Since May 2022, an outbreak of monkeypox has been ongoing in non-endemic countries. We report four cases in Italy in young adult men reporting condomless sexual intercourse. The patients are in good clinical condition with no need for specific antiviral drugs. Biological samples from seminal fluid were positive for monkeypox viral DNA. For many other viruses found in semen there is no evidence of sexual transmission. The possibility of sexual transmission of monkeypox virus needs to be investigated.

This preliminary clinical experience seems to confirm the possibility of using SonoVue enhanced US to make a differential diagnosis between infectious and neoplastic lesions based on a qualitative and quantitative assessment, by evaluating the enhancement pattern (homogeneous or inhomogeneous), arrival time of the contrast agent in the lesion, the possibility to identify the pulmonary arteries and time of contrast agent elimination.

Ultrasound (US) imaging of the spleen was considered of little use in the past and was performed only to distinguish between cystic and solid lesions. However, in the last decade due to experience acquired and the introduction of second-generation contrast agents, this technique has been re-evaluated as contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) allows detection and characterization of most focal lesions of the spleen with a high sensitivity and a good specificity. Gray-scale US presents a low specificity in splenic infarctions with a high rate of false negative cases, whereas specificity reaches 100 %, if the examination is performed using US contrast agents. Gray-scale US can provide a correct diagnosis in simple cysts, whereas CEUS is useful when cystic lymphangioma is suspected. In the study of splenic lesions, the most important problem is to differentiate between angioma, hamartoma, lymphoma, and metastasis. CEUS reaches a good specificity in the differentiation of benign from malignant splenic lesions, as hypo-enhancement in the parenchymal phase is predictive of malignancy in 87 % of cases. In conclusion, Gray-scale US and particularly CEUS are at present widely indicated in the study of focal splenic lesions.Keywords Focal splenic lesion Á Splenic angioma/ hamartoma Á Splenic cysts Riassunto L'ecografia splenica è stata considerata nel passato poco utile ed indicata solo nella diagnosi differenziale tra lesioni cistiche e solide. Nell'ultimo decennio grazie alla maggior esperienza ed all'utilizzo dei mezzi di contrasto ecografici di II generazione (CEUS), questa metodica è stata rivalutata, in quanto consente di evidenziare e caratterizzare con elevata sensibilità e buona specificità la maggior parte delle lesioni focali della milza. Negli infarti splenici l'ecografia B-Mode ha una bassa specificità con elevata percentuale di falsi negativi, mentre questa risulta il 100 %, quanto l'esame è eseguito con i mezzi di contrasto ecografici. Nelle cisti semplici l'esame ecografico è sufficiente per porre una corretta diagnosi, mentre la CEUS può risultare utile nel sospetto di linfoangioma cistico. Il problema più importante a livello splenico è quello di definire con la maggior accuratezza possibile la diagnosi differenziale tra Angioma/Amartoma e Linfoma/Metastasi. La CEUS presenta nella lesioni spleniche una buona specificità nel differenziare una lesione benigna da una maligna, in quanto la presenza di ipoehnancement in fase parenchimale è predittiva nell'87 % dei casi di malignità. In conclusione l'ecografia B-Mode ed ancor più la CEUS trova al momento attuale ampie indicazioni nelle lesioni focali spleniche.

In resource-limited countries, the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is based on clinical findings, chest radiography and the demonstration of acid-fast bacilli in sputum. Few data are available on the use of ultrasound (US) to diagnose pulmonary TB. Chest US was performed in patients with lung TB from a rural African setting, to look for signs of the disease and to clarify the role US may have in the diagnosis of pulmonary TB. Sixty adult patients diagnosed with lung TB underwent chest US. All patients had abnormal findings. The most frequent was a subpleural nodule (SUN), which was mostly multiple and also found in radiologically normal areas. Other findings were lung consolidations, cavitations, miliary patterns made of miniature SUNs, and pleural and pericardial effusions. Chest US is a complementary tool in evaluating patients with suspected lung TB in resource-limited settings where the disease has high prevalence.

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