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The Fountain of Youth - Pediatric Genitourinary Ultrasound, Barbara K. Pawley (1-12-23)

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Today we are honored to welcome Dr. Barbara Pawley for a

1:32

lecture on the Fountain of Youth pediatric GU ultrasound.

1:36

Dr. Barbara Pawley completed her radiology residency

1:39

at University of Louisville, followed by a

1:41

pediatric fellowship at Kosair Children’s Hospital.

1:45

She’s the immediate past president of AAWR and

1:48

is currently Associate Professor of Emergency

1:51

Radiology as well as Fellowship Director of

1:54

Emergency Radiology at University of Kentucky.

1:57

At the end of the lecture, join Dr. Pawley

1:59

in a Q&A session where she will address

2:02

questions you may have on today’s topic.

2:04

Please remember to use the Q&A feature

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to submit your questions so we can get to

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as many as possible before our time is up.

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With that, we’re ready to begin our lecture.

2:14

46 00:02:14,415 --> 00:02:16,335 Dr. Pawley, please take it from here.

2:17

Hi, I’m Dr. Barbara Pawley, and I’m going to talk today about

2:21

pediatric genitourinary ultrasound, the Fountain of Youth.

2:27

So, thanks.

2:30

The slide.

2:32

Uh, we have different categories today that we’re going to

2:35

look at, and the first is developmental, and then infection.

2:41

Trauma, neoplasm, and some incidental findings.

2:47

Our goals today are to augment our existing

2:49

knowledge of pediatric GU pathology.

2:53

Make the diagnosis with ultrasound and

2:55

correlate with CT or MRI whenever possible.

2:59

I think that we can see things with ultrasound much

3:02

better if we’ve had some platform to put them on.

3:06

So seeing the CT and MRI, or even intraoperative

3:10

images, helps us to be able to see things

3:13

that we couldn’t see before with ultrasound.

3:17

So we’ll start with the developmental case.

3:20

This is a 13-year-old girl with worsening

3:23

right lower quadrant, dull, achy pain.

3:26

And, um, she’s had this for a couple

3:28

of days, and our first thoughts

3:32

would be a long differential, but starting with

3:35

appendicitis, and once that is excluded, then we

3:39

turn to some other things, usually looking at the

3:41

pelvis, and that’s what we did with this patient.

3:44

And you can see marked on this image that it

3:47

is the uterus, and a sagittal projection.

3:51

We are seeing some familiar appearance here.

3:54

This is the myometrium, and we can see that, instead of the

3:58

endometrial stripe, we’re seeing a fluid-filled endometrial

4:02

canal, and it is communicating with this large collection

4:07

of complex fluid down below it, and that is the vagina.

4:12

So we have the vagina communicating with

4:14

the endometrial canal, and additionally,

4:18

we can see in the left adnexa that

4:22

there is a tubular structure.

4:24

It’s marked there as the fallopian tube.

4:26

You might wonder, how do you know

4:28

that’s not a segment of bowel?

4:30

And the answer to that is that we don’t see peristalsis

4:33

there, so we are more convinced that it’s the fallopian tube,

4:39

and it’s also in close proximity to this ovoid structure.

4:43

That, uh, we think is the ovary,

4:46

and we have better proof of that.

4:48

As we look more carefully at both of those structures,

4:52

you can see that, um, this fallopian tube is

4:55

filled with fluid, and there are some characteristic

4:57

findings, these folds in the fallopian tube.

4:59

And, uh, ordinarily we don’t see the fallopian tube at all.

5:04

So, uh, only when we see it filled with

5:06

fluid can we see these features, and we

5:09

see them again on this transverse view.

5:12

And you can see those folds again.

5:14

And this time we can see the ovary in close proximity.

5:17

You can see the follicles along the margin,

5:20

so this is a little bit better view of that.

5:22

So what is going on with this patient?

5:26

Um, we have a CT to correlate with it.

5:29

It’s a beautiful example of the

5:30

similarity of CT and ultrasound.

5:34

We saw all of these things on our ultrasound,

5:38

but here they are on a CT as well.

5:41

You can see that myometrium there, the endometrial canal

5:44

with the fluid filling it, and this huge vagina. We can see

5:48

the extent of the vagina to better, uh, advantage on the CT.

5:52

And you can also see how there might be some compromise

5:55

to the ability to void, uh, because of the mass effect

5:59

from the huge vagina there, fluid-filled vagina.

6:03

So there may be difficulties voiding; there may

6:06

be difficulties in evacuation of stool as well.

6:10

Here is a CT. Um, you can see that, um.

6:16

Um, let’s see.

6:18

You can see that, uh, here on this image that,

6:23

uh, the uterus at the midline is, uh, very thick.

6:29

So there’s the myometrium and the endometrial canal.

6:33

And over to the left side.

6:35

And you can see this, uh, arrow pointing

6:38

to the very dilated fallopian tube.

6:40

So, um, that’s just the CT visualization of that.

6:45

And what does this patient have?

6:47

We can see that this patient has an imperforate hymen

6:52

causing hydrometrocolpos and bilateral hydrosalpinges.

6:56

This patient had a successful hymenotomy that

6:59

day and left, um, the hospital the next day.

7:02

So the presentation of this condition could be in the

7:06

neonatal time period with an abdominal mass, but more

7:10

commonly it presents in an adolescent, and they present

7:14

with abdominal pain or perhaps delayed onset of menses.

7:19

Associated conditions due to this mass effect can

7:22

be bladder outlet obstruction, as I pointed out,

7:25

as well as some hydronephrosis potentially

7:29

associated with that, or constipation, as I showed

7:34

that mass effect from the distended vagina.

7:37

And there can also be ascites because of the retrograde

7:41

drainage of fluid through the fallopian tubes.

7:44

We saw that the fallopian tube was distended with fluid,

7:49

and that can make its way out into the peritoneum.

