Interactive Transcript
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Hello and welcome to noon conferences hosted by MRI Online.
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In response to the changes happening around the
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world right now and the shutting down of in-person
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events, we have decided to provide free daily
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noon conferences to all radiologists worldwide.
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Today we are joined by Dr. Deitte.
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Dr. Deitte is active with teaching at all levels, medical
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students, residents, fellows, and practicing physicians.
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She is a nationally recognized speaker and
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has given more than 130 invited presentations.
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Her specialty areas are body imaging and ultrasound.
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A reminder that there will be a Q&A session
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at the end of this lecture, so please use the
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Q&A feature to ask your questions and we will
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get to as many as we can before our time is up.
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That being said, thank you all for joining us today.
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Dr. Deitte, I'll let you take it from here.
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All right.
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Um, thank you so much for that introduction.
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My name is Lori Deitte.
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I'm the Vice Chair of Education at Vanderbilt Radiology.
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And today we're going to talk about
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ultrasound can't-miss diagnoses.
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I'd like to thank
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Dr. Jani Collins and MRI Online for this opportunity.
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So I don't have any disclosures.
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And I have two learning objectives.
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The first one is to describe the sonographic
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features of can't-miss diagnoses.
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And the second is to apply this information to a
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specific clinical presentation to make the diagnosis.
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So let's get started with can't-miss diagnoses.
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Categories we're going to talk about today are
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gynecologic, sclerotal, transplant, and other
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gas-forming infections, and acute hemorrhage.
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In general, my approach to ultrasound diagnosis
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and management is determining, A, is this an
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urgent surgical or procedural management needed?
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Do we need to be communicating
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these, um, results really urgently?
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Or is it non-surgical management?
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Or is follow-up needed?
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Or another diagnosis?
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So I'd like you to put yourself in this mindset.
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You are on call.
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A woman presents with acute pelvic pain.
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An urgent ultrasound is requested.
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What's next?
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What’s something, what are some things that
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you’d really like to know about the patient?
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Laboratory data?
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Absolutely.
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If it's a patient of childbearing age, the one thing I
2:46
absolutely want to know is the result of the pregnancy test.
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And then other clinical information.
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So let's start with our patient.
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Patient comes in with pelvic pain.
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This is her transvaginal ultrasound.
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You can see the uterus.
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We do see this echogenic area.
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structure in the endometrium.
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And then there's another observation surrounding the uterus.
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So here's the posterior margin of the uterus.
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And then surrounded is all this heterogeneous fluid.
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So I said, one thing I absolutely want to know is a
3:25
pregnancy test result on this, uh, patient.
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And she was in fact positive.
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Interesting that this echogenic
3:34
structure in her endometrium is an IUD.
3:40
And this fluid surrounding her uterus is hemorrhage.
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So we looked a little bit further, um, into the
3:49
fluid in the adnexal region and we saw this, and this
3:55
has a thickened rim, echogenic rim, it's anechoic
3:58
centrally, and has an appearance of a tubal ring sign.
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So we said we were most concerned about a ruptured
4:08
ectopic pregnancy, and she did go to the OR and had a
4:13
ruptured left ectopic, and she in fact did have an IUD.
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So, I have a question for you to think about.
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The most common location of an ectopic pregnancy
4:28
is in the interstitial segment of the tube.
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True or false?
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That's false.
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So, let's look at ectopic pregnancy.
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First of all, risk factors, PID, prior inflammatory
4:45
processes, prior ectopic, and then in vitro fertilization.
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Very important because these patients can
4:52
have multiple pregnancies and sometimes be at
4:57
increased risk for a heterotopic pregnancy.
5:00
So, a pregnancy that's both in the uterus and a separate
5:03
pregnancy that's ectopic outside of the uterus.
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75–80% of ectopic pregnancies are
5:11
in the ampullary segment of the tube.
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A smaller proportion, 2–5%,
5:17
are in the interstitial segment.
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Um, very important diagnosis to make, though,
5:23
because the presentation can be a little bit
5:26
later, and they can have substantial bleeding.
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And we already mentioned the tubal ring sign is very
5:33
helpful for, um, the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy.
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But sometimes all that you get is a complex mass.
5:39
You don't see a pregnancy in the uterus.
5:41
You have this complex mass in the adnexa.
5:44
You think it's probably hemorrhage, and then you still,
5:47
you know, still likely to be an ectopic pregnancy.
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This is another example of a tubal ring sign.
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And I'm going to outline the ring here.
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It's a thickened rim.
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It's, it's centrally anechoic.
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This one did not have a yolk sac in it yet.
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And then next to it, but separate
6:05
from it, is the left ovary.
6:08
This is a different patient.
6:13
There's our tubal ring.
6:17
This is another patient that had an ectopic pregnancy.
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So it's a transvaginal ultrasound.
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Uterus here.
6:24
We did not see a sac in the uterus.
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Left ovary outlined here.
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And a corpus luteum in the left ovary.
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And then between the ovary and
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the uterus is this additional sac.
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This is the gestational sac.
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And you can actually see a little yolk sac in this.
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So, this was a tubal ectopic pregnancy.
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I mentioned that it's very important to make
6:56
the diagnosis of an interstitial pregnancy.
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And this is an example of a patient that
7:02
we had that had an interstitial pregnancy.
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So, here is again a transvaginal ultrasound,
7:08
and we can see the endometrium here.
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And then we could actually see a little line.
7:15
It doesn't show up well on here, but it
7:17
extended from the endometrium to this sac,
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which is, um, eccentrically positioned and
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had very little, if any, myometrium around it.
7:29
This does have a fetal pole and a yolk
7:31
sac in it, and this was a confirmed, um,
7:34
operatively confirmed interstitial pregnancy.
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So, this patient was referred to us as,
7:46
uh, concerned for interstitial ectopic.
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So, is this an interstitial ectopic pregnancy?
7:55
Okay, again, a transvaginal ultrasound.
7:59
You can see the endometrium.
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I'm outlining it.
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And you can see that it goes eccentrically a
8:08
little bit off to the left as well as to the right.
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And then there is this yolk sac
8:13
that's eccentric in position.
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It's a true gestational sac.
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I meant to say gestational sac, and it has a yolk sac in it.
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So it's a true gestational sac.
