphosphonates and denosumab) or, more recently, antiangiogenic activities. At the same time, the Conference traced for dentists and oral surgeons some easy applicable indications and procedures to reduce MRONJ onset risk and to diagnose it early. Continuous updating on these issues, so important for the patient community, is recommended.
In recent years many papers about diagnostic applications of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have been published. This is because DTI allows to evaluate in vivo and in a non-invasive way the process of diffusion of water molecules in biological tissues. However, the simplified description of the diffusion process assumed in DTI does not permit to completely map the complex underlying cellular components and structures, which hinder and restrict the diffusion of water molecules. These limitations can be partially overcome by means of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI). The aim of this paper is the description of the theory of DKI, a new topic of growing interest in radiology. DKI is a higher order diffusion model that is a straightforward extension of the DTI model. Here, we analyze the physics underlying this method, we report our MRI acquisition protocol with the preprocessing pipeline used and the DKI parametric maps obtained on a 1.5 T scanner, and we review the most relevant clinical applications of this technique in various neurological diseases.
Recently, jawbone osteonecrosis has been largely reported as a potential adverse effect of bisphosphonate (BP) administration. Because of the peculiar pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic features of the BF (mainly for i.v. administration), their efficacy and large use, some major issues have to be taken into account extendedly both by oncologists and by dentists: 1) therapeutic dental protocol for patients with diagnosis of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ); 2) dental strategies for patients in former or current i.v. BF treatment and in absence of BRONJ signs; 3) strategies for patients before i.v. BF treatment. Clinical features and guidelines for the management of this condition have been investigated and reported, sometimes with unclear indications; hence, on the basis of the literature and our clinical experience, major end points of this paper are providing our run protocols for the issues above described and, finally, focusing on a crucial, but not extensively investigated point: the early and correct diagnosis of BRONJ versus metastatic jaw lesions in cancer patients.
Gastrointestinal lymphomas represent 5–20% of extranodal lymphomas and mainly occur in the stomach and small intestine. Clinical findings are not specific, thus often determining a delay in the diagnosis. Imaging features at conventional and cross-sectional imaging must be known by the radiologist since he/she plays a pivotal role in the diagnosis and disease assessment, thus assisting in the choice of the optimal treatment to patients. This review focuses on the wide variety of imaging presentation of esophageal, gastric, and small and large bowel lymphoma presenting their main imaging appearances at conventional and cross-sectional imaging, mainly focusing on computed tomography and magnetic resonance, helping in the choice of the best imaging technique for the disease characterization and assessment and the recognition of potential complications.
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