7:53

The next case is our three-month-old female who came

7:56

to the emergency department with inguinal hernia.

8:00

And you can see on image A that this is a sort

8:04

of a midline, slightly left-of-midline image.

8:07

You can see the bladder partially filled with fluid,

8:10

and the green arrows show the defect in the pelvic wall.

8:15

And through that, there is some structure protruding,

8:18

which we cannot really distinguish on this image.

8:21

On image B in the top right corner,

8:24

we can see, uh, a familiar site.

8:27

The red arrow is pointing to the uterus

8:30

with a normal-looking endometrial stripe.

8:33

And then on either side, the yellow arrows

8:37

point to what we think are probably ovaries on

8:41

either side. We can see those ovaries better

8:44

and prove that they’re ovaries by the fact that

8:47

there are multiple follicles.

8:48

The asterisks are indicating where those follicles are.

8:52

The yellow arrows, again, point to the

8:53

ovaries on either side, so very, very

8:57

unusual finding in the emergency department.

9:00

We think that we’re going to see herniated bowel,

9:02

but instead we see the entire uterus and both

9:06

ovaries protruding through the hernia defect.

9:10

So this is an indirect inguinal hernia.

9:13

It’s one of the most common congenital abnormalities

9:16

in children, and in about 15 to 20% of female patients.

9:22

The hernia sac contains unilateral

9:25

ovaries, something we may not be aware of.

9:28

Maybe we don’t investigate the contents of

9:31

the hernia sac well enough, but containing the

9:33

whole uterus and both ovaries is quite rare.

9:36

Although I was quite astounded by this case,

9:39

the pediatric surgeons did not seem to be quite

9:43

as excited, so I would assume that they must

9:46

see similar findings more often than I do.

9:50

The theories on the mechanism of the

9:52

occurrence of this include the one herniated

9:55

ovary that can occur relatively commonly.

9:59

Um, that and the uterus and the other

10:02

ovary can herniate.

10:06

Into that sac because of internal

10:09

pressure from the child crying.

10:12

So, um, that’s the mechanism of it.

10:15

And then we move on to another case in this

10:18

category, which is a 17-year-old exchange

10:21

student who has not been in the US very long.

10:27

And has no prior medical care in this country.

10:31

So, um, we don’t have any previous

10:34

records or other information.

10:37

The patient presents with abdominal pain, and

10:39

it’s predominantly in the right upper quadrant.

10:42

So as we look at this patient with a right upper quadrant

10:44

ultrasound, that was our first line of evaluation.

10:48

We can see on image A that the liver parenchyma

10:52

is quite coarse and echogenic, and the white arrows

10:56

point to this tubular structure that, once we put

11:00

color on, we can see that this is the recanalized

11:04

paraumbilical vein, and that’s something we’re

11:07

not used to seeing in this 17-year-old at all.

11:11

We might see this in a patient with

11:13

cirrhosis, a little bit older person.

11:17

But this was a very unusual finding.

11:19

And as we move on to look at the liver parenchyma a

11:22

little bit more carefully on image C, you can see those

11:25

green arrows pointing to dilated, uh, hepatic ducts.

11:31

These, these, uh, uh, biliary ducts are very distended,

11:37

and, and, uh, we should not be able to see them at all.

11:40

So, um, the coarse echotexture

11:43

um, is very abnormal.

11:46

Then we go on to look at that a little more closely.

11:49

The yellow arrow points to that, those

11:51

ducts, to see how dilated they are.

11:54

Looking at image D, uh, you might be asking yourself why

11:59

is this in a talk about GU, and that is coming up.

12:03

Um, as with all right upper quadrant ultrasounds, we

12:07

look at the right, uh, the right kidney comes with that.

12:10

And so we had the opportunity to see the right kidney.

12:13

And as you can see there, it looks very coarse echogenic.

12:18

Um, we can see that there’s those cystic

12:21

tubular structures even in the kidney.

12:26

Those are the renal tubules, and this kidney was

12:30

quite large, measuring 15.1 centimeters in the sagittal

12:33

dimension, so that’s an extremely large kidney.

12:38

I asked the technologist to get the other kidney as well.

12:42

And it had the same appearance,

12:43

and it measured about the same.

12:46

So there it is a little closer up.

12:48

You can see those dilated renal tubules.

12:52

So, uh, this is just another look at that, uh,

12:55

right kidney, um, how coarse and echogenic it is.

12:59

This patient went on to get an MRI of

13:03

the, um, abdomen, and you can see that the

13:07

kidneys are very abnormal looking,

13:11

and they look cystic.

13:13

Uh, but not the typical kind of autosomal

13:16

dominant, uh, polycystic kidney disease that really

13:20

doesn’t present with so many, uh, uh, dilated

13:24

uh,

13:25

cysts until a little bit later in age.

13:27

So this patient is just a teenager, and, um, what he actually

13:32

has is autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease.

13:36

And hence we see the dilatation of

13:39

the renal tubules, not the cortex.

13:43

So we also see that there are cystic

13:45

changes in the periphery of the liver.

13:48

And as I mentioned earlier, the, uh,

13:52

biliary ducts are dilated as well.

13:56

It almost has a Caroli disease kind of appearance.

13:59

And you may remember studying this disease, this

14:02

autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease,

14:05

somewhere in your past as you studied for a core exam

14:08

or maybe as, um, uh, you study for an in-service exam.

14:13

And so what we see here is classic for that.

14:17

Usually the worse the kidney disease,

14:20

the less the liver disease, and vice versa.

14:23

This patient has quite a few findings in both,

14:27

so he is a very good example of, uh, the various

14:30

things that can be seen in this patient.

14:33

He mostly had right upper quadrant pain.

14:36

So his pain really wasn’t associated with

14:39

his kidney disease, but rather with his

14:41

liver disease. He had ascending cholangitis.

