Objectives: To evaluate the reliability of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in the diagnosis of local recurrence of malignant soft-tissue tumors after receiving treatment. Methods: From March 2002 till December 2009 we performed dynamic contrast enhanced MRI in 95 patients with soft-tissue tumor after receiving treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy). Patients were classifi ed according to fi ve types of TIC.Results: The recurrent disease was suspected in 47 patients and the biopsy was recommended. In 8 cases (TIC II), the biopsy was performed due to long-term post-treatment changes. Histological results proved STT recurrence in 45 patients; in 10 patients (8 with TIC II), biopsy revealed hypervascular granulation tissue, fl orid infl ammation and reactive changes. The sensitivity for dynamic contrast-enhanced MR examination was 100 %, specifi city 80 %, positive predictive value (PPV) 95.7 % and negative predictive value (NPV) 100 %. Conclusion: Our results indicate that TICs III, IV and V raise high suspicion of local tumor recurrence and require percutaneous imaging-guided biopsy. TIC of type II usually represents a pseudomass and the biopsy should be performed only in selected cases with increased risk of recurrent disease based on multidisciplinary approach. On the basis of literature review as well as our experiences we created a reliable algorithm proposed for diagnosing the residual or recurrent soft-tissue tumors (Tab. 2, Fig. 6, Ref. 20). Full Text in PDF www.elis.sk.

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of multiparametric MR imaging to an exact determination of the extent of invasive ductal and lobular breast cancers in routine clinical practice.180 women aged 27-74 years (median 52.4 years) with newly diagnosed invasive ductal and lobular breast cancers confirmed by core-cut or vacuum-assisted biopsy were examined by all three imaging modalities, i.e. digital X-ray mammography, ultrasonography and 3T MR-mammography. In case of MR-mammography an extended protocol, i.e. combination of morphological breast MRI + DCE + DWI was used. For overall detection and determination of the extent of invasive breast cancers (IDC + ILC) MRmammography alone reached the diagnostic accuracy of 72.48%, while X-ray mammography 69.12% and ultrasonography 59.87%. In cases of ILC combination of X-ray mammography and MR-mammography with sensitivity of 96.15% was the most effective. In comparison with X-ray mammography and ultrasonography MR-mammography had higher sensitivity (96.15%, versus 90.28%) in the diagnosis of multifocal/ multicentric invasive lobular carcinoma and invasive ductal carcinoma with extensive intraductal component, as well. 3T MR-mammography is an effective complementary consulting modality to digital X-ray mammography and ultrasonography, and it is particularly beneficial in the detection of additional mammographically and ultrasonografically occult breast lesions, as well as in the determination of the real extent of pathological changes in the ipsilateral and contralateral breast. Key words: MR-mammography, occult breast cancer, invasive ductal cancer, invasive lobular cancer, multifocality, multicentricityDetection and diagnosis of breast lesions are primarily based on the X-ray mammography, both in group of asymptomatic women in screening program as well as in women with palpation findings. The main goal is to find any changes, try to determine their extent and to assess local spread. The sensitivity of X-ray mammography varies according to technical parameters, physician competence and measurement criteria, and is reported between 69% and 90% [1]. Furthermore, X-ray mammography (MG) and ultrasonography (US) is limited by soft tissue contrast and the ability to measure tumor vascularity. Women with suspicious X-ray mammography are referred for additional targeted mammography examinations and breast ultrasound, followed by percutaneous biopsy. Approximately in 10-20 % of patients with benign changes in preoperative histology are found one or more occult malignant lesions in the definitive histology of surgically retrieved tissue [2, 3, 4]. Those lesions cause morphological and functional changes in the MR image, but do not correlate with mammographical and ultrasonographical images. The potential of MR -mammography currently lies in the high sensitivity of dynamic contrast-enhanced images (DCE) for the detection of malignant breast tumors (92-99 %) [5,6]. Since only a few studies correlate histopathological findings with the extent and nature of changes in the MR im...

Escherichia coli was isolated from the urine of patients with pyelonephritis, with urinary tract infections other than pyelonephritis and with asymptomatic bacteriuria. Surface properties of the strains were analyzed by the salting-out aggregation test (SAT), hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC), Congo red binding (Crb), agglutination of erythrocytes (MRHA) and latex particles covered by digalactoside (PF) and by adherence to tissue culture cells. In addition, a DNA probe for the pap gene was used. The DNA probe detected the highest proportion of strains with pap gene in the group of patients with pyelonephritis, lower in the urinary tract infections other than pyelonephritis and the lowest in the group with asymptomatic bacteriuria. Tests for P-fimbriae (PF, MRHA) showed a similar distribution. Hydrophobicity measured by SAT and by HIC did not show differences among the tested groups of strains. The results suggest that factors other than the P-fimbriae and hydrophobicity may contribute to the persistence of E. coli in the urinary tract.