Congenital absence of the portal vein (CAPV) is a malformation that is generally thought to be limited to females. We encountered an 11-year-old boy with this malformation. In 17 previously reported cases of CAPV, 2 were male. Three male patients, including our case, were Abernethy type Ib malformation. They had no associated liver tumour and two had no additional congenital abnormality. Conversely, 13 of the 15 female patients had congenital abnormalities and 6 had liver mass lesions.

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Gadolinium-labeled diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was evaluated in an effort to clarify whether MRI could replace or be proved to be superior to computerized tomography (CT) and/or transurethral ultrasonography. A total of 57 bladder cancer patients was evaluated. MRI was performed with a superconducting magnet operating at 1.5 Tesla. The images acquired were multisections, having a fast spin-echo pulse sequence of less than a 14-second breath holding. Serial scans were performed before and immediately after Gd-DTPA venous injection. The findings on different imaging techniques were compared with the histological stagings. A proper diagnosis was made in 42 of 57 cases (73.7%) by Gd-DTPA-enhanced MRI, in 27 of 57 (47.4%) by CT and in 31 of 57 (54.4%) by transurethral ultrasonography when comparing the histological findings. The sensitivity and specificity for differentiating superficial and muscle-invasive tumor of each imaging method were, respectively, 96.2 and 83.3% in Gd-DTPA-enhanced MRI, 96.0 and 58.3% in CT, and 88.0 and 66.7% in transurethral ultrasonography. These data suggest that the staging of bladder cancer by Gd-DTPA-enhanced MRI appears to be superior and more accurate than the staging obtained by CT and transurethral ultrasonography.

In this paper, we clarify theoretical aspects of the representative non-Gaussian filters: the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and the particle filter (PF). We first show that the EnKF is a realization algorithm of the linear optimal filter for nonlinear problems. We also show that under the Gaussian assumption for the predicted state, the EnKF provides a realization algorithm of the Gaussian filter. We next propose the multiple distribution estimation approach which is a novel framework for designing non-Gaussian filters and show that the PFs are special cases. We then propose a new PF algorithm to address the particle impoverishment problem inherent in the standard PF algorithms. We also show that by applying the proposed algorithm, we can improve the filtering accuracy of the Gaussian particle filter. We finally confirm the performance of each filter using two benchmark simulation models.

We assessed the performance capabilities of image intensifier digital radiography (11 DR) in the detection of minute lesions in patients with early stomach cancer. The DR system was a prototype II DR system developed by Toshiba Corp (Tokyo, Japan). This system was able to acquire images with a 1,024-x 1,024-pixel matrix and 12 bits. Radiography was performed using a 0.3-mm tube focus. For the detectability of early stomach cancer,