high-pitch chest CT is a robust method to provide highest image quality making sedation or controlled ventilation for the examination of infants, small or uncooperative children unnecessary, whereas maintaining low radiation dose values.

Background and aims:Apart from surgery, treatment of rectal cancer increasingly involves the use of (neo-)adjuvant strategies. To optimize the selection process for these therapy regimens, especially in the field of cellular and molecular biology, new prognostic factors additional to the established TNM system are being investigated. Patients and methods: Two groups of patients (n=2×85) with rectal carcinoma curatively treated by surgery alone were studied retrospectively (median follow-up 6.1 years). To exclude the effect of the surgeon only patients free of locally recurrent disease were selected. Patient groups were matched for age, gender, UICC stage, and year of operation (1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991) and differed only in subsequent metachronous distant metastatic spread, i.e., the criterion to be studied. The factors investigated in uni-and multivariate analysis were angiogenesis, density of dendritic cells, grading, venous inva-sion, and lymphatic invasion. Results: Grading invariably proved to be the only significant prognostic factor. In univariate analysis the absence of venous invasion was also correlated significantly with increased disease-free survival. Conclusion: Angiogenesis and dendritic cell density are not prognostic factors for metachronous distant metastasis in rectal cancer and therefore cannot serve as selection parameters for adjuvant therapy.

Pediatric MR imaging using a 1.5 Tesla MR scanner with an open design can be conducted in children and adolescents with excellent acceptance. The failure rate of 3.0 % of cases for pediatric MR imaging is comparable to that of a conventional low-field open MR scanner.

Angiogenesis and density of dendritic cells in rectal cancer are not prognostic factors for metachronous distant metastasis and, therefore, cannot serve as selection parameters for adjuvant therapy.

VIBE with iPAT allows MR imaging of the liver with high spatial and temporal resolution providing dynamic contrast-enhanced information about the whole liver. This may lead to improved detection of liver lesions, especially hepatocellular carcinoma.