14:45

So, um, this is just a really nice case of, uh,

14:49

to be able to see all the different findings in that.

14:52

And then we’ll move on to infection.

14:55

This is a 12-year-old who presents to the emergency

15:00

department with left scrotal pain and fever.

15:04

And you can see the first image on the left side

15:06

is a typical image that we get of the bilateral

15:09

testicles side by side, a comparison image.

15:11

And you can see here that the vascularity

15:14

of both testicles is very similar.

15:16

And so that helps us because, you know, we want to

15:18

know, is there hyperemia, or is there a lack of flow?

15:22

And seeing very similar flow is very helpful to us.

15:27

So then we noticed that there’s hyperemia, hyper

15:31

vascularity, more in the peripheral aspect of

15:34

the left side, and that is in the epididymis.

15:37

So this patient basically has epididymitis.

15:41

There’s inflammation of the spermatic cord as well,

15:45

panniculitis, and this patient was treated with an oral

15:50

antibiotic, as most of these types of cases are treated.

15:56

But with this patient, he came back a few days later, and

16:00

he still had pain, and we redid the ultrasound, and you can

16:03

see once again the right testicle looks pretty normal.

16:06

The left testicle is quite edematous.

16:08

We’re not seeing it all the way

16:10

here, a lot of edema around it.

16:12

This is that left testicle compared to the

16:14

normal uniform echotexture of the right.

16:17

It is quite hypoechoic.

16:20

It’s edematous, and it’s heterogeneous.

16:23

There’s a lot of edema around it, and putting color on

16:27

that, we can see that there’s hyperemia of the testicle.

16:30

Now, we didn’t see that before.

16:33

We did not see a large amount of vascularity

16:38

in that left testicle on the first study.

16:42

That is because this is taking the typical

16:44

pathway, the retrograde pathway of epididymal orchitis.

16:49

It’s a disease process that starts at the urethra

16:53

and involves the bladder, eventually makes its way

16:56

to the epididymis, and only later will it involve

16:59

the testicle itself, and then it becomes orchitis.

17:03

And we do see an asterisk there

17:05

that there is no vascularity there.

17:07

I will tell you more about that on the next slide.

17:10

So this patient, because he was doing very

17:13

poorly, he was treated with an IV antibiotic.

17:17

And, uh, he still did not really improve, and he was

17:22

reevaluated with ultrasound again a couple days later.

17:26

And again, you can see his normal right testicle.

17:29

Now his left testicle is showing some signs

17:33

of these white arrows demarcated area.

17:37

That is hypoechoic, pretty well circumscribed.

17:41

We put color on it.

17:42

We can see that there’s hypervascularity

17:45

all around that margin, but not within it.

17:48

Not in this area, but it’s all around.

17:51

And that is a typical look of advancing abscess formation.

17:57

So that’s what’s going on here.

17:59

That there was, um, infection

18:01

throughout that testicle, but now it’s

18:04

becoming walled off, creating an abscess.

18:07

Why no vascularity in the center?

18:10

Because this is just a collection of

18:12

purulent material. No blood flow into pus.

18:16

So, um, so we don’t have any blood flow there.

18:19

This patient went to the OR. Um, they

18:22

thought they might have to do an orchiectomy.

18:25

But, uh, they just drained it, and this patient, at least

18:28

at that time, did not have to undergo an orchiectomy.

18:32

So, um, this is the mediastinum testis,

18:36

and the infection is centered around that.

18:40

So that’s what’s, uh, going on at that point.

18:43

So this is epididymo-orchitis, and its cause in

18:47

prepubertal boys remains controversial.

18:51

Most cases of epididymitis in adults, um, are related to

18:56

a sexually transmitted disease, but not all of them.

19:00

The infection ascends from the bladder or

19:02

urethra, and it’s usually treated with a course of

19:06

antibiotics against the usual urinary pathogens.

19:10

But in this age patient, an STD is not the source of epi.

19:17

In prepubertal children, so rather

19:21

it is more often associated with constipation, and

19:25

straining leads to retrograde flow of urine.

19:28

So, um, when I think of, uh, epididymo-orchitis, I always wondered.

19:34

Why do these prepubertal children get this?

19:37

Uh, because we do see a fair number of them, and in

19:40

this patient, we were able to culture that, and it

19:44

was Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and, um, so, um, obviously

19:50

that is not a sexually transmitted disease.

19:52

So, um, just a nice example of

19:56

a different pathologic pathway.

19:59

So the next patient also has an infection.

20:03

Uh, had an infection, and this is a four-year-old

20:06

with fever, and you can appreciate on that

20:09

chest X-ray why he would be short of air.

20:11

And you can see the diffuse opacification, uh, the lung

20:15

parenchyma on the right side, and even some on the left.

20:19

And there was concern that there might be an empyema.

20:23

The patient got a CT, and, um, this was

20:27

necrotizing pneumonia, and there was, in fact,

20:32

the patient was diagnosed with strep sepsis.

20:38

So as part of this, uh, chest CT, we always

20:43

take the chest CT down to the level of the

20:45

kidneys, and that’s where the GU part comes in.

20:48

So as we do that, we see that the

20:52

kidneys marked with red arrows

20:54

have a striated nephrogram.

20:56

And so, at that appearance, I thought, wow, why does

21:00

this person have, uh, pyelonephritis or nephritis?

21:05

Um, and so as I reported that, uh, the

21:09

team started looking at the patient

21:12

for why he had nephritis, and they did

21:15

ultrasound of the kidneys and bladder.

21:18

And you can see here a very nice correlation of this striated

21:23

nephrogram on CT with a striated nephrogram on ultrasound.

21:28

So we have this

21:29

correlation, and, uh, it still leads us asking the question,

21:34

why does this patient have nephritis when he has no UTI?

21:39

They did not find a UTI; his urine was clean,

21:43

and so they did not treat him for a UTI.

21:46

So, um, just an investigation into that.

