[en] Objective: To investigate the CT characteristics of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma and evaluate the diagnostic value of CT in this disease. Methods: The CT findings of 10 patients with pathologically proved anaplastic thyroid carcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. The patients included 7 females and 3 males. Their age ranged from 25.0 to 78 years with median of 61 years. Multi-slices plain and post contrast CT scans were performed in all patients. Results: Unilateral thyroid was involved in 6 patients. Unilateral thyroid and thyroid isthmus were both involved in 2 patients due to big size. Bilateral thyroid were involved in 2 patients. The maximum diameter of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma ranged from 2.9-12.8 cm with mean of (4.5 ± 1.4) cm. All lesions demonstrated unclear margins and envelope invasion. The densities of all lesions were heterogeneous and obvious necrosis areas were noted on precontrast images. Seven lesions showed varied calcifications, and coarse granular calcifications were found in 5 lesions among them. All lesions showed remarkable heterogenous enhancement on post-contrast CT. The CT value of solid portion of the tumor increased 40 HU after contrast media administration. The ratios of CT value which comparing of the tumor with contralateral sternocleidomastoid muscle were 0.69-0.82 (0.76 ± 0.18) and 1.25-1.41 (1.33 ± 0.28) on pre and post CT, respectively. Enlarged cervical lymph nodes were found in 6 cases (60.0%). It showed obvious homogeneous enhancement or irregular ring-like enhancement on post-contrast images and dot calcifications were seen in 1 case. Conclusions: Relative larger single thyroid masses with coarse granular calcifications, necrosis,envelope invasion, remarkable heterogeneous enhancing and enlarged lymph nodes on CT are suggestive of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. (authors)

[en] Objective: To study effects of S-adenosy-methionine (SAMe) for acute hepatic functional damage after transcatheter chemoembolization in the treatment of primary large HCC. Methods: The clinical data of 51 cases of liver neoplasm after TACE from May 2003 to October 2005 were analyzed retrospectively, including SAMe 1000 mg intravenous drip after TACE daily of the treatment group and diammonium glycyrrhizinate 30 ml intravenous drip after TACE daily of the control group. The two groups were separately assessed the hepatic function on 1st day preoperatively and the 2nd, 4th d and 8th day, postoperatively, and together with the hamilton depression rating scale for derpression (HRSD)and the clinical general impression estimation for the evaluation of the clinical efficiency. Results: All the hepatic functional labels changed markedly after TACE with ALT, AST, TBIL and DBIL rising to a certain extent on the 2nd day postoperatively (P<0.05). The labels began to decrease on the 4th day. There were no significant statistical differences of ALT, AST, TBIL and DBIL between 1st day preoperatively and 8th day postoperatively in the treatment group (P>0.05). There were significant differences of the labels during the same period in the control group (P< 0.05). γ-GT changed irregularly in the two groups. There were also no significant differences of TP and A between 1st d preoperatively and 8th d, postoperatively in the two groups. In the treatment group, 15 patients (60%) showed relief of chief complaints of fatigue, hypodynamia, anxiety, insomnia. The total scores of HRSD also decreased revealing the better cooperation of the patients with treatment. Conclusions: SAMe provides hepatic functional protection for large primary HCC patients after TACE especially for the satisfactory short-term efficiency in acute liver damage with simultaneous anti-depression and enhancing TACE effects, and promoting life quality. (authors)

[en] We report an extremely rare case of intramastoid neurofibroma. A mass with destruction of the mastoid bone of a 51-year-old woman was examined with computed tomography. Subsequent magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated an ill-defined soft tissue mass with the opacification of mastoid air cells that had a mass effect in the same area. The patient underwent left subtotal temporal bone resection, and histological and immunohistochemical findings confirmed the lesion to be a neurofibroma. Given that similar imaging features of neurofibroma have been reported previously elsewhere in the head/neck and extremities, we suggest that it may be possible to include this tumor in the preoperative differential diagnosis