Alveolar hydatid disease of the liver: Brief review and spectrum of adjacent organ invasion

The purpose of this study is to show the spectrum of adjacent organ invasion and to make a brief review of hepatic alveolar hydatid disease (AHD), using CT and MR imaging. We retrospectively reviewed CT and MR images of three patients with various adjacent organ invasions surgically and histologically proven to be AHD. Local invasion to right kidney and adrenal, right hemidiaphragm and lung were detected in one patient, right adrenal in another patient and gall bladder, duodenum, gastric wall and pancreas invasion in the other. AHD may rarely extend to the gall bladder, stomach, duodenum, pancreas, right adrenal and kidney, diaphragm, pleura and lung. The extension of the disease outside the liver is usually encountered in patients with large, peripherally located masses in the advanced stage of the disease.     

Deprivation of form vision suppresses diurnal cycling of retinal levels of leu-enkephalin

Deprivation of form vision by the fitting of translucent occluders suppressed the diurnal cycling of enkephalinergic amacrine cells (the ENSLI amacrine cells), in the chicken. Daily periods of normal vision or enforcing temporal contrast using strobe lighting appeared to restore normal functioning of the ENSLI cells. These results suggest that the ENSLI cells are involved in retinal circuits that assess the quality of the visual image and control eye growth.     

Surface-coil MR imaging of orbital neoplasms

Fifteen patients with orbital neoplasms demonstrated by CT were studied with magnetic resonance (MR) using a 13 cm surface coil and a 0.6 T superconducting magnet. The use of a surface coil allowed for a reduction in slice thickness and a significant improvement in spatial resolution resulting in better demonstration and improved characterization of orbital lesions. All neoplasms (15/15) were demonstrated by MR. The lesions were grouped into four main categories on the basis of signal intensities on T1- and T2-weighted images. CT was superior to MR in displaying densely calcified or bony lesions (two of 15 cases). MR was at least equal or superior to CT in demonstrating the other lesions (13 of 15 cases) and had the added advantage of improved tissue characterization in some cases. With the use of surface coils, MR could become the primary imaging technique for evaluation of orbital neoplasms.