21:50

Uh, we can see that the striated nephrogram

21:53

is synonymous with renal infection.

21:57

Most nephritis comes from a UTI origin, so it’s

22:02

mostly that the patient has a bladder infection, and it

22:06

refluxes up to the kidney through the collecting system,

22:11

then ultimately to the renal parenchyma, and even

22:13

sometimes causing inflammation in the perinephric fat.

22:18

So that is the usual course of the infection.

22:21

But in our case, the patient did not have

22:24

any UTI, so there was no bladder infection.

22:27

How does he get nephritis?

22:29

It is because he has sepsis; he has a pathogen

22:33

that is delivered hematogenously directly to the cortex

22:37

of the kidneys, and it’s bilateral, of course.

22:41

So, um, so that’s how this patient ends up having nephritis

22:46

without a bladder infection, so.

22:50

Moving on to the next patient with an infection.

22:54

Uh, this is a 12-year-old, uh, morbidly obese patient.

22:59

And I add that information because it’s

23:01

very, uh, applicable to this patient’s case.

23:04

Um, the patient got this study at an

23:07

outside facility, and you can see that the

23:10

midline and the uterus looks pretty normal,

23:14

and the bladder looks normal as well.

23:16

It’s partially filled.

23:18

This patient was having pain, uh, in the pelvis,

23:21

so of course, uh, we would have to rule out

23:24

appendicitis first, but ultimately we arrived at

23:28

looking at the rest of the pelvic structures, and

23:30

you can see on the right and left side, very similar.

23:34

Uh, appearance.

23:35

This is a structure that we have seen already in this talk.

23:39

So, uh, you can see a tortuous tubular

23:42

structure, and we see them on both sides.

23:45

The pink asterisks mark the fallopian tubes, and

23:48

they’re filled with, um, complex, uh, fluid.

23:53

Uh, this is debris, and this is

23:55

compatible with a pyosalpinx.

23:59

So these fallopian tubes are very

24:01

distended, filled with infection.

24:04

And there’s bilateral tubo-ovarian abscess.

24:08

So, uh, the patient at the outside facility

24:11

uh, got a CT, and so it was a great opportunity

24:15

to see these same structures on CT.

24:18

And, uh, you can see the red arrow

24:20

on the far left, your left image.

24:24

This is, uh, inflammation that is all around

24:27

the inferior aspect of the liver margin.

24:30

There’s a trace amount of fluid there.

24:33

Down further in the pelvis, the red arrows

24:36

demarcate the very angry-looking bowel.

24:39

There’s a lot of inflammation surrounding it.

24:42

Here.

24:42

Make note of the very, uh, edematous loop of

24:46

bowel and the inflammation around it.

24:49

It contributes to the patient’s pain and symptoms.

24:52

And here in the low pelvis, you can see that

24:56

there’s like a mass of infection around these

25:00

fallopian tubes.

25:01

So this is both of them, the right and

25:04

the left, which we saw on ultrasound.

25:07

And, uh, there’s a lot of dilatation, and

25:11

they’re both fluid-filled, and this is all

25:14

infection and inflammation surrounding them.

25:17

And here on the sagittal view, you can

25:19

see the very similar appearance of the

25:22

fallopian tube that we saw on the ultrasound.

25:25

There it is.

25:27

Once again, originally you may think that this is

25:31

a segment of bowel, but without any peristalsis,

25:34

and given its position, then we turn our attention

25:37

to potentially the dilated fallopian tube.

25:41

So that is it on CT as well.

25:44

So, uh, the patient did not

25:46

actually progress to get better.

25:49

So eventually another CT was performed, and you can

25:53

see on this CT, the patient has a walled-off abscess.

25:57

This is not the only abscess the

25:59

patient had, um, but it’s, uh,

26:02

it’s, uh, good enough to be able to

26:05

give you the idea of what’s going on.

26:08

So she has multiple abscesses in the peritoneum.

26:12

You can see some fluid and inflammation around as well.

26:17

And so, of course, our first thought on this

26:19

patient was that this may be sexual abuse.

26:23

She’s only 12.

26:25

How else would a person get tubo-ovarian abscesses?

26:30

Um, so there was a lot of evaluation done, and also

26:35

this abscess was, uh, we did a culture of it, and it

26:40

grew out staph and E. coli, and these are not pathogens

26:43

that we see from sexually transmitted disease.

26:47

So.

26:48

Um, as you may recall, I told you this

26:51

patient was morbidly obese, and that was a very

26:55

important factor in her, uh, presentation.

26:58

She was not able to even walk down a hall.

27:03

She could not stand in the shower

27:05

long enough to take a shower.

27:07

So she just didn’t, and she had very poor hygiene.

27:10

She also struggled with issues of incontinence.

27:14

She wore a diaper to bed, and these factors

27:17

contributed to her situation of infection.

27:22

So, uh, this was not a sexually transmitted

27:24

disease, but rather, um, this was a result

27:28

of, uh, her, uh, hygiene situation.

27:32

And this is very typical of what you see

27:35

in Fitz-Hugh–Curtis syndrome, which is peri-

27:38

hepatitis inflammation associated with PID.

27:42

And so this patient had

27:45

an infection that originated at the level

27:50

of the vagina, made its way through the uterus,

27:52

out through the bilateral fallopian tubes, and

27:56

once it gets past the fallopian tubes, it’s

27:59

out in the peritoneum, so now it can surround the

28:04

ovaries, but it can also surround loops of bowel.

28:08

And this patient had inflammation

28:10

around the loops of bowel as well.

28:12

And around the liver margin, she did not, uh,

28:16

have, um, any, uh, around the dome of the liver.

28:20

So we didn’t see these violaceous strings, which are

28:22

a result of infection there and, uh, adhesions.

28:26

So, um, that’s a very good example of

28:29

Fitz-Hugh–Curtis and how it progresses.

