Presence Of Fat Tissue Research Articles

Mesenchymal tumors of the stomach: radiologic and pathologic correlation.

Mesenchymal tumors of the stomach are uncommon, with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) being the most common among them. Majority of the tumors may arise from cells of Cajal, smooth muscle cells, neural cells, totipotent stem cells, adipocytes or fibroblasts. Imaging plays an important role not only in staging but also in characterizing these tumors. Many of these tumors have characteristic imaging features. GISTs usually present as large cavitating and necrotic tumors with exophytic component. Presence of fat tissue within the tumor suggests a lipoma or a teratoma, early phase hyperenhancement indicates glomus tumor and hemangioma, and delayed contrast enhancement is seen in schwannoma. Their differentiation from epithelial tumors like carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors is often possible based on the location (mesenchymal tumors are intramural), spread, morphological appearance and enhancement patterns. However, overlapping features exist between these tumors with imaging often being only suggestive. A biopsy is necessary for a definitive diagnosis in many cases.

Intestinal ultrasonography in pediatric population.

Bowel ultrasound (US) is a low-cost, non-invasive, bed side practice and a reproducible procedure that represents a high yield tool in clinical practice and in the diagnostic workup of a consistent group of acute and chronic gastrointestinal (GI) tract disease. Moreover, in case of GI diseases of neonatal and pediatric age, it allows an easier evaluation due to the small body size and scarce presence of fat tissue in the abdominal wall and peritoneal cavity and gas content. No particular preparation of the patient is needed, nevertheless a 3- to 5-hour fasting state improves the quality of the examination. The exam focuses on wall thickness and stratification, lumen content, distensibility and compressibility, presence of peristalsis of explorable segment of the GI tract and includes the investigation of mesentery, perivisceral tissues and nodes features. Color doppler flowmetry admits a qualitative evaluation of GI wall and mesentery vascularization. Healthy GI wall appears at a US evaluation as a multilayered structure in which hyperechoic and hypoechoic layers alternate sequentially. In this article we provide a quickly available overview on findings, signs and applications of US in major GI pediatric diseases.

P.34 - Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging in late-onset Pompe disease: A prospective observational study of 19 patients

Late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by progressive weakness of skeletal and respiratory muscles. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has changed LOPD natural history; it is not known whether ERT stops the progression of the disease. Our aim was to study progression of fatty degeneration in muscles in LOPD patients using 3 point Dixon imaging software. This is a prospective observational study in which we performed muscle MRI using T1w and 3 point Dixon imaging at basal and at 1 year visit. The presence of fat tissue in skeletal muscles in T1w imaging sections was studied using Mercuri scale. 3 point Dixon studies were performed on paraspinal and thighs muscles. 19 LOPD patients were recruited. 4 untreated presymptomatic patients (24.2 yo, 8 – 49) and 15 symptomatic LOPD patients (51.5 yo, 31 – 66) were included in the study. 13 symptomatic patients were under treatment (mean time = 3.7 y). We did not detect changes in T1-weighted MRI sequences at year 1 compared to basal visit. In contrast, 3 point Dixon imaging showed a mean increase on fat infiltration in skeletal muscles of 2.32%, that was not significant. We only observed significant changes in semimembranous muscle (SM) (2.51%; p = 0.049), while there were not significant changes on the rest of the muscles analyzed. We studied the group of symptomatic treated patients and detected a significant increase on fat infiltration in SM muscle (3.18%; p = 0.03) and a tendency to increased fatty deposition on biceps femorii long head (1.76%; p = 0.056). In the 4 presymptomatic patients, there was a non-significant decrease on the percentage of fat in thigh muscles. 3 point Dixon imaging technique is more sensitive to detect mild changes in the quantity of fat tissue in muscles than T1w imaging in LOPD. We observed a mild increase in fat tissue only in SM muscle in treated patients, while the amount of fat tissue did not significantly changed in the rest of muscles of trunk and thighs.

Fat Tissue Infiltration into the Pancreas Parenchyme and Its Effect on the Result of Surgery

PurposeIn Korea, there are few reports regarding the infiltration of fat tissue in pancreatic parenchyma in surgically resected organs. It is necessary to ascertain the correlation between the presence of fat tissue in the resection margin of the pancreas and the surgery outcome.MethodsFifty four patients who underwent pancreatic resection from Jan. 2007 to Nov. 2008 were enrolled in this study. Pathologic examination was performed to determine the presence of fat tissue in resected pancreatic parenchyma. Statistical correlation between the presence of fat tissue with clinical parameters and postoperative complication rates was analyzed.ResultsAmong the specimens of all fifty four patients, fat tissue was found in 32 specimens of patients (59.3%). Female gender and patients whose body mass index exceeded 24 kg/m2 were statistically correlated with the presence of the fat tissue in pancreatic parenchyma. There was no statistical relationship between infiltration of fat tissue with postoperative complications.ConclusionThis study may serve as the base data for study in radiological imaging in detecting pancreatic tissue. A further larger scaled study is needed to validate the result of this study.

Basic study of new diagnostic modality according to non-invasive measurement of the electrical conductivity of tissues.

The purposes of this study were to estimate the electrical conductivity of tissues by non-invasively measuring the electrical bio-impedance, to develop a new method for tissue diagnosis, i.e., electrical impedance tomography (EIT). Tissue models were first designed taking into consideration the distribution of the fat tissue, muscle and bone in the human forearm, and then the intra-tissue distributions of electrical potential and field, and the electrical impedance in the models was theoretically analyzed by the three-dimensional finite element method. The electrical impedance of both forearms was measured in healthy human subjects, and estimated the electrical conductivity of individual local tissues. The results of the analysis showed that the distributions of electrical potential and field were affected by the presence of fat tissue but not by the presence or absence of bone. In addition, as a result of calculation of the electrical resistance of the extracellular fluid (Re) in each model, it was found that the value of bio-impedance was influenced by the presence of fat tissue, and the value of bio-impedance was increased by the intervention of a fat layer. The electrical conductivity estimated by fitting the observed values to the values obtained by finite element analysis was 0.40 S/m and 0.15 S/m for male muscle and fat tissue, and 0.35 S/m and 0.11 S/m for female muscle and fat tissue, respectively. The sex difference in the slope of linear approximation in the estimation of electrical conductivity of the males and females was thought to be due to sex differences in the properties and structure of fat tissue. These results suggest that local tissues can be diagnosed differentially and electrically by percutaneous measurement of local bio-impedance and subsequent estimation of the electrical conductivity of each tissue.

2. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Lipoma: The Presence of Fat Tissue in the Spinal Canal

An epidural lipoma in the spinal canal in a case of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is described. Histologic sections from ten SIDS cases were compared with five controls. It is concluded that there are no indications that an increased amount of fat in the spinal canal plays a role in the pathogenesis of SIDS.