PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Diagnostic yield of non-contrast pituitary MRI for pediatric pathologies

2021 ARRS Virtual Annual Meeting Scientific Electronic Exhibit found non-contrast pituitary MRI for central precocious puberty, growth hormone deficiency, short stature has similar diagnostic yield as standard contrast-enhanced protocol

Diagnostic yield of non-contrast pituitary MRI for pediatric pathologies
2021-04-20
(Press-News.org) Leesburg, VA, April 20, 2021--An award-winning Scientific Electronic Exhibit to be presented at the ARRS 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting found non-contrast pituitary MRI for central precocious puberty (CPP), growth hormone deficiency (GHD), and short stature (SS) has similar diagnostic yield compared to the standard contrast-enhanced protocol.

"Microadenomas, a common justification for contrast administration, may not influence management in this patient population," wrote first author Jennifer Huang of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, adding "minimal inconvenience would be added for the few patients who would need to return for contrast-enhanced MRI for definitive diagnosis."

Huang and colleagues performed a retrospective review of pediatric pituitary MRI studies from 2010-2019 for CPP, GHD, or SS, then a blinded review of non-contrast images was performed by two subspecialty-trained pediatric neuroradiologists.

Analyzing data from the 448 MRIs obtained for CPP (35%), GHD (49%), or SS (16%), the mean age was 8.2 years (range, 9 months to 17 years). All 448 (100%) scans were performed with gadolinium contrast, while 226 (50%) required sedation. Of the 136 (30%) abnormal studies, there was 71% concordance (n = 97) with the original reports on the blinded review of non-contrast images. Of the 39 discrepancies, 79% (n = 31) were of no clinical significance (e.g., pars intermedia cyst), and 1 was of uncertain significance. The remaining 7 (18%) discrepancies were visible on non-contrast images but required contrast for definitive characterization. Ultimately, 5 were extrasellar masses, and 2 were pituitary stalk abnormalities.

"In a large majority of patients, the shorter non-contrast examination would provide savings in time, anesthesia, gadolinium, and associated costs," the authors of this Magna Cum Laude ARRS Annual Meeting Scientific Electronic Exhibit concluded.

INFORMATION:

Founded in 1900, the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) is the first and oldest radiological society in North America, dedicated to the advancement of medicine through the profession of radiology and its allied sciences. An international forum for progress in medical imaging since the discovery of the x-ray, ARRS maintains its mission of improving health through a community committed to advancing knowledge and skills with an annual scientific meeting, monthly publication of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), quarterly issues of InPractice magazine, AJR Live Webinars and Podcasts, topical symposia, print and online educational materials, as well as awarding scholarships via The Roentgen Fund®.


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Diagnostic yield of non-contrast pituitary MRI for pediatric pathologies

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Blood pressure and hemorrhagic complication risk after renal transplant biopsy

Blood pressure and hemorrhagic complication risk after renal transplant biopsy
2021-04-20
Leesburg, VA, April 20, 2021--An award-winning Scientific Electronic Exhibit to be presented at the ARRS 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting found no statistically significant threshold for increased renal transplant biopsy risk based on systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP), or mean arterial (MAP) blood pressure alone. "When these metrics are combined," first author Winston Wang of the Mayo Clinic Arizona cautioned, "the risk of complication is significantly higher when the SBP is >= 180 mm Hg, DBP is >= 95 mm Hg, and MAP is >= 116 mm Hg." Wang and team's review of consecutive ...

Food allergies, changes to infant gut bacteria linked to method of childbirth, ethnicity

Food allergies, changes to infant gut bacteria linked to method of childbirth, ethnicity
2021-04-20
Researchers have found a causal link between caesarean section birth, low intestinal microbiota and peanut sensitivity in infants, and they report the effect is more pronounced in children of Asian descent than others, in a recently published paper in the journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "It's important to know what predicts or increases risk of food sensitivities because they predict which infants will go on to develop asthma and other types of allergies," said Anita Kozyrskyj, pediatrics professor in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry ...

Fast brainwave oscillations identify and localize epileptic brain

Fast brainwave oscillations identify and localize epileptic brain
2021-04-20
Professor Bin He's team at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, has discovered that fast oscillations in scalp-recorded electroencephalography can pinpoint brain tissues responsible for epileptic seizures. The collaborative research, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), leverages noninvasive EEG technology along with the development of a novel machine learning algorithm to automatically identify and delineate concurrent high-frequency oscillations and epileptiform spikes, a key link related to epilepsy. In the near future, these findings may be harnessed to rethink imaging and treatment options for epilepsy patients. More than ...

