Mural Calcifications Research Articles

Contrast-enhanced colour duplex sonography of carotid arteries

By means of a multicenter study a new contrast medium (SHU SOS A, Schering, Berlin, Germany) for colour cluplex sonography (CDS) was tested in 29 patients with cerebrovascular disease who showed in the native investigation (computed sonography system Acuson 128 XMP, Acuson, Calif., USA) insufficient signal intensity (SI) caused by dorso-medial origin of the internal carotid artery (ICA), mural calcifications, and for optimal evaluation of stenosis-grading, plaque morphology and demonstration of a residual lumen of the ICA. In all cases sufficient-to-optimal rise in CDS SI occurred, and no serious events during or after contrast-medium application were observed. The test agent is considered to be a convenient drug for raising CDS Sl in patients with low native colour signals. A systematical analysis of the multicenter study follow this report.

Biliary cystadenoma and cystadenocarcinoma: CT and sonographic findings.

Biliary cystadenomas and cystadenocarcinomas are rare cystic neoplasms, usually intrahepatic in location, that are characterized pathologically by a multilocular appearance. We report the CT and sonographic findings in eight cases of biliary cystadenoma and three cases of biliary cystadenocarcinoma and correlate them with the surgical and pathologic findings. CT showed internal septa in eight of the 10 multiloculated lesions, whereas sonography showed septa in all five cases in which it was used. CT in two of the three cystadenocarcinomas showed thick and coarse mural and septal calcifications as well as large solid soft-tissue masses in one. CT showed mural soft-tissue nodules in the single case of a unilocular cystadenocarcinoma. Sonography and CT usually show the multilocular nature of biliary cystadenomas and cystadenocarcinomas. The presence of mural or septal nodules, discrete soft-tissue masses, and possibly thick and coarse calcifications increase the likelihood of a cystadenocarcinoma.