Over recent years the professional role of the radiologist has been evolved due to the increasing involvement in the clinical management of the patient. Radiologists have thus been increasingly charged by new duties and liabilities, exposing them to higher risks of legal claims made against them. Malpractice lawsuits in radiology are commonly related to inappropriate medical care or to the poor physician-patient relationship. In the present paper, we provide overview of the basic principles of the medical malpractice law and the main legal issues and causes of legal actions against diagnostic and interventional radiologists. We also address some issues to help radiologists to reduce risks and consequences of malpractice lawsuits. These include (1) following the standard of care to the best of their ability, (2) cautious use of off-label devices, (3) better communication skills among healthcare workers and with the patient, and (4) ensuring being covered by adequate malpractice insurance. Lastly, we described definitions of some medicolegal terms and concepts that are thought to be useful for radiologists to know.

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Aortic remodeling and clinical outcome after TEVAR can be influenced by procedural techniques (post-dilation and embolization of the left subclavian artery in patients with acute but not chronic aortic dissection).

Rapid scan techniques have introduced new sequence parameters as well as novel contrast concepts into everyday magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In particular contrast characteristics of fast-spin echo (FSE) sequences showed some significant differences when compared to conventional spin echo images. The purpose of this work was to demonstrate the capabilities of FSE MRI in identifying and characterizing the in vivo anatomy of the main cerebral associative systems. Between March and November 1995, 20 healthy adult volunteers (12 males, 8 females, mean age 35 years) were submitted to a cranial MRI examination (1.5 Philips Gyroscan NT). In all cases axial and coronal 2-dimensional FSE T2-weighted and 2-dimensional inversion recovery FSE T1-weighted images were obtained. All MRI images were examined by a neuroradiologist (G. Dal Pozzo) for the depiction of the following compact white matter fiber bundles: anterior commissure, corpus callosum, superior fronto-occipital fasciculus, cingulum, fornix, mammillothalamic tract, uncinate fasciculus, superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculus. All these associative pathways could be well identified on T2-weighted images due to a lower signal intensity with respect to the surrounding white matter. On T1-weighted images only the corpus callosum, the anterior commissure and the fornix could always be identified. Correlation with myelin-specific colorations (Luxol fast blue stains) in anatomic atlases and a review of the literature on the myelinization process during infancy indicate that the short T2 relaxation times of the aforementioned cerebral associative systems may be due to heavy myelination and high fiber density. The correct visualization of interintrahemispheric associative white matter fiber bundles may play an important role in white matter disorders like dys- and demyelinating diseases and in the spreading of vasogenic edema and/or tumor being useful for their staging.