Clinical and subclinical cardiovascular disease in female SLE patients: Interplay between body mass index and bone mineral density

Background and aims

Since accelerated atherosclerosis has been reported in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), predictive biomarkers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are needed. Among non-traditional risk factors, bone mineral density (BMD) has been related to CVD. However, its role in SLE remains controversial. This study aims to analyze the associations of subclinical atherosclerosis with traditional and non-traditional CV risk factors.

Clinical outcomes of bypass-first versus endovascular-first strategy in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia due to infrageniculate arterial disease

Background

Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI), defined as ischemic rest pain or tissue loss secondary to arterial insufficiency, is caused by multilevel arterial disease with frequent, severe infrageniculate disease. The rise in CLTI is in part the result of increasing worldwide prevalence of diabetes, renal insufficiency, and advanced aging of the population. The aim of this study was to compare a bypass-first with an endovascular-first revascularization strategy in patients with CLTI due to infrageniculate arterial disease.

Littoral‐cell angioma as a rare cause of splenomegaly

We report the case of a littoral‐cell angioma of the spleen, a recently described benign vascular tumour, whose imaging and pathological characteristics have been discussed only by a few authors. The diagnosis was made after elective splenectomy. The CT images, scintigraphy and histological specimens are presented, and differential diagnoses discussed.     

Multi-day radon signals with a radioactive decay limb -- occurrence and geophysical significance.

Multi-day signals, generally with duration of 2-10 days, are a prominent temporal variation type of radon (Rn) in geogas in the unsaturated zone. Rare multi-day Rn signals have been found which are characterized by: (a) a declining limb lasting up to 10 days which conforms to the radioactive decay of Rn, (b) recurs at the same location and (c) is recorded in diverse situations-volcanic and seismogenic. It suggested that a Rn blob is injected at a lower level on a steady upward flow of geogas whereby the rise and final fall of the signal are attributed to the edges of the blob while the central Rn-decay segment records the passing of the decaying blob itself. Rn-decay signals are a small subset of multi-day Rn signals which are considered as highly irregular and unusable for the understanding of geophysical processes. In difference, it is concluded that multi-day Rn signals are probably proxies of subtle geodynamic processes at upper crustal levels and are therefore significant for studying such processes.     

Fast CT-PRESS-based spiral chemical shift imaging at 3 Tesla.

A new sequence is presented that combines constant-time point-resolved spectroscopy (CT-PRESS) with fast spiral chemical shift imaging. It allows the acquisition of multivoxel spectra without line splitting with a minimum total measurement time of less than 5 min for a field of view of 24 cm and a nominal 1.5x1.5-cm2 in-plane resolution. Measurements were performed with 17 CS encoding steps in t1 (Deltat1=12.8 ms) and an average echo time of 151 ms, which was determined by simulating the CT-PRESS experiment for the spin systems of glutamate (Glu) and myo-inositol (mI). Signals from N-acetyl-aspartate, total creatine, choline-containing compounds (Cho), Glu, and mI were detected in a healthy volunteer with no or only minor baseline distortions within 14 min on a 3 T MR scanner.