28:32

This is a companion case, a 16-year-old who

28:36

presented to the ER with left pelvic pain, and

28:39

she got an ultrasound first, and you can see

28:42

that she has a structure that you might think is

28:45

the ovary, but there were other findings around it.

28:49

And this ovary area measured five and a half

28:54

centimeters, and that is very large for an ovary.

28:58

Um, usually they are about two to three cm,

29:03

um, but not five and a half in an

29:07

otherwise normal young teenager.

29:09

So this, um, was an abnormal finding along

29:13

with other findings of inflammation.

29:16

So she went on to get a CT.

29:18

And so there’s a very nice correlation.

29:21

Uh, this turned out to be a tubo-

29:22

ovarian abscess, which you can see here.

29:26

And there is the very dilated fallopian tube

29:29

with the surrounding infection and inflammation.

29:32

The right adnexal area does not

29:35

look the same, not quite as far progressed.

29:38

And as I mentioned earlier, there’s

29:39

a lot of inflammation to the bowel.

29:41

There’s that thickened bowel wall

29:43

we saw on the other patient as well. On coronal image,

29:47

you just see this, um, tubo-

29:50

ovarian abscess in another plane.

29:53

So, um, the patient and the parents, uh, confirmed

29:57

the patient was not sexually active at all, and

30:01

there was a lot of evaluation of this patient,

30:04

and eventually it was determined that it

30:06

was probably from a tampon left in too long

30:09

or a hygiene issue.

30:11

And so, uh, the takeaway point for this is that

30:14

we’ve seen two cases of, um, tubo-ovarian abscess,

30:19

or PID, that was not sexually transmitted disease.

30:24

I don’t know about you, but generally when

30:28

I see, um, PID, I think sexually transmitted,

30:33

um, but I just want to show you that there are

30:35

other methods of having that same diagnosis.

30:39

And then moving on to trauma.

30:41

We have this young patient, six years old, a

30:43

female who came to the emergency department,

30:47

and she had been in an all-terrain vehicle accident

30:50

and thrown forward against the handlebars.

30:54

You can see on these multiple images that

30:57

we did the exam that typically, uh, is

31:00

done for very young patients, children.

31:03

They don’t start out with a CT for their trauma.

31:05

They start out with an ultrasound,

31:07

and we ultrasound all four quadrants.

31:11

And then we ultrasound the heart area, and

31:14

we’re looking for, um, solid organ injury.

31:19

Uh, so when we see all this fluid that you see

31:22

around the liver margin and in the right lower

31:25

quadrant and bilateral sides of the pelvis, then

31:29

we start worrying about a solid organ injury.

31:33

So that warrants a CT.

31:36

So she went on to get a CT.

31:39

And starting with the fact that, um, on her,

31:44

uh, reconstructed T-spine images, you can see

31:47

that she has had a flexion injury.

31:51

You can see the compression of the superior, uh, margin

31:56

of the thoracic vertebrae, loss of vertebral height.

32:00

This confirms her mechanism of injury, and you can see here

32:05

that she has quite a bit of fluid in her abdomen and pelvis.

32:10

She might have had a full bladder when she had this

32:12

accident because we see the typical injury to the dome

32:16

of the bladder that you see here with the yellow arrow.

32:19

This is, um, the injury to the dome of the

32:22

bladder where, uh, all the fluid from the

32:25

bladder is escaping into the nearby, uh, area.

32:30

And in this case, when it’s the dome of the

32:32

bladder that’s injured, it’s usually a peritoneal,

32:35

intraperitoneal rupture of the bladder.

32:39

And so the fluid

32:41

flows around all these loops of bowel,

32:44

and that is confirmation that it is a

32:46

peritoneal rupture, not an extraperitoneal.

32:50

So, um, here you can see that the, uh, contrast

32:56

was instilled in the bladder through this

32:59

wound-tip catheter, and you can see that there’s some air,

33:02

and the contrast is just coming out into the peritoneum.

33:07

This is the peritoneal reflection.

33:09

So this patient had to go to the OR because that is

33:12

how the, uh, intraperitoneal bladder rupture is treated

33:16

intraoperatively.

33:19

That’s in contrast to this patient who came

33:21

to our ER after a motor vehicle accident,

33:26

and he probably didn’t have a full bladder.

33:29

His injury is to the anterior margin of the bladder,

33:33

and the contrast is escaping into the space anterior to that.

33:38

It’s more of a confined space and usually into

33:41

the space of Retzius as a potential space, and that’s

33:45

why on a plain radiograph, it will stay kind of

33:49

in close proximity instead of flowing all around.

33:53

It, uh, can just collect there,

33:55

and it gives that flame shape.

33:58

And so that is the classic appearance.

34:00

And, um, so, uh, it can also flow into the retroperitoneum,

34:06

but, uh, this one seems to be mostly collecting anteriorly.

34:10

Not completely, but here you can see it actually,

34:14

uh, collecting in that, um, anterior space.

34:18

And so the patient was treated as typical

34:21

treatment for an extraperitoneal bladder rupture.

34:25

And that is by placing a catheter in the

34:27

bladder, decompressing the bladder, keeping

34:30

it decompressed, and allowing it to heal.

34:32

So the patient was sent home with the bladder catheter, and

34:36

he returned, uh, several days later,

34:39

nine days later, he came back.

34:42

He had urosepsis, and here you can see his bladder.

34:46

The, um, the injury did not heal.

34:48

And he has this large collection of fluid with,

34:51

uh, gas locules throughout it and an air-fluid level.

34:55

Uh, some enhancement of that,

34:57

uh,

34:58

collection.

34:59

So this patient required a percutaneous drain.

35:03

So, um, comparing these, we have the extra-

35:06

peritoneal bladder rupture that is generally

35:08

treated with catheterization to allow healing

35:12

to the bladder as the bladder is decompressed.

35:15

The intraperitoneal bladder rupture is treated with surgery.

