A blinded clinical comparison of MR imaging and CT in neuroradiology

The sensitivity and specificity of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and computed tomography (CT) were compared in blinded readings of images of a consecutive series of patients with subsequently proved diagnoses. Overall, MR imaging was less sensitive than CT because of its lower sensitivity in detecting benign tumors. With a similar experimental protocol, the effects of technical refinements or contrast media on the sensitivity of MR imaging can be determined.     

Percutaneous transluminal dilatation of the iliac artery: long-term results

One hundred fifty-four patients with stenosis of the iliac artery underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). These patients were followed for 1-7 years. The long-term results of the PTAs were analyzed by computer, and life tables were generated for dilatations of the iliac arteries with unimpaired flow and for those with an obstruction in the outflow tract. The accumulative 7-year patency rate was 90%, which agrees with other reports. This study demonstrates that the long-term results of PTA of iliac arterial stenoses are competitive with reconstructive vascular surgery. PTA should be the treatment of choice in patients with iliac arterial stenoses.     

Present-day aspects (diagnosis, clinical course and treatment) of acute progressive pulmonary tuberculosis

A total of 103 patients with acute progressive pulmonary tuberculosis whose age ranged from 18 to 60 years were examined. Caseous pneumonic, infiltrative-caseous, disseminated, and rapidly progressive fibrocavernous tuberculosis was found in 45.6, 17.5, 16.5, and 20.4% of cases, respectively. The clinical picture was characterized by its acute onset with significant intoxication syndrome. Moreover, all the patients had respiratory and immunological failure, varying disseminated intravascular coagulation syndrome, non-specific bronchopulmonary infection; some presented with pulmonary hemorrhage, spontaneous pneumothorax and pleural empyema. The sputum smear test was positive in all the patients. If there was no evidence for drug resistance, patients had a 4-month regimen using isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, ethembutol, and kanamycin. In the subsequent 10-12 months, isoniazid, rifampicin, and ethambutol were given. The patients with multidrug resistant tuberculosis were administered protionamide, ofloxacin, amikacin, supplemented by pyrazinamide and ethambutol. The combined chemotherapy could stop bacterial isolation in more than 80% of patients, make the process stable, and prepare them for planned surgical treatment. When complications occurred and the disease was in steady progress, salvage operations were made, which was the only possible way of preventing the progression of disease at times and of saving life in the patient.     

Study of crystalline structures of the bile in the diagnosis of cholelithiasis

Under analysis were results of polarization microscopy of bile in 111 patients with cholelithiasis, 8 patients with acalculous cholecystitis and 8 practically healthy people. It was found that in healthy people there are no crystalline structures in the initial state of bile. The composition of bile from patients with cholelithiasis is characterized by the presence of three types of crystals: solid crystals of cholesterol monohydrate, calcium bilirubinate granules and calcium carbonate microspherolites. Polarization microscopy of bile may be used as a sufficiently simple method of diagnostics of stone disease.     

Multiple sclerosis: specificity of MR for diagnosis

The specificity of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been measured systematically. Conventional MR head images with sagittal localizer and axial multiple-echo sequences with long repetition times were obtained in 92 patients with clinically verified MS (Schumacher criteria), 100 healthy volunteers, 60 subjects with hypertension, and eight patients with dementia. Two readers, without the aid of any clinical or demographic information, classified each of the 260 studies as MS or not MS. The readers classified the studies again after being supplied with the subjects' ages and sex. True-negative and true-positive diagnoses of MS were tabulated. The specificity of the MR diagnosis of MS (true-negative results in proportion to all non-MS studies) was 95%-99% with all the control groups included. There is a small risk of misinterpreting incidental periventricular white matter foci as plaques of MS in MR studies.     

Contact dissolution of gallstones]

The techniques and results of contact dissolution of stones in the gallbladder of 27 patients subjected to laparoscopic cholecystostomy for acute cholecystitis were analysed. It was found that the main factors impeding effective dissolution were: the size of the stones over 1.5 cm and admixture of pigment in the concrements. The first Soviet produced litholytic preparation Oktalgin, synthesized by the authors jointly with the Zelinsky IOCh, AMS USSR, was used as the main solvent. The principal possibility of dissolving multiple stones of the gallbladder through laparoscopic cholecystostomy is proved.