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It's eccentrically located.
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We did some more imaging.
8:32
This is the sac.
8:33
It is up to the right.
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And what would you do next?
8:40
What could help with determining, this is a really
8:42
important determination, whether this is actually an
8:45
intrauterine pregnancy or is an ectopic interstitial.
8:48
We also measured the myometrium around this
8:51
and we got greater than five millimeters.
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So our thought process was that this is not an
8:57
interstitial pregnancy, and we did a 3D image, and I
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think this nicely shows, um, so this is a coronal image,
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and we can see, um, the left, and then you see this
9:10
little myometrium sort of indenting the endometrium,
9:14
and then going off to the right, and this is our sac.
9:17
This turned out, um, we can see endometrium
9:20
going all the way around it, and this turned
9:23
out to be an eccentric angular, um, pregnancy.
9:27
We, uh, followed this patient and
9:29
this is an image at seven months.
9:30
You can, um, see this third trimester pregnancy.
9:35
So an important, really important decision making
9:38
process because if it's an interstitial pregnancy,
9:41
it's an ectopic pregnancy, as opposed to this pregnancy,
9:45
which went on, um, through the third trimester.
9:53
Another, um, consideration when we're thinking about ectopic
9:57
pregnancies is in patients with Müllerian duct anomalies.
10:02
And this patient had prior imaging that showed a
10:07
normal right uterine horn, but a rudimentary left
10:11
uterine horn that was actually non-communicating.
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She had a positive pregnancy
10:17
test and came to us for imaging.
10:20
And this is the normal right horn.
10:24
And this is the non-communicating left horn,
10:28
which unfortunately is the horn that has the pregnancy in it.
10:33
So this horn cannot maintain a pregnancy.
10:37
Um, this, we can see here the gestational sac.
10:40
We can see the yolk sac.
10:41
So this is basically treated like an ectopic pregnancy.
10:45
There is a little bit of free fluid here as well.
10:52
Okay.
10:52
We're going to move on to a different topic.
10:54
So we now have our 29-year-old
10:57
who comes in with pelvic pain.
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And we're doing comparative images of the ovaries
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here, transvag, so here's the right ovary.
11:07
It's nice and normal size, and it's
11:09
about 3 by 2 centimeters on this image.
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This is the left ovary.
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Markedly enlarged, measuring 8.7 by 4.5 centimeters.
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Abnormal morphology.
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Heterogeneous centrally, peripheral small follicles.
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Okay, so already based off of this grayscale imaging,
11:33
your number one diagnosis is going to be a torsion.
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Ovarian torsion.
11:39
We did go on to color Doppler imaging.
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Um, this, uh, this is the right ovary with normal flow.
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This is the left ovary.
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It has a data flow in it.
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Um, definitely, uh, markedly abnormal,
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hardly any flow at all in it.
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So this is a pretty easy diagnosis for ovarian torsion.
11:58
So the most consistent finding with
12:01
ovarian torsion is an enlarged ovary.
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Very, very important.
12:06
Sometimes there's also an underlying
12:07
mass, but an enlarged ovary.
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So grayscale images are very important here.
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You can see multiple peripheral follicles
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like we, like I just showed you.
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And the Doppler findings are variable, and so that
12:22
sometimes makes it a little bit more challenging.
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But there can still be residual flow in a torsed ovary.
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On CT, um, you will sometimes, you will
12:31
see hemorrhage into the ovary or the tube.
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And on occasion, you can actually see the twisted pedicle.
12:37
I have seen that before.
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This is a patient who came in, um, she had a prior
12:46
right oophorectomy for torsion, and then a few months
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later she came in with excruciating acute onset
12:56
of pelvic pain, which, um, she described as being
13:00
almost identical to when she had the prior torsion.
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Now she's fairly young and now at
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this point she only has one ovary.
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This is her left ovary.
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It's enlarged.
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It was about 6.6 by 4.0 centimeters.
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It has a little bit of free fluid around it.
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And then it had a couple cystic structures.
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This looks like a hemorrhagic cyst.
13:23
And then another cyst in it.
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Again, we were already, we were already worried
13:29
because she's had a prior history of torsion.
13:32
She's at increased risk and she is telling us
13:35
that her pain is just like when she had torsion.
13:39
So we went ahead and did Doppler imaging.
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We did demonstrate some arterial flow in this
13:45
ovary, and here's our tracing, and also venous flow.
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It didn't have a lot of flow in it, but I also
13:52
didn't have another ovary to compare with.
13:55
With her story, and she was also really tender when we
13:58
were scanning her, and I often like to go in and be there
14:02
when the patients are, or scan, when the patient, uh,
14:05
when we're scanning, and it helps me get a better feel
14:08
for how much pain they're actually, um, experiencing.
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So we ended up saying that we were
14:16
very concerned about ovarian torsion.
14:18
Yes, there was still some residual flow, but we
14:20
were very concerned, and she did in fact, in, um,
14:23
the OR, she had ovarian torsion and fortunately
14:26
they were able to salvage her left ovary.
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So that was a really good outcome.
14:33
Another patient.
14:36
Right ovary, this one actually has no flow in it.
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And for comparison, this is the size of the
14:41
left ovary, which has some flow.
14:43
So again, markedly enlarged right ovary.
14:47
Another image of it, this is
14:48
absolutely classic for ovarian torsion.
14:51
Again, you can see heterogeneous
14:54
parenchyma, a couple little, um, peripheral
14:55
follicles, and a markedly enlarged ovary.
14:58
That's 6 by 3.6 centimeters.
15:02
That was right ovarian torsion.
15:07
And this is a patient, um, that was pregnant,
15:11
and she came in with right-sided pain.
15:13
Again, acute, you know, acute onset,
15:17
kind of relentless pain, very severe, and this
15:20
is what her right adnexa looked like.
15:23
It was enlarged, heterogeneous.
15:25
We did think that there was an underlying mass.
15:28
Um, there's, it's, there's increased echogenicity here,
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an area that's hyperechoic, and then there were cystic
15:35
changes, so we thought she had an underlying teratoma, and,
15:39
uh, we also did not see flow in this, and, uh, so, so our
15:44
diagnosis was ovarian torsion due to an underlying teratoma.
