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Background: Airway obstruction due to tumor invasion or concurrent respiratory distress and hemoptysis poses a significant challenge in clinical management, often requiring prompt and effective intervention to alleviate symptoms and improve patient outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of selective transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) as a preparatory measure to mitigate airway obstruction before bronchoscopic debulking as an approach to address this clinical challenge. Methods: The data of patients with airway obstruction due to tumor invasion or concurrent respiratory distress and hemoptysis treated at The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2018 to August 2022 were analyzed. After computed tomography (CT) scans and bronchoscopic findings were assessed, selective TAE was performed as a preparatory measure to alleviate airway obstruction before bronchoscopic debulking, and the occurrence of hemorrhage-related complications, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score, breathlessness index, and the extent of airway obstruction were evaluated. Results: All 22 patients underwent selective TAE before bronchoscopic tumor debulking. The overall efficacy rate was 100%, with a significant improvement in the KPS score from preoperative (60.45±14.63) to postoperative (74.55±9.63) levels (t=-6.891; P<0.001). Similarly, there was a considerable reduction in the shortness of breath score from preoperative (2.91±0.81) to postoperative (1.73±0.63) levels (t=6.973; P<0.001). Airway obstruction decreased substantially from preoperative (79.14%±14.56%) to postoperative (21.27%±7.19%) levels (t=26.857; P<0.001). Furthermore, the severity classification of airway obstruction decreased from preoperative (4±0.82) to postoperative (1.36±0.49) levels (t=18.794; P<0.001). Among the patients, only one experienced moderate bleeding necessitating prolonged mechanical balloon compression and intracavitary lesion removal, while the other patients had minor and negligible bleeding. Conclusions: TAE combined with endoscopic debulking can effectively control intraoperative bleeding and respiratory distress and achieve successful local resolution of endotracheal hypervascular tumors.

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Teaching point: Angioleiomyoma is defined on MR by a peripheral T1- and T2-hypointense rim, adjacent tortuous vascular structures, and a dark reticular sign.

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Aim: Abnormal uterine vascular pattern can be observed during transvaginal ultrasound examination used for investigating post-abortion bleeding and secondary postpartum hemorrhage. The purpose of this series of cases was to evaluate almost all the rare causes of uterine vascular abnormalities linked to pregnancy complications, and determine how to arrive at the diagnosis to optimize patient management, which is crucial for preventing life-threatening massive vaginal bleeding. Material and methods: Retrospective observational case series study including 20 women with postpartum or post-abortion vaginal bleeding who were found to have an abnormal uterine vascular pattern during a transvaginal color duplex assessment. Results: The study yielded the following findings: 10 cases of enhanced myometrial vascularity, two cases of pseudoaneurysm in the uterine artery, one case of myometrial venous varix, one case of large uterine venous pseudoaneurysm, one case of uterine arteriovenous malformation, one case of retained placental polyp, one case of invasive vesicular mole, and three cases of subinvolution of the placental implantation site. Conclusions: Transvaginal color duplex ultrasound plays a crucial role in detecting uterine vascular abnormalities as a cause of post-abortion or secondary postpartum hemorrhage and can help differentiate the pathologies responsible for the abnormal vascular pattern, which is highly recommended to optimize patient management.

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Significant advancements in cancer treatment have led to improved survival rates for patients, particularly in the context of spinal metastases. However, early detection and monitoring of treatment response remain crucial for optimizing patient outcomes. Although conventional imaging methods such as bone scan, PET, MR imaging, and computed tomography are commonly used for diagnosing and monitoring treatment, they present challenges in differential diagnoses and treatment response monitoring. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of the principles, applications, and practical uses of dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging in the assessment and monitoring of marrow-replacing disorders of the spine.

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PURPOSE: Hypervascular spinal metastatic malignancies can cause severe pain and intraoperative bleeding and selection of appropriate treatment can be challenging. This study aimed to observe the short-term efficacy and safety of Iodine-125 brachytherapy (125I BT) combined with preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hypervascular spinal metastasis. METHODS: This study included a total of 33 patients (39 lesions) with hypervascular spinal metastasis. All of them carried out a regimen of TACE followed by 125I BT under CT guidance. A brachytherapy planning system has been utilized for the purpose of designing treatment plans and optimizing dose distribution. Pain relief was evaluated using a numeric rating scale (NRS) and intraoperative bleeding was recorded. Follow-up was conducted for 6 months to observe the local control rate and clinical complications. RESULTS: All patients tolerated combined treatment well and intraoperative blood loss of every patient was not more than 10 ml. The 2- and 6- month local disease control rates were 92.3% and 83.8%. The NRS scores for thirty-three tumor patients before surgery and after one week, two, and six months of surgery were recorded as 7.33 ± 1.80, 7.39 ± 1.89, 3.15 ± 2.35, and 4.16 ± 2.15, respectively. The NRS score 2 months after treatment was found considerably lower in comparison to the NRS score before operation (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: According to our findings, 125I BT as well as preoperative TACE leads to perioperative hemostasis, pain alleviation, and reduced tumor burden, indicating that this combined treatment could be effective and promising for hypervascular spinal metastases.

