Abdominal complications affect more than 80% of patients who undergo hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for treatment of benign or malignant hematologic disease and some solid tumors. HSCT can be performed using cells from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood. These stem cells may be from the patient him- or herself (autologous transplant), from relatives or nonrelatives with very similar human leukocyte antigen (allogeneic transplant), or from an identical twin (syngeneic transplant). Posttransplantation complications are classified according to the amount of time elapsed between transplantation and onset. Complications that occur during the first 100 days are divided into preengraftment phase complications (≤30 days after transplantation) and early posttransplantation phase complications (31-100 days after transplantation) and include infectious and noninfectious conditions such as hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), hemorrhagic cystitis, neutropenic colitis, benign pneumatosis, and acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Hepatic VOD, neutropenic colitis, and acute hemorrhagic cystitis are associated with the pretransplantation conditioning regimen. After the first 100 days, chronic GVHD and lymphoproliferative disease are the main complications. Computed tomography and ultrasonography are the primary imaging techniques used in HSCT patients and can help make an early diagnosis, grade the severity of impact, and (if necessary) recommend further investigations to confirm the diagnosis.

Blast injuries after terrorist attacks are seen with increasing frequency worldwide. Thousands of victims were attended in the hospitals of Madrid, Spain, on March 11, 2004 after the bombing attacks against the commuter trains. Thirty-six patients were attended in our institution. Seventeen of them suffered from severe or life-threatening injuries, and 19 had mild injuries. The most common lesions were thoracic trauma and blast lung injury, acoustic trauma, and orbital and paranasal sinus fractures. Other findings were hepatic and splenic lacerations, and vertebral and limb fractures. Emergency radiology had an important role in the correct management of the victims. Prompt radiological diagnoses of these complex lesions are crucial to efficient treatment. Therefore, radiologists have to become familiar with the injury patterns and specific lesions caused by blast wave.

ObjectivesTo compare staging correctness between contrast-enhanced FDG PET/ceCT and 64-slice multi–detector-row CT (ceCT64) for initial staging and response evaluation at the end of treatment (EOT) in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and follicular lymphoma.MethodsThis prospective study compared initial staging and response evaluation at EOT. One hundred eighty-one patients were randomly assigned to either ceCT64 or FDG PET/ceCT. A nuclear medicine physician and a radiologist read FDG PET/ceCT scans independently and achieved post hoc consensus, whereas another independent radiologist interpreted ceCT64 separately. The reference standard included all clinical information, all tests, and follow-up. Ethics committees of the participating centers approved the study, and all participants provided written consent.ResultsNinety-one patients were randomized to ceCT64 and 90 to FDG PET/ceCT; 72 had Hodgkin lymphoma, 72 had DLBCL, and 37 had follicular lymphoma. There was excellent correlation between the reference standard and initial staging for both FDG PET/ceCT (κ = 0.96) and ceCT64 (κ = 0.84), although evaluation of the response at EOT was excellent only for FDG PET/ceCT (κ = 0.91).ConclusionsOur study demonstrated satisfactory agreement between FDG PET/ceCT (κ = 0.96) and ceCT64 (κ = 0.84) in initial staging compared with the reference standard (P = 0.16). Response evaluation at EOT with FDG PET/ceCT (κ = 0.91) was superior compared with ceCT64 (κ = 0.307) (P < 0.001).

Purpose To compare the agreement between whole-body (WB) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, 18 F-FDG PET/CT, and skeletal survey (SS) in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) for diagnosis, initial staging, response evaluation, and early detection of complications. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study including MM patients who were diagnosed, treated, and followed in 2 institutions. These patients were studied with SS, WB-MR, and/or 18 F-FDG PET/CT. We studied bone lesions by anatomical locations and analyzed the concordance between SS and a tomographic technique (WB-MR or 18 F-FDG PET/CT) and between both tomographic techniques (WB-MR and PET/CT). Results Forty-four MM patients with a mean age of 62.6 years (range, 38–85 years) were included from January 2012 to February 2016. Whole-body MR and 18 F-FDG PET/CT found more lesions than SS in every location except in the skull. Concordance between WB-MR and 18 F-FDG PET/CT was either good or excellent in most of the locations and in plasmacytoma studies. However, WB-MR was better than 18 F-FDG PET/CT in the study of complications (medullar compression and vascular necrosis). Conclusions Our results suggest the study of MM patients should include WB-MR and/or 18 F-FDG PET/CT, whereas SS is only useful for the skull. Whole-body MR and 18 F-FDG PET/CT are complementary techniques, because both of them show good concordance in almost every location. It is still necessary to individualize the indication of each technique according to patient characteristics.

Aim of the performed clinical study was to compare the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of PET/CT in the staging of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Material and Methods. Cross-sectional and prospective study including 103 patients with histologically confirmed NSCLC. All patients were examined using PET/CT with intravenous contrast medium. Those with disease stage ≤IIB underwent surgery (n = 40). Disease stage was confirmed based on histology results, which were compared with those of PET/CT and positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) separately. 63 patients classified with ≥IIIA disease stage by PET/CT did not undergo surgery. The cost-effectiveness of PET/CT for disease classification was examined using a decision tree analysis. Results. Compared with histology, the accuracy of PET/CT for disease staging has a positive predictive value of 80%, a negative predictive value of 95%, a sensitivity of 94%, and a specificity of 82%. For PET alone, these values are 53%, 66%, 60%, and 50%, whereas for CT alone they are 68%, 86%, 76%, and 72%, respectively. Incremental cost-effectiveness of PET/CT over CT alone was €17,412 quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). Conclusion. In our clinical study, PET/CT using intravenous contrast medium was an accurate and cost-effective method for staging of patients with NSCLC.