15:50
Which is what, uh, she did have when she went to the OR.
15:57
Okay, we're going to move to a different category.
16:00
This is a, uh, 27-year-old with pelvic pain.
16:05
We're getting a transvaginal image.
16:07
We can see part of the uterus here.
16:10
And then we see this very complex
16:13
fluid posterior to the uterus.
16:16
So complex fluid, I'll show you another image.
16:22
Very complex, septated fluid, looks kind of
16:26
loculated in parts, has low-grade echoes in it.
16:31
You'd want to know more about the patient,
16:33
like, um, what is her white count?
16:35
Has she had fevers?
16:37
Has she had any history of pelvic inflammatory disease?
16:44
And she also then got the CT,
16:46
which shows a large, rim-enhancing, uh, fluid
16:50
collection in the, um, posterior pelvis.
16:53
Here's the uterus.
16:55
Which is consistent with an abscess.
16:59
So she had pelvic inflammatory disease with an abscess.
17:06
I'll show you one more patient with a similar diagnosis.
17:09
So this is a patient with pelvic pain.
17:12
And she just, she came in and this is what her adnexa
17:16
looked like, heterogeneous, complex collection.
17:20
A few, we could identify a little part of
17:22
the ovary, a few follicles, heterogeneous
17:25
fluid again, um, pus surrounding this.
17:31
And this is another image from her.
17:33
So a huge, um, complex septated abscess.
17:39
She had a tubo-ovarian abscess.
17:45
Okay, next we're going to move to our next
17:49
category, which is scrotal ultrasound.
17:53
I wanted to go over some key images when you're,
17:56
um, reviewing scrotal ultrasound images, or
17:59
if you're actually the person acquiring them.
18:04
So, key images.
18:05
Absolutely, you have to have side
18:06
by side grayscale, the testes.
18:08
Um, we, This is how we compare echogenicity. Is one
18:12
testicle more hypoechoic relative to the other?
18:16
Another nice thing that you can actually see
18:18
on here is, this is a nice look at the tunica.
18:23
And then we do the same thing with color Doppler,
18:25
side by side, very important, especially
18:28
for when we're looking for testicular torsion.
18:33
Often, um, a testicle that's torsed will have no flow in it,
18:37
but sometimes it still has a little bit of residual flow.
18:40
And, uh, the color Doppler images, though, will show
18:44
markedly decreased Doppler flow on the affected side.
18:51
And spectral Doppler imaging is important.
18:53
We're sampling from this gate, the artery,
18:56
and this is a nice normal arterial tracing.
18:59
The important thing here is to make sure that your tracing
19:01
is coming from the testicular parenchyma and that it's
19:05
not coming from the margin or outside of the testicle.
19:08
Okay, it has to be coming from within the parenchyma.
19:13
And then the entire epididymis is important to image.
19:16
Epididymal head, it's a little bit more
19:18
echogenic than the rest of the epididymis.
19:20
And then body and tail.
19:22
Why is that important?
19:24
Because patients can get focal epididymitis,
19:28
and if that happens, it typically starts in the tail.
19:32
So we do a full view of, with color Doppler imaging too.
19:36
This is normal.
19:37
This is a normal one.
19:40
Okay, and then the surrounding soft tissues.
19:43
It's kind of like everything else,
19:45
but definitely important to look at the scrotal wall.
19:47
In this case, we have gas in the scrotal
19:50
wall with this is a normal testicle.
19:52
This patient had necrotizing
19:54
fasciitis, um, spermatic cord region.
19:57
And surrounding, um, structures.
19:59
I've even, um, on scrotal ultrasound, uh, looked down at
20:03
the perineum because I've had, I had a patient once that
20:05
had a perineal abscess that wasn't very, um, we really
20:09
couldn't see it well from on top, but as we scanned, um,
20:12
more posteriorly along the perineum, we saw the abscess.
20:18
So, this is a 19-year-old with acute scrotal pain.
20:22
Our grayscale images, I can just say it looks pretty good.
20:26
Pretty similar between the two sides.
20:28
You might say, hmm, is that scrotal
20:30
wall maybe a little bit more thickened?
20:33
Maybe.
20:34
Let's go to our Doppler.
20:36
Okay, so absolutely, this is again an easy
20:39
diagnosis because there is great flow in the right
20:42
testicle and there's no flow in the left testicle.
20:45
So, left testicular torsion, also shown on
20:50
power Doppler images, no flow in the testicle.
20:59
My question for you is four hours lapsed
21:04
between the onset of pain and when the patient
21:08
got to the OR and had the testicle detorsed.
21:13
The salvage rate is 80 to 100.
21:17
70, 50, or 20, four hours.
21:23
Fortunately, it's 80 to 100.
21:25
Four hours is actually really, um, pretty, uh,
21:28
that's pretty quick to get somebody to the OR.
21:30
If you think about it, the, the clock
21:32
starts ticking when their pain starts.
21:35
So basically, they're at home, two in the morning, get,
21:38
they wake up, they have acute pain, you know, they have
21:41
to get to the hospital, get dressed, get to the hospital,
21:44
they have to be checked in, and somebody has to see them.
21:47
They have to get their ultrasound, and then the results have
21:49
to be communicated, and then they have to get to the OR.
21:52
So four hours is pretty quick for all of
21:54
that to happen, but that would be ideal.
21:57
So, testicular torsion, salvage rate.
22:00
80 to 100 percent if within six hours.
22:03
So that's really our goal.
22:04
And we play a vital role as radiologists.
22:07
We have to, we really need to expedite
22:10
this, um, making the diagnosis.
22:11
So these patients have to be
22:12
prioritized to get their ultrasound.
22:14
And then it's up to us to communicate these results quickly.
22:19
When we go to 70, um, at six to 12 hours, it's 70%.
22:23
And then if it gets greater than
22:24
12 hours, it's really low salvage rate, 20%.
22:28
Our goal is to get to the patient, to the OR.
22:33
Another patient, 20-year-old with pain, right
22:37
testicular torsion, no flow again in this testicle.
22:40
And, and flow, and we know we have our gain turned
22:44
up high because we can see all of this in between the
22:47
testicles, so it's up high and there's still no flow here.
22:50
And nice flow on the left.