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Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignancy affecting the oral cavity and commonly presents as an exophytic lesion with red or white granular ulcerations. Most diagnoses are confirmed by biopsy and clinical features; however, early SCC has been shown to hide within benign appearing lesions, such as vascular tumors, resulting in missed diagnoses and delay in treatment. The following case report will discuss a patient who presented with a mass in the floor of the mouth which appeared as a vascular tumor on exam and imaging. This was originally thought to be benign based on FNA findings however was found to harbor invasive squamous cell carcinoma on final pathology. The goal of this case report is to provide a background on the variable presentations of OSCC, vascular tumors, and uncommon presentations for which specialists should be aware of in their practice.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a non-fibrotic liver (F0) is considered to be rare, and there is a marked paucity of studies in the literature on this HCC type. A review of the literature shows some important clinical and tumor characteristics: (a) it occurs mainly in young female and elder male patients; (b) clinically, under normal hepatic function, alpha-fetoprotein level is often normal, and there are no risk factors; (c) associated with metabolic disease; (d) macroscopically, single large lesions are noted; and (e) microscopically, the lesions are well-differentiated and encapsulated. Radiological imaging results are straightforward, showing arterial hyperenhancement and later wash-out. The combined use of B-mode and contrast-enhanced (CE) ultrasound (US) is the most reliable and cost-effective diagnostic method. Few peri-and post-operative complications are noted and 5-year survival is not inferior to patients with HCC on fibrosis liver despite the lesion's large size. Most clinicians believe that HCC is unlikely to occur if patients have no symptoms and normal hepatic function. Although detailed clinical data are very limited, we expect that this review will help to improve the clinical management of HCC in non-fibrotic livers.

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Retained products of conception (RPOC) could be a factor for massive postpartum hemorrhage; however, a management protocol is yet to be established. Performing a surgical intervention is controversial due to the potential for natural healing. Herein, we report the management of a hypervascular RPOC case with massive bleeding. Abortion was performed in a 40-year-old patient with gravida 2 and para 0, at 20 weeks and five days of gestation following the detection of Down's syndrome on prenatal screening. Post-delivery transvaginal ultrasonography identified an intrauterine mass measuring 4cm × 5cm × 5cm. The patient was then followed up in the outpatient department. One month after the abortion, the patient developed abnormal vaginal bleeding. Transvaginal ultrasonography revealed a hypervascular myometrial RPOC with turbulent flow. Although the bleeding stopped upon her admission to our hospital, the patient developed recurrent abnormal vaginal bleeding after nine days of hospitalization, which resulted in a hemoglobin level drop to 5.9 g/dL. CT and MRI scan findings raised the suspicion of hypervascular RPOC or uterine artery pseudoaneurysm. Uterine artery embolization was performed, leading to diminished vascularity in the RPOC, which was confirmed through color Doppler ultrasonography. The remnant placenta was successfully resected hysteroscopically, and a subsequent transvaginal ultrasonography showed a decrease in blood flow. In conclusion, hypervascular RPOC, previously reported as uterine artery pseudoaneurysms, should be considered when detecting hypervascular myometrial lesions in postpartum ultrasonography. Hypervascular RPOC with hemorrhage might benefit from hysteroscopic resection after achieving hemostasis with uterine artery embolization. This case report highlights the potential risks of awaiting spontaneous resolution in large RPOC and suggests that timely surgical intervention is both effective and essential.

