Purpose: To investigate the relationship between the iodine concentration (IC) of perigastric fat tissue as assessed by dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) and serosal invasion of gastric cancer. Materials and methods: A total of 41 patients underwent preoperative staging evaluation for gastric cancer using DECT between July 2015 and March 2018. Patients were divided into two groups based on pathology results: serosal invasion (stage T4a) and intact serosa (stage T1?T3). Cut-off values, the diagnostic efficacy of IC in the perigastric fat tissue, and the perigastric fat tissue/tumor (P/T) ratio were determined. Results: Among the 41 patients, 22 had stage T4a gastric cancer, and 19 patients had gastric cancer with a stage lower than T4a. The mean IC of perigastric fat tissue and the P/T ratio were significantly higher in patients with serosal invasion than in those with intact serosa (p<0.001). During the arterial phase, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.915 and 0.854 for the IC of perigastric fat tissue and the P/T ratio, respectively. During the venous phase, the AUC was 0.890 and 0.876 for the IC of perigastric fat tissue and the P/T ratio, respectively. Conclusion: The IC in the perigastric fat tissue seems to be a reliable indicator for serosal invasion of gastric cancer.

The Pipeline Flex Embolization Device (PED Flex) is a new updated version of the PED classic that incorporates a new delivery system to allow facilitation of stent deployment, resheathing, and removal of the capture coil. This study evaluated the PED Flex in terms of the technical aspects of the procedure and first-year follow-up results. This retrospective study involved prospectively collected data from May 2015 to August 2017. The primary endpoint was technical aspects of the procedure, and the secondary endpoint was first-year follow-up results. Forty-nine patients with 59 target intracranial aneurysms were enrolled. Patients’ mean age was 52 years (range 21−71 years), and 31 (63.0%) were female. All aneurysms except for three were unruptured. The mean aneurysm diameter was 8 mm. Forty-seven patients with 56 aneurysms were successfully treated. Due to advancement, repositioning, and migration problems, 8 (13.1%) stents were not deployed and discharged. The total aneurysm occlusion rate was 77.0%. The mortality rate was 4.3%. Our experience shows that the applicability and safety of the renewed delivery system provided by PED Flex for improving device apposition and opening has been proven with one-year angiographic and clinical follow-up results.

Objective: The main purpose of the present study was to determine the effectivity of computerized tomography (CT) in detecting breast masses and discriminating masses as malignant or benign. Material and Methods: After having received the institutional local ethics committee approval, an experienced radiologist who did not participate in the study created a patient pool by searching our health center's Pathology department database between 2010 and 2018. The group created consisted of dense and non-dense breast types equally and included approximately similar percentages of benign and malignant breast mass sizes. Finally, 70 subjects were included: 30 females with definite malign, 20 with definite benign breast masses, and 20 without any breast pathology based on mammography and ultrasonography results, who were considered as the control group. Three experienced Radiologists (R1, R2, R3) who were not aware of the final diagnosis evaluated all images independently. Radiologist performance was assessed by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and interobserver reliability values were estimated by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis. Results: The diagnostic accuracy suitability of CT according to BI-RADS scores for R1, R2 and R3 were found as p<0.001, p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively. There were significant interobserver reliability rates between all investigators (p=0.0001). Conclusion: CT may be used as a valuable diagnostic tool in discriminating breast masses with further training in widely varying appearances of normal breast tissues leading to false positive findings.

Introduction: The workload of physicians increased due to the number of patients presenting with suspicion of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) and the prolonged wait times in the emergency department during the COVID-19 pandemic. Signal peptide-CUB-EGF domain-containing protein 1 (SCUBE-1) is a protein present in platelets and endothelial cells; it is activated by inflammation from COVID-19 and may be associated with COVID-19’s known thrombotic risk. We aimed to determine whether SCUBE-1 levels are diagnostically correlated in suspected COVID-19 patients, and whether SCUBE-1 correlated with severity of disease and, therefore, might be useful to guide hospitalization/discharge decisions. Methods: The suspected COVID-19 patients cared for at tertiary healthcare institutions for one year between May 2021–May 2022 were examined in this study. The subjects were both suspected COVID-19 patients not ultimately found to have COVID-19 and those who were diagnosed with COVID-19. By modifying the disease severity scoring systems present in COVID-19 guidelines in 2021, the COVID-19-positive patient group was classified as mild, moderate, severe, and critical, and compared using the SCUBE-1 levels. Moreover, SCUBE-1 levels were compared between the COVID-19 positive group and the COVID-19 negative group. Results: A total of 507 patients were considered for the present study. After excluding 175 patients for incomplete data and alternate comorbid organ failure. we report on 332 patients (65.5%). Of these 332 patients, 80 (24.0%) were COVID-19 negative, and 252 (76.0%) were COVID-19 positive. Of 252 (100%) patients diagnosed with COVID-19, 74 (29.4%) were classified as mild, 95 (37.7%) moderate, 45 (17.8%) severe, and 38 (15.1%) critical. The SCUBE-1 levels were statistically different between COVID-19 positive (8.48 ± 7.42 nanograms per milliliter [ng/mL]) and COVID-19 negative (1.86 ± 0.92 ng/mL) patients (P < 0.001). In the COVID-19 positive group, SCUBE-1 levels increased with disease severity (mild = 3.20 ± 1.65 ng/mL, moderate = 4.78 ± 2.26 ng/mL, severe = 13.68 ± 3.95 ng/mL, and critical = 21.87 ± 5.39 ng/mL) (P < 0.001). The initial SCUBE-1 levels of discharged patients were significantly lower than those requiring hospitalization (discharged = 2.89 ng/mL [0.55–8.60 ng/mL]; ward admitted = 7.13 ng/mL [1.38–21.29 ng/mL], and ICU admitted = 21.19 ng/mL [10.58–37.86 ng/mL]) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The SCUBE-1 levels were found to be differentiated between patients with and without COVID-19 and to be correlated with the severity of illness.