22:54
Um, this is a pediatric patient,
22:56
um, with right testicular torsion.
22:58
So what are we looking at?
22:59
Well, here's the left testicle that has nice flow in it.
23:04
And here's the right testicle.
23:06
There's no flow.
23:07
This is powered up.
23:08
There's no flow in this testicle.
23:11
And one thing, another observation on here is
23:14
all this soft tissue adjacent to the testicle.
23:16
This was an enlarged epididymis.
23:19
And so it's important to recognize that the
23:22
epididymis can also enlarge with testicular torsion.
23:26
Because when we think about the differential for
23:28
testicular torsion in, say, a teenage boy, it's, um,
23:34
you know, it's torsion, or could it be epididymitis?
23:38
Both can give an enlarged epididymis.
23:40
However, with torsion, there will be no flow in the
23:43
epididymis, as in this case, whereas with epididymitis,
23:47
there will be markedly increased color Doppler flow.
23:52
This is another, uh, patient that we had,
23:54
7-year-old, left inguinal pain, and the
23:56
working diagnosis clinically was a hernia.
24:00
On ultrasound, there was no hernia seen, but there
24:05
was this bilobed solid mass in the left inguinal
24:11
canal that did not have any color Doppler flow in it.
24:16
And the thought was, uh, is this testicular torsion?
24:20
Is this an undescended testicle?
24:22
And then we're also seeing a slightly enlarged
24:24
epididymis, um, that tors, and that's exactly what it was.
24:31
So, that was an undescended left testicle that had torqued.
24:39
This is a patient that presented with left testicular pain.
24:45
So, right testicle, left testicle,
24:51
spectral Doppler tracings.
24:53
They both have arterial tracings.
24:59
Color Doppler, maybe I can convince you
25:03
that there's more flow on the right.
25:05
Then on the left, on the left we
25:07
just kind of see these couple dots.
25:09
So the side-by-side color Doppler imaging is very important
25:14
because it shows us decreased color Doppler flow on the left
25:18
which is the same side that the patient is symptomatic on.
25:22
Again, side-by-side imaging.
25:25
Decreased flow on the left relative to the right.
25:28
So is it torsion?
25:30
We still have arterial flow.
25:34
So we looked for the spermatic
25:36
cord knot of torsion and we saw it.
25:38
This is actually a nice example of the twisting
25:41
that occurs and, um, confirmed the diagnosis.
25:45
The patient did go to the OR and
25:47
the left testicle was torqued.
25:52
This is a different patient who
25:53
had scrotal pain for three days.
25:55
We know we're way beyond the window
25:57
of being able to salvage the testicle.
25:59
This is his left testicle.
26:01
Um, I'll be showing you a comparison
26:03
imaging of the right, but it is enlarged.
26:05
It is slightly heterogeneous and it has no flow in it.
26:10
These are the side-by-side images.
26:12
So this is the enlarged heterogeneous left testicle
26:15
with no flow that was completely infarcted.
26:20
Moving to a, um, different, um, pathology now.
26:24
This is a 26-year-old with diabetes
26:28
who came in with scrotal swelling.
26:31
Um, ultrasound diagnosis.
26:34
So let's take a look.
26:36
Right testicle.
26:37
Left testicle.
26:39
And then these echogenic shadowing foci around it.
26:45
And I'll say, um, this patient, I remember this
26:47
patient very well because I was, um, actually not
26:50
on ultrasound, but had come in early and, uh, the
26:53
sonographer, um, saw me in the hallway and said,
26:56
Hey, can you come and help me, uh, with this?
26:58
I think I'm really concerned about this patient.
27:00
And so of course I said, yes.
27:04
And this, is gas in the soft tissues.
27:08
So this patient unfortunately, um, had
27:11
necrotizing fasciitis or Fournier's gangrene.
27:14
Um, the history that, uh, he had experienced
27:19
was he had been kind of constipated and thought
27:21
he had developed an anal fissure a couple of
27:23
days prior to his presentation at the hospital.
27:28
My question for you is, are the testicles
27:30
typically involved with this process?
27:32
Yes or no?
27:36
No.
27:36
Usually they're spared.
27:38
So let's talk about Fournier's gangrene.
27:40
This is one of the most important diagnoses you'll make
27:42
with ultrasound is any necrotizing infection is, is a
27:47
very important diagnosis to make and to communicate.
27:50
So underlying etiologies, oftentimes there
27:52
is kind of a minor trauma, sort of a history.
27:56
Um, and the testicles are typically spared.
28:00
Mortality, um, is approximately 21%.
28:05
Combined microorganisms, treatment, broad
28:08
spectrum antibiotics, and unfortunately,
28:10
extensive surgical debridement.
28:12
Um, this particular patient that we diagnosed right away,
28:15
basically went straight to the OR from our ultrasound
28:18
suite, honestly, and still ended up with seven major
28:21
surgeries, um, debridements and reconstructions.
28:25
Another patient.
28:27
Gas in the, um, scrotum wall, left testicle, the one
28:30
that I showed you earlier, had necrotizing fasciitis.
28:35
These are some more images of gas.
28:38
I do want you to be able to take away from,
28:39
um, from our conference today, the appearance
28:42
of gas on ultrasound in soft tissues.
28:47
And this is another patient, 51-year-old with diabetes, and
28:51
a nice example of ring-down artifact of gas in soft tissues.
28:56
And we can also see gas.
28:58
Normal testicle.
29:01
And this is what it looked like on CT.
29:03
It was really very extensive, necrotizing fasciitis.
29:07
The CT is helpful.
29:08
So, um, if somebody, if their primary concern is,
29:12
um, necrotizing fasciitis, CT is a good, is a great
29:16
modality, um, for determining the extent of the
29:19
involvement in, um, how far up it goes and how deep.
29:23
And so my preference is CT, although I have
29:25
made this diagnosis many times on ultrasound.
29:30
One more category, um, patient,
29:33
was at a rowdy fraternity party.
29:35
Uh, apparently there was some trauma involved and, um,
29:38
he woke up, um, a few hours later with scrotal pain.
29:43
And this is his, uh, testicular ultrasound.
29:46
So we can see a testicle that has, um, nice, uh, flow
29:51
internally, and we can follow the tunica, but it's
29:54
abruptly disrupted here and abruptly disrupted here.