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Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) is a common technique for diagnosing pancreatic lesions with high accuracy and a low incidence of procedural adverse events. However, occasional adverse events, particularly bleeding, may occur. Procedures for hypervascular lesions are considered important, but their risks are unknown. We aimed to evaluate the safety and diagnostic yield of EUS-FNB for hypervascular pancreatic solid lesions. This study included 301 patients with 308 solid pancreatic lesions who underwent EUS-FNB between May 2011 and December 2018. We performed propensity-score matching to balance clinical differences between hypervascular and hypovascular lesions and analyzed 52 lesions. We compared the safety and diagnostic performance of propensity score-matched cohorts. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy rates of EUS-FNB for hypervascular lesions were 94.7%, 100%, and 96.2%, and those for hypovascular lesions were 80.0%, 100%, and 84.6%, respectively. There was no difference in diagnostic performance between hypervascular and hypovascular lesions. Furthermore, adverse events occurred in only one patient (pancreatitis) in the hypovascular group. There were no significant differences in the occurrence of adverse events between hypervascular and hypovascular lesions (0% vs. 3.8%, p = 1.000). Therefore, EUS-FNB may be safe with a high diagnostic yield, even for hypervascular solid pancreatic lesions.

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Two-stage surgery may be necessary when total tumor removal cannot be accomplished in the first surgery; however, the extent and condition in which the remaining tumor should be before the next surgery have not yet been established. There is a risk of postoperative hemorrhage in the residual tumor, especially in hypervascular tumors. We report a case of hypervascular choroid plexus papilloma (CPP) in a 22-year-old male patient where the preservation of intratumoral venous drainage was considered important to avoid hemorrhagic complications during a two-stage surgery. In the first surgery, it was difficult to control the bleeding from the debulked tumor, and the surgery was terminated due to severe blood loss. Large draining veins running in the tumor were preserved as it was suspected that these were important drainage routes of the bloodstream of the tumor. The preserved draining red veins changed to normal venous color in the second surgery performed after one week. The residual tumor was not vascularized during the second surgery and underwent gross total resection with less blood loss. The patient was discharged without sequelae. There was no recurrence of the tumor and no neurological deficit during the three-year follow-up. To prevent postoperative hemorrhage associated with a residual tumor, it may be important to preserve venous drainage of the tumor in hypervascular tumor resection.

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The embolization of hypervascular spinal tumors preoperatively has shown to be a worthwhile adjunctive procedure to minimize the elevated risks associated with surgical resection, such as intraoperative blood loss and its associated complications. Resection of these hypervascular tumors is necessary for local tumor control, reduction in patient-reported pain, improved neurological functioning, and spinal stability. This adjunctive procedure has been associated with improved surgical outcomes and easier facilitation of surgical resection. As such, we provide a review of the current literature examining the employment of this technique. Specifically, this article (a) reviews the techniques of embolization, with anatomical considerations of the arterial framework of the spinal network; (b) relativizes and outlines the post-embolization management of spinal tumor resection; (c) provides a critical outlook on the reported benefit of preoperative embolization before surgical resection with support from clinical studies in the literature; and (d) discusses the efficacy and reliability of provocative testing and post-procedural management and follow-up. Ultimately, a thorough and updated review of preoperative spinal tumor embolization and its clinical benefits will summarize the current fund of knowledge and encourage future research toward continued improvements in patient outcomes for those needing to undergo surgical resection of spinal lesions.

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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic ability and clinical imaging features in maxillofacial soft tissue hypervascular tumours by 64-slice multidetector spiral computed tomography (64-MDCT) contrast-enhanced scanning. METHODS: In a retrospective study of 21 cases of hypervascular tumours, the degree of blood supply and indexes were assessed, and the pathological results were used as the diagnostic gold standard to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of 64-MDCT plain scan and enhanced CT in the diagnosis of oral and maxillofacial soft tissue hypervascular tumours, using the receiver operating characteristic curve to analyse and evaluate the efficacy. RESULTS: Among 21 patients, the diagnostic accuracy of 64-MDCT contrast-enhanced scan was 90.48%, the area under the curve of venous phase CT value was 0.80, the sensitivity was 83.30% and the specificity was 72.73%. CONCLUSION: 64-MDCT contrast-enhanced scan can be used to evaluate the blood supply of maxillofacial soft tissue hypervascular tumours before an operation. The CT value in the venous phase of tumours has the highest diagnostic effectiveness, which can reduce the risk of blood loss during surgery for maxillofacial hypervascular tumours. In addition, it has certain guiding significance for the formulation of clinical treatment plans.