35:21

These people go to the OR because the large absorption of

35:24

urine leads to electrolyte and metabolic abnormalities.

35:28

So just the two different pathways that, uh, are

35:32

taken for the different types of bladder injury.

35:35

And we move on to look at a tumor case.

35:38

Uh, this is a 14-year-old male with hematuria

35:41

for a few weeks, and recently he developed dysuria,

35:44

so he presents to the ER like so many people do.

35:49

And, uh, as any child presenting with macro-

35:53

hematuria, we want to ask the history. Has there been trauma?

35:57

And in our patient, no urinary tract infection,

36:01

because sometimes they can become hemorrhagic.

36:04

Um, but he hasn’t had that.

36:06

Um, and personal or family history of nephrolithiasis.

36:12

Sometimes the movement of the, um, renal

36:16

stone through the ureter can cause bleeding.

36:18

So, um, what we want to ask next is the

36:20

652 00:36:22,185 --> 00:36:25,125 hematuria, tea-colored or pink or red?

36:25

If it’s tea-colored, we think something

36:27

farther away from the bladder.

36:29

So we’re thinking glomerulonephritis because it

36:33

is the most common cause of hematuria in a child.

36:38

But if it’s pink or red, then we think

36:40

something down at the bladder or close to it.

36:43

And, um, that’s, uh, what this patient had.

36:47

So, um.

36:49

We went on to do an ultrasound of the

36:51

kidneys and the bladder, and the kidneys were

36:54

totally normal, so I’m not showing them.

36:56

But the bladder, uh, looked like this, and we could see

36:59

the transverse and the sagittal view of the bladder.

37:02

And there was this echogenic focus along

37:04

the posterior aspect of the bladder.

37:07

And it’s somewhat irregular.

37:09

This patient has had hematuria, so.

37:13

You could maybe think this might be a thrombus, um, as

37:17

anybody might think in a patient who is having bleeding.

37:20

So, um, we then, uh, astutely,

37:24

the technologist, uh, put color.

37:27

You can see the usage of color is very helpful.

37:30

In this case, the blood flow into that

37:33

area is not compatible with a thrombus.

37:36

We didn’t see blood flowing into pus, and

37:38

we don’t see blood flow into thrombus.

37:42

But since we see blood flow into this

37:44

area, it is a concerning finding.

37:47

So now we are.

37:48

Um, and we must go to investigate this more fully.

37:52

And the patient got a CT, and so we

37:55

can see a nice correlation here.

37:57

This looks very sinister.

37:59

It looks like a bad sign.

38:01

These are the fronds, uh, extending from this.

38:04

It has a single stalk, and in fact it is very sinister.

38:09

It has turned out to be

38:11

a transitional cell carcinoma in a 14-year-old male.

38:17

So very unusual.

38:19

Did not expect to see this in the ER.

38:22

Um, so the takeaway there is that you want to

38:26

see if you see blood flow into a structure.

38:29

It’s not something inert like a thrombus.

38:32

And then a couple of incidental cases.

38:35

This is a 16-year-old male with right scrotal

38:38

pain that began at 5:00 AM, and now it has

38:41

been present for three and a half hours.

38:42

And he says no trauma.

38:44

He has just a small hydrocele on that right side.

38:48

And, uh, here you can see that the comparison image of

38:51

the testicles shows pretty symmetric flow of vascularity.

38:55

So, um, things are looking pretty good there.

38:58

I mean, we’re thinking about, because he has

39:01

no trauma.

39:02

I mean, no trauma, but a sudden onset of scrotal pain.

39:07

You have to think it could be a torsion,

39:10

but it doesn’t look that way on this image.

39:13

The patient then got, uh, the typical images to look for the

39:16

vascular flow, and we can see the submitted images include

39:20

a normal arterial waveform and a normal venous waveform.

39:24

So at first glance, this looks like a pretty normal study

39:27

and doesn’t explain the patient’s pain, but if you look

39:31

in the area of the spermatic cord, you can see this whirlpool

39:36

kind of appearance of the vascularity that is concerning.

39:41

So we have normal right arterial flow, but

39:46

as we, uh, interrogated, uh, the technologist a

39:49

little more about this since there was concern.

39:53

Um, I asked her, is there, uh, a lot of venous flow

39:58

there, or did you have trouble getting a venous waveform?

40:01

And she said, no, that was the only venous

40:03

waveform she could get throughout the testicle.

40:06

But, uh, she did not declare that on her tech sheets.

40:09

So, uh, that was, uh, unfortunate.

40:12

But, um, nevertheless, uh, you can see on this

40:16

ultrasound, um, this, uh, whirlpool kind of

40:20

appearance of the, uh, of the spermatic cord.

40:24

There it is.

40:25

And

40:27

the patient went to surgery.

40:30

So the patient was found to have right testicular torsion

40:32

with twisting of the spermatic cord, uh, by 360 degrees.

40:36

That was on the op report.

40:38

And the testicle appeared dusky at first, but

40:40

as it was detorsed, uh, it became more viable-

40:44

looking, and the patient escaped an orchiectomy,

40:47

which is a great thing for this patient.

40:49

So, um.

40:52

Is testicular torsion.

40:54

If we looked at this rapidly, um, and didn’t

40:57

investigate any further, uh, we might have

41:00

thought that, uh, this patient had a normal exam.

41:04

But, um, the important thing is to be aware

41:06

of the difficulty to find the venous flow,

41:09

which is much more affected by torsion than arterial flow,

41:13

because the venous structures are just more pliable

41:17

and easy to crimp as they tors, and it’s very, very

41:21

important to look for the torsion of the spermatic cord.

41:24

And the next patient was not so lucky.

41:27

This is a 23-month-old who had scrotal swelling.

41:33

And they thought maybe the patient had an inguinal hernia.

41:36

So, uh, the patient came in, and we see this

41:38

left testicle in the area of concern, and

41:42

it looks maybe a little bit heterogeneous.