29:59
With some of their first tubules
30:01
extruding through the defect.
30:05
and they do not have flow into them.
30:09
Okay, so tunica disruption.
30:12
So testicular rupture is the diagnosis.
30:15
Um, ultrasound is actually very
30:17
important, um, for making this diagnosis.
30:19
And we're looking for tunica disruption.
30:21
Sometimes it's easy, like the one I just showed you,
30:24
where you could actually see the, um, tunica,
30:26
but sometimes you have to look for secondary signs.
30:30
Um, and it's not so easy to see the tunica,
30:34
especially if there's a lot of surrounding blood.
30:36
Um, like testicular contour irregularity would be a clue.
30:40
Altered testicle echogenicity due
30:43
to internal infarction or blood,
30:46
um, hematocle.
30:49
Decreased stapler flow within the testicle or
30:51
within the testicle with extruded portions.
30:54
Why is this important?
30:55
Well, the salvage rate is 90% if,
30:58
within 72 hours, but it goes down.
31:01
So again, it's on us to make this diagnosis.
31:05
This is another patient.
31:06
Um, we can see this is, um, so a ballistic
31:10
injury, um, to the scrotum, and we can see part
31:13
of the tunica here, but then we lose it, and the
31:16
testicle margin, it's very irregular contour.
31:21
We see a little bit of blood adjacent to it.
31:23
Um, and we, uh, we made the diagnosis of testicular
31:28
rupture, uh, this patient who went to the OR and
31:32
had, um, it was ruptured, and they had it repaired.
31:36
And this is, uh, unfortunate, um, fireworks
31:39
mishap, um, to the scrotum, and, uh, a lot of
31:43
gas in the, uh, within the scrotum, and then
31:46
this left testicle is completely disrupted.
31:49
It's very.
31:50
This is the outline of the testicle, very
31:52
irregular, and it's surrounded by all this blood.
31:56
So this was a left testicular rupture.
32:00
Okay.
32:01
Moving on to the next category, um, transplant ultrasound.
32:09
And I'm going to cover only vascular, um, just kind of the
32:12
main vascular, uh, things to look for in liver and kidney.
32:18
So liver transplant ultrasound, the hepatic artery
32:22
is a very, very important part of our evaluation.
32:26
And this is three weeks postoperative on this patient.
32:29
We're sampling from the hepatic artery.
32:31
Our waveform is normal.
32:33
It's, um, there's a nice upstroke and there's.
32:38
Uh, the resistive index is, um, 0.67 here.
32:42
This is normal looking.
32:45
12 weeks later, um, or actually not 12 weeks later,
32:49
but 12 weeks post-op, nine weeks later, the patient
32:53
came in and had this, there's the hepatic artery,
32:59
had this waveform from the hepatic artery.
33:03
Very different than this one nine weeks prior.
33:07
You can see a delayed upstroke.
33:10
So it's a Parvus tardus waveform.
33:12
And the resistive index now is 0.36
33:17
It's abnormally low.
33:19
And it's less than 0.5.
33:22
Which is considered to be low.
33:24
So this waveform makes us very
33:28
concerned about hepatic artery stenosis.
33:31
And that's what we said.
33:33
Hepatic artery stenosis needs further evaluation.
33:35
We recommended a CTA for further assessment.
33:38
The CTA was done and we recommended it urgently.
33:42
And there was a very, very high
33:43
grade stenosis in the hepatic artery.
33:46
It was a short segment, but very high grade.
33:48
And so we were probably sampling somewhere
33:50
around here, distal to the stenosis, okay?
33:53
Because parvus is seen downstream or distal to a stenosis.
34:01
So the patient did undergo, um, angioplasty.
34:05
And this is, um, on the arteriogram, again,
34:09
very short segment, but about a 90% stenosis.
34:12
And after, uh, we repeated an ultrasound.
34:16
This is after the angioplasty.
34:18
And you can see now this hepatic
34:19
artery waveform has again, normalized.
34:22
It looks like it.
34:22
It's got a nice, great upstroke.
34:24
There's no parvus tardus, and
34:25
the resistive index is back to 0.64.
34:29
We are important here because ultrasound is
34:31
used as, um, a screening exam in these patients.
34:35
And so it's really incumbent on us to be familiar
34:39
with waveforms and, um, when we should be concerned
34:43
about hepatic artery stenosis or thrombosis.
34:51
This is a patient who had a re, a recent renal transplant.
34:57
This is an arterial tracing.
34:59
It's a very scary tracing to me.
35:01
Um, so it's a high resistive tracing.
35:06
Um, normally a renal transplant
35:09
artery will have diastolic flow.
35:11
But this one does not.
35:13
It has some, um, forward systolic flow,
35:17
but then it reverses actually in diastole.
35:21
So see, um, seeing this way, the spectral tracing
35:27
from a renal transplant, the number one thing
35:31
that we have to evaluate is the renal vein.
35:33
And look for renal vein thrombosis.
35:35
Because if the renal vein is thrombosed,
35:38
there's still inflow to the transplant kidney.
35:41
It becomes large and edematous.
35:43
And because it's so edematous, the
35:46
artery tracing becomes high resistance.
35:49
And this was in fact, renal vein thrombosis.
35:52
Why is this important when we evaluate, um, when we identify
35:56
it, if we identify it early enough and communicate it right
35:59
away, there's a possibility of still salvaging the kidney.
36:03
Um, unfortunately that wasn't the case with this patient.
36:09
This is a patient who had multiple renal
36:12
transplants and, um, the, with the most
36:15
recent being an intraperitoneal transplant.
36:18
And I have to say I haven't seen, so typically
36:20
a renal transplant is extraperitoneal.
36:23
And typically, the first transplant that's put in is placed
36:26
on the right side, and then if they have a second transplant,
36:28
subsequent transplants are placed on the left side. This can
36:31
vary if there's a concurrent pancreatic transplant
36:34
at the same time. But this was an
36:37
intraperitoneal transplant, and we were looking for flow.
36:41
This is a transperitoneal scan. Here's the renal pelvis, and we
36:47
just couldn’t find much flow in this kidney, and we
36:49
couldn’t find the renal vein. We ended up deciding
36:54
this was the renal vein, which has low-grade echogenicity in it.