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Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unique among malignancies, and its characteristics on contrast imaging modalities allow for a highly accurate diagnosis. The radiological differentiation of focal liver lesions is playing an increasingly important role, and the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System adopts a combination of major features including arterial phase hyper-enhancement (APHE) and the washout pattern. Summary: Specific HCCs such as well or poorly differentiated type, subtypes including fibrolamellar or sarcomatoid and combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma do not often demonstrate APHE and washout appearance. Meanwhile, hypervascular liver metastases and hypervascular intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma can demonstrate APHE and washout. There are still other hypervascular malignant liver tumors (i.e., angiosarcoma, epithelioid hemangioendothelioma) and hypervascular benign liver lesions (i.e., adenoma, focal nodular hyperplasia, angiomyolipoma, flash filling hemangioma, reactive lymphoid hyperplasia, inflammatory lesion, arterioportal shunt), which need to be distinguished from HCC. When a patient has chronic liver disease, differential diagnosis of hypervascular liver lesions can be even more complicated. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has been widely explored, and recent advancement in the field of deep learning has provided promising performance for the analysis of medical images, especially radiological imaging data contain diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive information which AI can extract. The AI research studies have demonstrated high accuracy (over 90% accuracy) for classifying lesions with typical imaging features from some hepatic lesions. The AI system has a potential to be implemented in clinical routine as decision support tools. However, for the differential diagnosis of many types of hypervascular liver lesions, further large-scale clinical validation is still required. Key Messages: Clinicians should be aware of the histopathological features, imaging characteristics, and differential diagnoses of hypervascular liver lesions to a precise diagnosis and more valuable treatment plan. We need to be familiar with such atypical cases to prevent a diagnostic delay, but AI-based tools also need to learn a large number of typical and atypical cases.

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The wash out behavior of focal liver lesions in contrast-enhanced ultrasound plays a central role in tumor classification. Besides hepatocellular carcinomas, other hypervascular tumor entities like renal cell carcinomas may also show a very late wash out, possibly caused by portal-venous tumor vessels. There is need to observe long enough in the late phase in order to classify them correctly.

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Metastasis to the pancreas represents a small proportion of all pancreatic malignancies. Among primary tumors that metastasize to the pancreas, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common causes of metastatic pancreatic lesions. We herein report a case series of three patients with pancreatic metastasis from RCC. The first is a 54-year-old male with a history of left nephrectomy for RCC, in whom an isthmic pancreatic mass suggestive of a neuroendocrine lesion was found during oncological follow-up. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided fine needle biopsy (FNB) identified pancreatic metastasis of RCC and the patient was referred for surgery. The second case is a 61-year-old male, hypertensive, diabetic, with left nephrectomy for RCC six years previously, who complained of weight loss and was found with a hyperenhancing mass in the head of the pancreas and a lesion with a similar pattern in the gallbladder. EUS-FNB from the pancreas proved to be a metastatic pancreatic lesion. Cholecystectomy and treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors were recommended. The third case is a 68-year-old dialysis patient referred for evaluation of a pancreatic mass, also confirmed by EUS-FNB, who was started on sunitinib treatment. We report a literature summary on epidemiology and clinical features, diagnosis and differential diagnosis and treatment and outcomes in pancreatic metastasis of RCC.

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Background: Vestibular schwannomas (VS) are usually hypovascularized benign tumors. Large VS (Koos grade IV) with unusual vascular architecture are defined as hypervascular (HVVS); the excessive bleeding during microsurgery has a negative impact on results. Methods: Forty consecutive patients were operated on for HVVS (group A). A tendency to bleed and adherence of capsule to nervous structures were evaluated by reviewing intraoperative video records. The cisternal facial nerve (FN) position was reported. Microsurgical removal was classified as total, near-total, subtotal, or partial and the MIB-1 index was evaluated in all. FN results were classified according to the House-Brackmann scale. Results: Results of Group A were compared with those of 45 patients operated on for large low-bleeding VS (group B). Mean tumor diameter was 3.81 cm in group A and 3.58 cm in group B; the mean age was 42.4 and 56.3 years, respectively. The mean American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Scale class of group A was 1.67 versus 2.31 of group B (P < 0.01). Total or near-total resection was accomplished in 76.5% of group A versus 73.3% of group B. Tight capsule adhesion was observed in 67.5% of group A versus 57.8% of group B. Mean MIB-1 was 1.25% and 1.08%, respectively.FN anatomic preservation was possible in 84.6% of group A versus 95.5% of group B; 67.5% of group A had HB grade I or II FN outcome versus 93.3% of group B (P < 0.001). In group A, 8 patients (20.0%) experienced transient postoperative complications versus 4.4% of group B. Recurrence/regrowth was observed in 4 patients in group A versus 1 in group B. Conclusions: Intraoperative video for classification of HVVS was used. Microsurgery of large HVVS was associated with higher (usually transient) complications and recurrence/regrowth rates and poorer FN outcome, especially in patients with tight capsule adhesion.