41:45

Uh, there is definitely inflammation around it.

41:47

And, um.

41:49

You can see that they used power Doppler

41:51

to get, uh, some flow in this testicle, and

41:56

there’s a lot of flow around it in the epididymis.

42:01

And, uh, ultimately they, with using power Doppler,

42:04

were able to get this arterial waveform,

42:07

and you can see the inflammation around that

42:10

testicle and in the epididymis, and you can see that

42:14

there’s inflammation up at this spermatic cord

42:17

and a lot of hypervascularity around that.

42:21

So the way this was, uh, evaluated was

42:24

that it was thought to be epididymitis

42:26

causing inflammation of this spermatic cord,

42:28

panniculitis, and power Doppler showed

42:31

a single focus of vascular flow, which

42:34

redirected the impression away from torsion.

42:37

So, um.

42:39

So then this patient was sent home on an antibiotic because

42:43

they thought he had epididymitis, and he came back 24 hours

42:47

later, at which point I saw this patient, and, uh, you can

42:51

see that there’s a lot of inflammation around the left

42:53

hemiscrotum. The left testicle, the left epididymis, they’re all

42:57

edematous, heterogeneous, maybe a little worse than yesterday.

43:02

Uh, they did manage to give me an arterial waveform there.

43:06

There’s the cursor.

43:09

Um, and then in the left, uh,

43:13

spermatic cord region,

43:14

we can see this area that looks sort of circular.

43:19

I didn’t like it.

43:20

Um, but I did look back.

43:22

I have to say that I looked back at the previous exam

43:24

on the previous day, and when I saw this, I just did not like it

43:29

for this patient because the testicle looked so bad.

43:33

And this looks like the, you know, the

43:35

flow toward the probe and the flow away.

43:38

It’s kind of the yin and the yang,

43:39

it’s making its circle there.

43:42

I called GU.

43:43

I said, please take this patient to the OR.

43:46

And they did.

43:47

And this patient had a necrotic

43:51

left testicle.

43:52

And, um, so, um, that was, um, a sad case because, uh,

43:58

there was not enough attention given to the spermatic cord.

44:01

Um, so that’s my takeaway for that.

44:04

Um, I don’t want to leave the females out on the torsion.

44:09

Uh, this is a 12-year-old female with, um, acute onset of

44:14

nausea and vomiting and pain, and she had an ultrasound.

44:18

You can see her right ovary is very, uh, abnormal looking.

44:22

The follicles are seen along the margin.

44:26

Um, it’s an echogenic test of, uh, sorry, ovary.

44:30

And, um, here on this image is the clincher.

44:34

Um, this ovary measures

44:37

eight centimeters by 5.4 centimeters.

44:41

So, uh, we could not find her left ovary.

44:45

And so even though we couldn’t find

44:46

it, we know that this is very abnormal.

44:50

It’s just way too big.

44:52

And, uh, the follicles along

44:54

the margin and the echotexture.

44:57

Possibly a tiny bit of fluid.

44:59

There are all consistent with ovarian torsion.

45:02

It’s a very classic look for it, and this patient went

45:05

to the OR, and sure enough, that was ovarian torsion.

45:08

So just nice to show a comparison of ovarian

45:11

torsion as well as testicular torsion.

45:15

So our take-home points are indirect.

45:17

Inguinal hernia is one of the most common

45:19

congenital abnormalities in children, about

45:22

a fifth to a sixth of the female patients.

45:24

The hernia sac contains its lateral ovary.

45:28

Something I just wasn’t aware of before I saw this case.

45:31

Adult epididymitis is a result of STD quite

45:35

frequently, not always, but quite frequently.

45:38

It stems from the urethra.

45:39

In prepubertal children, epididymitis, uh,

45:43

is not from STD, but more from constipation.

45:47

Straining leads to retrograde flow of urine, and

45:51

nephritis is mostly from reflux, from infection,

45:54

from the bladder to the collecting system.

45:56

But with sepsis, the infection can be

45:59

introduced hematogenously into the kidneys without a UTI.

46:04

Pelvic inflammatory disease is not

46:06

always sexually transmitted disease.

46:08

I know I think that immediately, but, uh, here you

46:11

can see that it can be related to hygiene.

46:16

Intraperitoneal bladder rupture is treated

46:18

surgically due to electrolyte imbalance, and extra-

46:21

peritoneal with a catheter, which usually works,

46:24

but not in the one patient I showed you.

46:27

And then distinguish thrombus

46:28

from mass with color Doppler.

46:30

Uh, if we had stopped thinking, uh, just with

46:33

thinking that was thrombus from the hematuria, then

46:36

we would’ve really missed an important finding.

46:39

And the whirlpool sign of the spermatic cord is

46:41

the most definitive evidence of testicular torsion.

46:45

And that concludes, uh, these are my

46:48

references, and I'm grateful for them.

46:51

And, uh, that's the end of my presentation.

46:55

So, um, now I am going to see

46:59

if we can answer some questions.

47:03

So, uh, let's see.

47:06

Um, and I'll just ask, uh.

47:11

If, uh, Ashley has anything to tell me,

47:13

or I'll just read some of these off.

47:15

For the kidney size, you use age as sole evaluation

47:19

of enlargement, um, uh, for the kidney size.

47:24

Well, it is very good to make that kind

47:27

of evaluation, um, when people are, um.

47:32

When you have a pediatric patient and you are

47:35

being evaluated for a pediatric condition, I

47:39

would say that you would want to refer to the

47:42

charts to, um, sort of give guidance to that.

47:47

But in the ER, um, this, this is, um, even

47:52

though this is a young patient, 17, um.

47:55

The enlargement, you really don't have to

47:58

look at a, a chart for that age patient.

48:01

Um, this age patient is pretty much

48:04

an adult size, and we know adult sizes.