37:00
We had some CT imaging on this patient that actually was
37:04
really helpful in figuring out what was going on here.
37:06
This patient had had a CT scan, um, about a month prior.
37:11
And this is their most recent renal transplant.
37:15
You can see an older, non-functioning renal transplant here.
37:18
But on this scan, a month ago, the vein, the
37:24
renal vein was posterior and the renal pelvis was
37:32
in a different position. They had a CT scan, um,
37:36
on the same day as the ultrasound when they presented with acute pain.
37:40
An observation we made comparing the scans
37:44
was that here we saw the renal pelvis
37:49
was anterior before, and now it was posterior.
37:55
And the renal vein was anterior.
37:58
This helped us start to think about a diagnosis
38:01
that I would tell you I had not seen before.
38:04
But this, unfortunately, this transplant kidney is an
38:07
intraperitoneal kidney and it had undergone torsion.
38:10
And, um, so the patient was taken
38:14
to the OR and it had torsed at the pedicle.
38:17
When it was detorsed,
38:19
the vein actually was still patent.
38:22
What we think we saw on the ultrasound image, the low-grade echoes
38:26
and lack of flow, was probably just the beginning
38:29
of a cut-off in flow to the renal
38:32
vein, but it hadn't completely thrombosed yet.
38:39
Okay, we're going to move to another
38:40
category: other gas-forming infections.
38:45
So this is a transplant kidney, and this patient
38:49
came in with an elevated white count and really,
38:52
clinical evidence of a urinary tract infection.
38:55
They have a dilated collecting system.
38:58
It has debris in it.
39:00
And it has these echogenic, dirty shadowing
39:03
areas in it, which turned out to be gas.
39:05
Okay, this is gas in the collecting system.
39:08
And this patient had emphysematous pyelitis.
39:11
Okay.
39:13
So when we say pyelitis, emphysematous pyelitis,
39:15
that means it's only in the collecting system,
39:18
not in the parenchyma, as opposed to this patient.
39:22
This patient has a history of diabetes, and you'll
39:25
see a theme here that many of these patients that
39:27
have necrotizing infections have a history of diabetes.
39:31
But this patient came in with right flank pain.
39:33
And when we did an ultrasound in the right
39:36
renal fossa region, this is all we could see.
39:40
It's echogenic, shadowing, kind of, it had sort of
39:44
a bowel-like appearance, but we had prior imaging
39:48
that had previously shown a normal right kidney.
39:53
So what are we most concerned about here?
39:56
And what might help us figure out what's going on?
40:00
Well, we were worried that this
40:02
was gas, and it's so easy to see on CT.
40:05
So I would say if you ever have a question on
40:07
ultrasound, you can just do a non-contrast CT
40:09
and establish a diagnosis of the presence of gas.
40:13
So here's the right kidney.
40:14
It has gas in the collecting system, the
40:16
parenchyma, and even around the kidney.
40:20
This is emphysematous pyelonephritis, and when we say pyelonephritis,
40:24
that means it's in the parenchyma, and then it can, like
40:28
I just showed you, go beyond the parenchyma as well.
40:34
Again, high prevalence of diabetes
40:37
in patients with this diagnosis.
40:39
Gas formation, E. coli, most common.
40:43
And it can be life-threatening.
40:50
Although this doesn't look much like a
40:52
gallbladder because it has all this stuff in it,
40:56
this is a gallbladder, and it has non-dependent
41:00
echogenic material with associated dirty shadowing.
41:04
Here's another image of it.
41:06
Okay, so gas.
41:08
The patient had a history of diabetes
41:10
and right upper quadrant pain.
41:12
And this is their CT.
41:14
There is gas in the gallbladder and there is also
41:18
some gas in the wall of the gallbladder as we followed it.
41:21
There were inflammatory changes around the gallbladder.
41:26
And this is emphysematous cholecystitis.
41:32
Again, urgent.
41:34
And we can confirm with CT if there's
41:36
any question if you're ever stuck.
41:38
I would just say go to CT.
41:41
You get a fast answer.
41:44
So our differential for shadowing from the gallbladder,
41:47
gallstones, pneumobilia, and pneumobilia,
41:51
in itself, oftentimes is benign, if, you know,
41:54
there's been a prior history of a stent or if there's
41:56
been some anastomosis
41:59
with bowel, an arterial biliary anastomosis.
42:03
So you want to know what the history is.
42:05
In our particular patient, though,
42:07
that was emphysematous cholecystitis.
42:09
And then shadowing can also come from the
42:11
gallbladder wall, from porcelain gallbladder.
42:15
So just to show you some of these signs.
42:17
This is a wall echo shadow sign of cholelithiasis.
42:21
So this is a gallbladder that's full of
42:24
gallstones, and we can kind of see this bumpy
42:26
surface here with a little bit of residual bile.
42:29
We can see shadowing.
42:31
And then this is the wall.
42:32
Wall echo shadow.
42:35
These are gallstones.
42:37
This, on the other hand, is gas.
42:41
This is gas, and we can see non-
42:43
dependent echogenicity with dirty shadowing.
42:48
This is a porcelain gallbladder, and we can
42:51
actually follow the wall of the gallbladder.
42:53
There's linear calcification in it.
42:55
It's not real heavy calcification because we can actually
42:58
see through it, and we see the posterior wall as well.
43:01
This patient had a CT as well,
43:03
and this was a porcelain gallbladder.
43:06
And then, one other that kind of falls into
43:08
this category, I just wanted to go over,
43:11
is adenomyomatosis of the gallbladder, which is a benign
43:14
finding, but you get these comet tail artifacts. You can
43:17
see that's different than the other three.
43:21
Adenomyomatosis.
43:26
Our last category then is acute hemorrhage.
43:30
This was an outpatient who came in.
43:33
She was just getting her regular,
43:36
surveillance for cirrhosis, and she had had
43:39
many, you know, multiple ultrasounds before.
43:44
When we looked at her spleen, there was
43:45
something new, a heterogeneous mass in her spleen.
43:52
We always, always turn on color.
43:56
Okay.
43:56
So we did, and we could see that
43:58
there was flow in this mass.
44:00
And then you start to think, well,
44:01
did she have some trauma?
