The small bowel CT enema technique provides good results in the study of patients with Crohn's disease and can be used to evaluate patients with advanced lesions.
The scrotal wall may be involved in a variety of pathologic processes. Such lesions may rise primarily from the layers of the scrotum or may be due to a process arising from scrotal content. Imaging is not needed in most cases, but it may be useful for making such differentiations and for evaluation of possible involvement of the testes and epididymides in cases of primary wall abnormalities. This pictorial essay will show the imaging findings observed in a variety of pathologic conditions affecting the scrotal wall, both common and unusual ones, with an emphasis on clinically relevant findings and features that lead to a specific diagnosis.
Background
The present study aimed to evaluate the added value of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (ceCT) in comparison to standard, non-enhanced CT in the context of a combined positron emission tomography (PET)/CT examination by means of a tumor-, site-, and clinical question-based approach.
Methods
Analysis was performed in 202 patients undergoing PET/CT consisting of a multiphase CT protocol followed by a whole-body PET. The Cochran Q test was performed, followed by a multiple comparisons correction (McNemar test and Bonferroni adjustment), to compare standard and contrast-enhanced PET (cePET/CT). Histopathology or clinical-radiologic follow-up greater than 1 year was used as a reference.
Results
cePET/CT showed significantly different results with respect to standard PET/CT in head and neck and gastrointestinal cancer (
P
= 0.02 and 0.0002, respectively), in the evaluation of lesions located in the abdomen (
P
= 0.009), and in the context of disease restaging (
P
= 0.003). In all these clinical scenarios, adding ceCT resulted in a distinct benefit, by yielding a higher percentage of change in patient management.
Conclusion
These data strongly underline the importance of strictly selecting patients for the combined exam. In particular, patient selection should not be driven solely by mere tumor classification, but should also account for the clinical question and the anatomical location of the neoplastic disease, which can significantly impact patient management.
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