48:08

Um, when you get up to 15 centimeters and you have

48:12

an abnormal look, uh, we know that's enlarged.

48:15

But yes, I have definitely, in my pediatric practice,

48:19

used charts to look at sizes to get an idea.

48:22

So I would say it's good to do that.

48:25

And, uh, cortical width, uh, on renal ultrasound.

48:31

Um, correct way to measure cortical width.

48:35

Um, I would say.

48:38

Uh, you would, uh, just make sure that you have

48:41

your ultrasound probe in the correct, uh, position.

48:45

And you might take a couple of different images and,

48:50

uh, see what the measurements are, and you should

48:54

get measurements that are very close to each other.

48:57

Uh, and then ultimately you'll be able

48:59

to, um, get probably a median of those.

49:05

Uh.

49:06

Those measurements.

49:07

So, um, in, in these cases, the exact measurement

49:13

of the, uh, kidney was not as critical as

49:17

it may be in some other, uh, instances.

49:21

So, uh, uh, role for indirect radionuclide

49:26

cystography and evaluation of VU reflux.

49:29

Um.

49:30

This is actually not the thrust of my talk, but,

49:33

um, I do know that, um, we don't like to do the,

49:39

uh, fluoroscopy evaluations like we used to.

49:43

Um, so, um, a radionuclide study can be useful, I would say.

49:52

Um, the, uh.

49:55

That if you have a patient who has significant

49:59

factors like multiple infections, UTI infections,

50:04

you have an ultrasound that demonstrates that there's

50:07

abnormalities in the dilatation of the collecting

50:10

system and ureters that, um, getting to the bottom

50:14

of that with looking at a, uh, VUR reflux evaluation

50:18

is very important, and I think it would justify

50:22

doing that either by fluoroscopy or radionuclide.

50:26

Either way, I would either one, and then, uh.

50:32

Distinguish between intraperitoneal and extraperitoneal fluid.

50:36

In the case of bladder rupture, uh, as I mentioned,

50:40

um, it is, uh, best to, uh, if you see the fluid

50:45

flowing around the loops of bowel, then you can be

50:50

sure that you are in the peritoneum. The loops of bowel

50:54

are, you don't see those in the extraperitoneum.

50:57

So that is a very good way.

51:00

And the other way is just like if you're trying

51:02

to inject, uh, into a patient, say through a

51:06

tube, and it, it extravasates into soft tissue.

51:09

Uh, that's the same kind of thing that you see,

51:12

uh, in an extraperitoneal bladder rupture.

51:15

It just stays confined.

51:18

Um, and that's a, a very good way to be able

51:21

to tell that when it stays confined, you get

51:23

that flame shape and, uh, instead of flowing.

51:27

So that's the best way.

51:29

And, uh, how common is TOA syndrome in patients with PID?

51:33

Um, not, not very common, and honestly, as I have

51:39

looked, uh, now I'm not in the field of GYN, so I may

51:45

not see all the cases that they see, but I can tell

51:47

you lots about cases in the emergency department,

51:51

which a lot of them will come through.

51:54

Um, that, uh, I have not really seen,

51:58

uh, other cases of Fitz-Hugh–Curtis syndrome.

52:01

So it's, it's not very common, but often talked about.

52:06

How do, um, let's see, the liver to avoid Riedel lobe, um, uh,

52:14

well, I. Uh, I think it's kind of a gestalt of looking

52:21

at the configuration of the liver in all three planes.

52:25

Uh, your coronal, your sagittal, your axial, and, um, and

52:30

you should be able to get a good idea whether that's a Riedel

52:33

lobe, um, and, and not it, if it, if it is a Riedel lobe.

52:38

So, uh, in fact, the importance of knowing if you have

52:42

hepatomegaly is probably going to hinge more on whether you

52:45

have, uh, caudate enlargement and left lobe enlargement.

52:50

That's usually the cases that you see it in.

52:53

So that's going to be a big help to you to evaluate

52:57

those, the relative hypertrophy of the left lobe.

53:01

Renal cause, you suspect extrarenal causes in case

53:05

the primary renal changes as initial presentation

53:10

imaging, uh, when you suspect,

53:16

I'm not sure I understand that.

53:18

Um, but, um, uh, there's, can we find any relation

53:24

between ectopic testicular and indirect hernia?

53:30

Um, relationship, not that I'm aware of.

53:35

So I'm sorry.

53:37

I can't really help you with that particular question.

53:39

Um, uh, so, uh, no open questions.

53:46

Alright.

53:47

Um, I thank everyone for joining me, and, um, I had, uh,

53:54

uh, I'm very glad that I got to share this information,

53:58

so thank you.

53:58

967 00:54:00,105 --> 00:54:01,725 Dr. Pawley, thank you so much for your

54:01

lecture today, and thanks for everybody

54:04

for participating in our noon conference.

54:07

And a special thanks to our co-sponsor, A A

54:09

WR. You can access the recording of today's

54:13

conference and all our previous noon conferences

54:15

by creating a free MRI online account.

54:19

Be sure to join us next Thursday, January 19th,

54:22

at PM Eastern for a lecture by Dr. Marcelo de

54:26

Abreu on spine degeneration and inflammation.

54:29

Our next A A WR co-sponsored lecture is January 26th,

54:34

with who will give a talk on breast advocacy updates.

54:38

You can register for these lectures@mrnline.com and follow

54:42

us on social media for updates on future noon conferences.

54:46

Thanks again, and have a great day.

Report

Faculty

Barbara K. Pawley, MD, FACR

Associate Professor of ER and Pediatric Radiology

University of Kentucky

Tags

Women's Health

Uterus

Ultrasound

Trauma

Testicles

Scrotum

Pediatrics

Ovaries

Neonatal

Kidneys

Infectious

Gynecologic (GYN)

Genitourinary (GU)

Epididymis

Congenital

CT

Body

Bladder

Acquired/Developmental

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