44:03
Is this related as a pseudoaneurysm?
44:05
Or is this some sort of a hypervascular mass?
44:08
She didn't give a history of trauma at the time
44:11
to the sonographer, but we said we better do, we
44:14
better evaluate this further, which we did, and
44:18
unfortunately, um, she did, um, have, she did have a,
44:24
a large bleed around her spleen, you can see she has
44:26
huge splenomegaly because she's, she's got cirrhosis,
44:29
very, um, very nodular liver, ascites, and this is
44:33
what we were looking at on the ultrasound exam.
44:36
So, this did turn out to be a pseudoaneurysm.
44:38
An important point there.
44:41
I think one of them is always turn on color.
44:44
Okay, and when she was questioned further,
44:46
she apparently had some minor trauma, like, uh, several
44:50
weeks before, and she didn't make much of it.
44:52
She ended up having that embolized.
44:58
Okay, I'd like to wrap it up now by just,
45:01
uh, kind of highlighting what we just
45:03
talked about, our "can't miss" diagnoses.
45:06
So, the first one we talked about was ectopic
45:09
pregnancy, and remember, in our patient, we
45:12
had a large amount of hemorrhage in the pelvis.
45:15
She had a positive pregnancy test.
45:17
We actually found this tubal ring sign in her.
45:24
Our next is ovarian torsion.
45:26
Remember our patient that has had this markedly enlarged,
45:30
I think it was greater than a six-centimeter ovary.
45:33
That has peripheral follicles and heterogeneous
45:36
echogenicity within the parenchyma.
45:38
We did talk about Doppler imaging and
45:43
how patients can still have some residual
45:47
Doppler flow in their ovary when it's torsed.
45:51
And the grayscale finding is very important.
45:53
Remember the most consistent
45:55
finding is an enlarged ovary.
46:01
We also talked about PID and tubovarian abscesses.
46:07
It's important to have the history here.
46:08
You certainly would want to know how tender they are.
46:11
Do they have a white count?
46:12
Do they have a fever?
46:13
Do they have a history of pelvic inflammatory disease?
46:16
But here is the uterus with this complex fluid
46:19
collection that turned out to be an abscess.
46:25
And then moving to testicular torsion.
46:28
So, side-by-side imaging,
46:30
so important with color Doppler.
46:32
And this was left testicular torsion.
46:35
We did review the imaging on a patient that
46:38
still had some residual flow in their
46:42
testicle that was torsed, but that there was
46:45
a symmetric decreased color Doppler flow in the
46:49
torsed testicle with color Doppler imaging.
46:54
And you can also look for the twist
46:56
necrotizing fasciitis, GAS, is so important for us
47:03
to be able to recognize on ultrasound.
47:06
And this is an extremely important diagnosis
47:09
for us to make and communicate urgently.
47:15
We also talked about other necrotizing infections.
47:18
Testicular trauma, we look for tunica disruption.
47:25
And sometimes, though,
47:28
it's not quite so obvious as this.
47:30
And here we can actually see tunica disruption
47:33
and we see the extruded seminiferous tubules.
47:36
Again, important for us to diagnose because the
47:41
surgery is best performed within 72 hours.
47:48
We talked about liver transplant, artery stenosis,
47:52
with a parvus tardus waveform, and a low resistive index.
47:58
And so the hepatic artery
48:01
is what is very important here.
48:03
And it's the spectral wave analysis of the hepatic artery.
48:08
When we see this waveform, we are most concerned
48:11
about either hepatic artery stenosis or thrombosis.
48:16
If you're obtaining this from the intrahepatic
48:20
branches, that may have collateralization.
48:25
Renal transplant vein thrombosis.
48:27
So when we see this high resistive with reversed
48:31
diastolic flow waveform in the renal artery, our number
48:35
one diagnosis of exclusion, especially around the
48:38
perioperative setting, is renal vein thrombosis.
48:44
And then our last patient that we
48:48
just looked at, pseudoaneurysm with bleed.
48:52
And, you know, always remember to put on color Doppler.
48:56
It will help you, um, not miss diagnoses like these.
49:02
I'd like to thank you very much for your attention.
49:05
I hope this was helpful for you.
49:08
And I have included my contact information
49:11
here, my email, and also Twitter handle.
49:14
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
49:20
Okay.
49:21
Okay.
49:25
It looks
49:26
like we do have one question in the Q&A function.
49:29
Okay.
49:30
Okay.
49:30
How to diagnose prepu, um, I think we got one more.
49:36
Okay.
49:36
Okay.
49:36
How to diagnose a prepu at all, um,
49:42
Is it PCOS?
49:44
Is that what I, I'm, I guess I might, I'm not, maybe if
49:48
the person could just put in what they meant
49:52
by PCOD, um, as a predisposition to torsion, um, PCOS.
49:58
Okay.
49:58
Thank you.
49:59
Um, yeah, so PCOS as a predisposition to torsion, um, so PCOS
50:05
in, um, in general, and I, I will say I am more of an adult
50:11
sonographer than pediatric, although I
50:15
have done, um, a bit of a lot of pediatric
50:18
ultrasound imaging in the past, but I will take
50:21
this to adults right now as I'm talking about it.
50:24
So when I look at PCOS, um, the
50:26
findings are generally symmetric.
50:28
So the ovaries, if they're enlarged and they have multiple
50:31
peripheral follicles, they're generally, um, symmetric.
50:35
And with PCOS, it would be highly unusual
50:41
to have bilateral testic, I mean, um, ovarian torsion.
50:45
And so I'm looking for asymmetry of size.
50:49
And then I'll be looking
50:51
at the color Doppler, um, as well.
50:53
Although I know, as we mentioned, you
50:56
can still have color Doppler imaging.
50:58
So to me, is the process bilateral and symmetric?
51:02
Or is it asymmetric and the patient is having, you know,
51:06
say pain on the right side, and the right ovary is a
51:09
lot larger than the left, although both of them are
51:12
slightly enlarged, um, then I would be more
51:15
leaning towards, um, ovarian torsion if there's asymmetry.
51:18
The other thing is, is there an underlying mass,
51:21
um, such as a dermoid or something else that
51:24
would also predispose the ovary to torsion?
51:29
So I hope that was helpful, and please feel free to,
51:32
um, contact me if you still have questions.
