A morphometric method to calculate liver volumes from transverse sections is evaluated (point-integrating method). In the first part of the study, 10 liver specimens were investigated by computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound (US); the calculated volumes were compared to the volumes obtained by water displacement of the organs. While CT showed an ideal agreement (r = 0.994), volumes calculated from US sections correlated less well (percentage differences from +12.5% to -9%, r = 0.915). In the second part of the study, the livers of 10 randomly selected patients were investigated by CT and US. Liver volumes were calculated using the point-integration method. Compared to the CT examination, US results show a good correlation with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.977. The point-integration method is very valuable to measure organ volumes from transverse sections. The method can be applied "offline" to photographic films, data do not have to be recorded electronically. The time required to calculate the volume of an organ is comparable to other methods.

CT scanning was performed on 36 patients with carcinoma of the esophagus or cardia. In a retrospective study, staging of esophageal malignancy, obtained by CT, was correlated with clinical data as well as endoscopic, bronchoscopic, operative, and/or autopsy findings. The results indicated that CT is a useful method for pretherapeutic staging in carcinoma of the esophagus and cardia and should be routinely performed in conjunction with conventional x-ray examination and esophagoscopy. The use of mediastinoscopy and diagnostic surgical procedures such as exploratory thoracotomy and laparotomy can be reduced.

Eighty-seven patients with the clinical suspicion of an intraperitoneal abscess were examined by computed tomography. In 83 of these patients CT gave true positive or true negative results in reference to the diagnosis of local intraperitoneal fluids. The final diagnosis confirmed 28 abscesses in 26 patients. Most of these abscesses were in the left subphrenic space, the right subphrenic space, the right anterior subhepatic space, and the pelvis. The morphological criteria for intraperitoneal abscesses, shown by CT, are defined. Direct signs include form, impression on nonintestinal organs, density value, gas collection, pyogenic membrane, and infiltration in surrounding tissue. Indirect signs include ascites and pleural effusion and/or pulmonary infiltration. Differential diagnostic problems of intraperitoneal abscesses are discussed.

The article deals with a number of thyroid abnormalities which produce similar sonographic patterns, characterised by a paucity of echos of low amplitude. It concerns three more or less circumscribed changes (differentiated carcinoma of the thyroid, autonomous adenoma and focal thyroiditis) and two diffuse thyroid conditions (sub-acute and lymphocytic diffuse thyroiditis, hyperthyroidism). Carcinoma of the thyroid is of particular interest. The distinguishing features and differential diagnosis are discussed.