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Objective:To investigate the therapeutic value of interventional embolization on feeding artery in intracranial hypervascular tumors.Methods:Forty-five patients with intracranial hypervascular tumors, admitted to and accepted interventional embolization of the feeding artery before craniotomy in Department of Neurosurgery, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University from March 2019 to August 2022, were chosen; a retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of these patients. The imaging characteristics, pathological types, preoperative embolization indications, embolization effects and embolism-related complications were summarized to evaluate the safety and effecacy of preoperative interventional embolization.Results:Among the 45 patients, 21 patients had hemangioblastomas, 15 had meningiomas, 5 had hemangiopericytomas, and 4 had glomus jugular tumors. The technical success rate of interventional embolization was 97.8% (44/45); in this frustrated case, the middle meningeal artery was too circuitous for microcatheter to pass. Among the successful ones, 41 patients used liquid embolism agent onyx and 3 patients applied liquid embolism agent NBCA. Seven, 26 and the rest 11 patients achieved complete embolization, sub-total embolization and partial embolization, respectively. Four patients had embolism-related complications, including 2 with rupture of middle meningeal arteries, 1 with Marathon catheter failed to be pulled out, and 1 with functional glomus jugular tumor having pheochromocytoma crisis; these 4 patients were treated timely without serious complications.Conclusion:For intracranial hypervascular tumors, preoperative interventional embolization is safe and effective; it is necessary to master embolization indications and select appropriate embolization methods and materials.

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Duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (D-GISTs) are a rare and relatively small subset of GISTs whose imaging features are not well known. The present study aimed to evaluate the enhancement pattern of D-GISTs compared with that of gastric GISTs (G-GISTs) using dynamic computed tomography. This single-center, retrospective, clinicopathological analysis was conducted on 10 patients with D-GISTs who underwent surgery between June 2006 and October 2018. In the same period, 25 patients with G-GISTs underwent surgery and were enrolled. The contrast ratio was defined as the ratio between Hounsfield units in contrast enhanced and unenhanced images in different phases, and these ratios were compared between the D-GIST and G-GIST groups. Furthermore, microvessel density, analyzed by immunohistochemical staining for CD31, was compared between the D-GIST and G-GIST groups. The contrast ratio of D-GIST was significantly higher than that of G-GIST in the arterial, portal and delayed phases (P<0.01, P<0.01 and P=0.02, respectively). The microvessel density of the D-GISTs was significantly higher than that of the G-GISTs (P<0.0001). D-GISTs were more hypervascular than G-GISTs on both imaging and pathological analyses.

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Case summary: A 2-year-old female neutered domestic longhair cat was referred for a 3-day history of lethargy and anorexia. Physical examination documented abdominal distension and pain, which, alongside marked electrolyte imbalances on blood biochemistry, was highly suspicious for a gastrointestinal obstruction. This was confirmed on diagnostic imaging, with abdominal ultrasonography also identifying an incidental, well-defined small lobular hypoechoic nodule adjacent to the tail of the spleen, with high vascularity on Doppler interrogation. This was identified as a focal nodule at the tip of the left limb of the pancreas at surgery, and resected via partial pancreatectomy. Histopathological examination confirmed intrapancreatic splenic tissue. Relevance and novel information: This case report presents the first available ultrasonographic description and images of intrapancreatic splenic tissue in a cat. It is thought to be a benign lesion of low clinical significance and therefore defining its imaging characteristics may allow for improvement in diagnostic suspicion without resorting to excisional surgery.

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Gastric cancer is the second most prevalent cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in China. The prognosis of metastatic gastric cancer is poor with a median overall survival of 8-10 months. Apatinib, an oral small-molecule, selective vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is approved as third-line or subsequent therapy for gastric cancer in China. Several recent small-scale studies and case reports showed that it may be great help in improvement of prognosis as second-line treatment in patients with advanced or metastatic gastric cancer. Here, we present a case of advanced gastric adenocarcinoma with multiple hepatic metastases who was treated with apatinib plus paclitaxel as second-line therapy, realized a long progression-free survival of 37 months. Until 29 January 2022, the disease remains an efficacy of partial response. We believe that the good outcome of this case is not an accident, because of the typically hyper-vascular of his liver metastases, the treatment toxicities of hypertension and proteinuria, all may be potential predictive biomarkers for anti-angiogenic treatments.