51:34
Feel free, you know, to contact me via
51:36
email and I can, um, we can go into more detail.
51:40
Um, let me see.
51:41
I have a question.
51:44
Next question is, um, a retrograde waveform in
51:47
a transplant kidney means renal vein thrombosis.
51:50
So that's my main concern when I see it.
51:53
Now there can be accelerated, let's just say
51:56
it's, uh, within a week of the transplant,
51:59
there could be accelerated acute rejection that
52:01
could also, um, give a retrograde flow.
52:06
So that's also possible.
52:08
My main thing, though, is I want to find
52:10
the renal vein and see if there's
52:14
normal flow in the renal vein or not.
52:15
If there's normal renal vein flow, I'm not,
52:18
then that retrograde flow is due to something else.
52:21
But that's the main diagnosis of exclusion.
52:26
Okay.
52:29
Next one is the waveforms of renal vein thrombosis
52:32
and renal pseudaneurysm are similar to and fro.
52:39
Is there a way?
52:42
to distinguish a small pseudoaneurysm
52:45
versus a renal vein thrombosis?
52:47
So, um, when I think about renal, um, transplant
52:51
pseudoaneurysms, the typical history I think of is
52:54
somebody that's had a biopsy and, um, would develop, uh,
52:59
pseudoaneurysm or an AV fistula related to the biopsy.
53:05
Um, typically, uh, more in the parenchyma.
53:08
Um, so that would be, um, what I typically would
53:12
be thinking of, and yes, in a pseudoaneurysm, um,
53:17
there will be two in for, um, for a flow, uh, with
53:21
renal vein thrombosis, there's oftentimes no flow.
53:27
So, um, next one is how to differentiate between
53:30
a ruptured tubal ectopic versus a ruptured, this
53:33
is a really good question, ruptured hemorrhagic.
53:35
There are a lot of different ways to differentiate system.
53:38
I'll just say they've all been great questions.
53:40
Um, this is a clinical, um, this
53:42
is a common clinical scenario.
53:43
I'll say, um, is when we see something
53:46
complex in the adnexa, we're trying to
53:49
decide, is it owned by the ovary or not?
53:52
Okay.
53:52
So is it in the ovary or is it in the
53:55
tube that, you know, outside of the ovary?
53:57
And, um, if it's in the ovary, it's true
54:02
that ectopics can rarely occur in the ovary.
54:06
Um, but, um, much more common to be
54:09
an ectopic if it's not in the ovary.
54:12
Now, how do you distinguish between,
54:14
what if it's really close to the ovary?
54:16
How do you tell?
54:17
One of, um, I like to look for the slide sign.
54:19
Uh, so one thing that you can do is while you're,
54:22
um, performing the transvaginal scan, you can
54:26
put some pressure on the patient's pelvis.
54:29
In that area and see if you can separate
54:32
the complex mass that you're seeing
54:35
from the ovary.
54:36
If you can separate the two, then you can say it's
54:38
separate from the ovary and it's going to be an ectopic.
54:42
Okay.
54:43
If you can't separate, and let's just say you
54:45
just can't tell and it's, if it's ruptured, um,
54:51
and there's a lot of blood, then, um, it'll really
54:55
be, that's the time that I would be talking to, um,
54:58
the obstetrician and saying, this is what I see.
55:00
I just can't tell for sure.
55:02
We might do a very short interval, um, follow-up.
55:04
It would be, you know, then it becomes
55:07
a little bit more of a clinical decision.
55:09
But usually, usually as we work through it,
55:12
we can kind of tell, especially if we're,
55:14
especially if we can separate it from the ovary.
55:18
And then there's one last question, um, which
55:21
is torsion detorsion versus epididymitis.
55:24
This I also have encountered.
55:27
Again, these are all great questions,
55:29
all of the questions that were asked.
55:31
And, um, the story is different.
55:34
Um, fortunately, if I'm talking to in
55:37
a, so I go, I like to go in and scan.
55:39
Okay.
55:39
I do a lot of scanning and it really helps me
55:42
because I, I have a chance to talk to the patient,
55:46
interact with the patient, see how much, you know,
55:48
it really gives me a feel if I'm scanning, like
55:50
how much pain are they actually, are they having?
55:52
And what is their history?
55:54
Um, torsion, detorsion, um, they,
55:58
when they detorse, they feel better.
56:01
And so they might give the history of abrupt
56:03
onset of pain and then it started to get better.
56:06
And so then we see this hyperemic, um, testicle
56:10
and epididymis and, um, we say, well, you
56:14
know, this may be due to detorsion, right?
56:17
Um, where instead of the other thing you
56:20
would be considering is epididymitis.
56:22
Okay, so, um, so I, talking to the
56:25
patient really helps me with that.
56:27
With epididymitis, usually the pain, it just keeps going
56:31
along, it doesn't go away, um, as it does with detorsion.
56:38
I have already, um, been able to scan patients that
56:41
were, um, uh, that detorsed, um, or actually a, a
56:46
patient that, um, had, uh, done a manual detorsion,
56:49
um, in the emergency department and then sent the
56:52
patient to us to scan and, um, and seen the hyperemia.
56:57
But it's usually the history that
56:59
I get that really helps with that.
57:05
How common is it to see thrombotic pelvic
57:08
varices and pelvic congestive syndrome?
57:11
I actually don't know the answer to that.
57:14
I don't think I've seen it very often.
57:16
And I don't know the specific, you
57:18
know, I don't know how often it is.
57:20
So that I would have to, I'd probably have to look up.
57:25
And I think, are there any other questions?
57:33
Well, that seems like that might be it.
57:36
Um, as we bring this to a close, I want to thank
57:39
Dr. Deitte for this lecture.
57:40
And, uh, thanks to all of you for
57:42
participating in our new conference.
57:44
A reminder that this conference is
57:45
available on demand on MRIonline.
57:48
com in addition to all previous noon conferences.
57:52
There will not be a noon conference on Monday
57:54
due to the holiday, but be sure to join us
57:56
again on Wednesday for a lecture from
57:58
Dr. Andrew Schweitzer on imaging PRES, RCVS, and CNS vasculitis.
58:04
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58:07
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58:12
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58:15
Thanks again and have a great day.