Dear Friends,
An easy case to get ready for summer vacation. Images belong to a 43-year-old woman with recurrent episodes of chest pain. What would be your diagnosis?
Check the images below, leave your thoughts in the comments section and come back on Friday for the answer.
For this month’s ESR News interview we spoke to Prof. Hans-Ulrich Kauczor, from Heidelberg, Germany, who serves on the ESR Executive Council as chair of the ESR Research Committee. He gave us an insight into the workings and recent achievements of his committee, as well as his own background within the ESR.
ESR Office: What is the main purpose of the ESR Research Committee (RC) and how does it work in practice?
Hans-Ulrich Kauczor: The main purpose of the RC is strategic. The RC provides strategic recommendations to the ESR Executive Council. To do this properly, the RC surveys and supports the need of researchers in radiology. Also, the RC leverages the research-focused collaboration with other disciplines and their respective European societies.
One recent major achievement in this regard was the collaboration with the European Respiratory Society (ERS), where we agreed on joint recommendations on lung cancer screening in Europe, which we published in May 2015 simultaneously in European Radiology and the European Respiratory Journal.
Other major collaborations are in the field of imaging biomarkers together with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and the RSNA’s Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA), as well as imaging biobanks with the Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-ERIC).
Prof. Hans-Ulrich Kauczor, chair of the ESR Research Committee
ESR: Can you explain the role of the Research Committee’s subcommittees and the recent structural changes that have taken place?
HUK: Just over two years ago, three additional working groups were established under the umbrella of the RC. Working groups exist temporarily to accomplish a certain goal for the ESR. The main goal of each of these working groups was to write and publish an opinion or white paper in their field. The outcomes in each of these fields were as follows:
Read more…
A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine raises some very interesting questions about the future of imaging service provision. Who are we as radiologists, and where do we want to go? Are we running “imaging factories” or “clinical imaging services”? We would like to hear what you think in the comments section at the bottom of this article.
Are modern radiologists just cogs in an image production machine?
Dr. Saurabh Jha is a radiologist working in the Department of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Before that, he had a professional life as a surgical trainee on this side of the pond, in England. In a paper entitled From imaging gatekeeper to service provider – a transatlantic journey
(N Engl J Med 2013:369:5-7) he underlines the differences between the way he perceived radiologists when he worked in Europe as a surgeon and the way he practices radiology in the USA. English radiologists were gatekeepers: that is, they provided imaging studies only when they were really appropriate and necessary according to their clinical judgement. American radiologists are service providers; that is they perform and read the examinations requested according to the referring physicians’s clinical judgement.
“Evaluation of radiological services in the USA is based on the volume of examinations and turnaround time; the higher the number of studies, the better it is for the department.”
Dr. Jha explains that this difference is mostly related to the fact that imaging was a scarce commodity when he was working for the British National Health Service while, on the contrary, there is abundance of CT scanners, MRI machines, and technologists in the United States. Another explanation is that evaluation of radiological services in the USA is based on the volume of examinations and turnaround time. In such a case, the higher the number of studies, the better it is for the department.
Read more…
Dear Friends,
Today I am presenting images of a 72-year-old man with pain in the sternum. Check the images below, leave your thoughts in the comments section and come back on Friday for the answer.
Diagnosis:
1. Metastases
2. Chondrosarcoma
3. Osteomyelitis
4. Any of the above
Dear Friends,
Today I am showing a case provided by my former resident and good friend Dr. Nadine Romera. Images belong to an 87-year-old man with TB in the past. He presents now with loss of weight and low-grade fever.
What do you see?
Check the images below, leave your thoughts in the comments section, and come back on Friday for the answer.
Dear Friends,
Only three more cases until summer vacation! Present images belong to a 58-year-old man with fever and malaise. Patient is allergic to contrast media. Have a look at the images below, leave your thoughts in the comments section, and come back on Friday for the answer.
Diagnosis:
1. Esophageal leiomyoma
2. Duplication cyst
3. Aortic aneurysm
4. Any of the above
Dear Friends,
Since summer is coming (Game of Thrones revisited), I am presenting an easy case today. Images belong to an asymptomatic 67-year-old female with scleroderma. She had a lung transplant last year and a gastrostomy one month ago.
What do you see?
Check the images below, leave your thoughts in the comments section and come back on Friday for the answer.
Dear Friends,
Today I am showing radiographs of a 48-year-old woman, native of Central America, with endometrial carcinoma. Check the images below, leave your thoughts in the comments section, and come back on Friday for the answer.
Diagnosis:
1. Lung metastases
2. Pneumonia
3. Parasitic disease
4. None of the above
Dear Friends,
My good friend and former resident Romá Vidal sent me some images of a 39-year-old man with cough and moderate fever. Have a look at the images below, leave your thoughts in the comments section, and come back on Friday for the answer.
Diagnosis:
1. TB
2. RUL collapse
3. Fungus ball
4. None of the above
Dear Friends,
Today I am showing PA radiographs of a 52-year-old man with cough and mild fever. Take a look at the images below, leave me your thoughts in the comments section and come back on Friday for the answer.
Diagnosis:
1. Inferior accesory fissure
2. RLL collapse
3. Pneumonia of medial RLL segment
4. None of the above