Understanding our restoring force

Understanding our restoring force
2021-04-20
An expansive project led by Michigan State University's Lars Brudvig is examining the benefits, and limits, of environmental restoration on developed land after humans are done with it. Experts estimate there are up to 17 million square miles of land worldwide that have been altered by humans -- through cultivation say -- and then abandoned. That's more than four times the size of the continental United States. Once humans change a landscape, their impacts linger long after they've moved on. However, humans can heal some of that damage by working to restore the land to its natural state. ...

Filling federal oversight gaps

Filling federal oversight gaps
2021-04-20
The familiar murkiness of waters in the Gulf of Mexico can be off-putting for beachgoers visiting Galveston Island. Runoff from the Mississippi River makes its way to local beaches and causes downstream water to turn opaque and brown. Mud is one factor, and river runoff is another. However, concern tends to ratchet up a notch when pollution enters the river runoff discussion on a national scale, specifically when smaller, navigable intrastate bodies of water push pollution into larger interstate waters often involved in commerce (i.e. the Mississippi River, Great Lakes, Ohio River). A recently published research analysis in the journal Science, co-authored by Victor Flatt, Dwight Olds Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law ...

Research brief: Improving rug efficacy against prostate cancer and related bone growths

2021-04-20
Published in the Advanced Functional Materials, University of Minnesota researcher Hongbo Pang led a cross-institutional study on improving the efficacy of nucleotide-based drugs against prostate cancer and bone metastasis. In this study, Pang and his research team looked at whether liposomes, when integrated with the iRGD peptide, will help concentrate antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) into primary prostate tumors and its bone metastases. Liposomes are used as a drug carrier system, and ASOs are a type of nucleotide drug. More importantly, they investigated whether this system helps more drugs across the vessel wall and deeply into the tumor tissue. This is critical because, although nucleotide drugs offer unique advantages ...

'Dead clades walking': Fossil record provides new insights into mass extinctions

Dead clades walking: Fossil record provides new insights into mass extinctions
2021-04-20
Mass extinctions are known as times of global upheaval, causing rapid losses in biodiversity that wipe out entire animal groups. Some of the doomed groups linger on before going extinct, and a team of scientists found these "dead clades walking" (DCW) are more common and long-lasting than expected. "Dead clades walking are a pattern in the fossil record where some animal groups make it past the extinction event, but they also can't succeed in the aftermath," said Benjamin Barnes, a doctoral student in geosciences at Penn State. "It paints the pictures of a group consigned to an eventual extinction." The scientists found 70 of the 134 orders of ancient sea-dwelling invertebrates they examined could ...

Predicting the next pandemic virus is harder than we think

Predicting the next pandemic virus is harder than we think
2021-04-20
The observation that most of the viruses that cause human disease come from other animals has led some researchers to attempt "zoonotic risk prediction" to second-guess the next virus to hit us. However, in an Essay publishing April 20th in the open access journal PLOS Biology, led by Dr Michelle Wille at the University of Sydney, Australia with co-authors Jemma Geoghegan and Edward Holmes, it is proposed that these zoonotic risk predictions are of limited value and will not tell us which virus will cause the next pandemic. Instead, we should target the human-animal interface for intensive viral surveillance. So-called zoonotic viruses ...

Sexual receptivity and rejection may be orchestrated by the same brain region

Sexual receptivity and rejection may be orchestrated by the same brain region
2021-04-20
In many species, including humans and mice, the fluctuating levels of the hormones progesterone and estrogen determine whether the female is fertile or not. And in the case of mice, whether she's sexually receptive or not. The change in receptivity is striking. Female mice shift from accepting sexual partners to aggressively rejecting them across a cycle of six short days. How can the female reproductive hormones bring about such a radical behavioural change? When searching for an explanation, the team of Susana Lima, a principal investigator at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Portugal, came across an intriguing discovery. "Our experiments revealed that a brain area important for female receptivity, called the VMH (ventromedial ...

'Undruggable' cancer protein becomes druggable, thanks to shrub

Undruggable cancer protein becomes druggable, thanks to shrub
2021-04-20
A chemist from Purdue University has found a way to synthesize a compound to fight a previously "undruggable" cancer protein with benefits across a myriad of cancer types. Inspired by a rare compound found in a shrub native to North America, Mingji Dai, professor of chemistry and a scientist at the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, studied the compound and discovered a cost-effective and efficient way to synthesize it in the lab. The compound -- curcusone D -- has the potential to help combat a protein found in many cancers, including some forms of breast, brain, colorectal, prostate, lung and liver cancers, among others. The protein, dubbed BRAT1, had previously been deemed "undruggable" for its chemical properties. In collaboration with Alexander Adibekian's ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

ASU researchers to lead AAAS panel on water insecurity in the United States

ASU professor Anne Stone to present at AAAS Conference in Phoenix on ancient origins of modern disease

Proposals for exploring viruses and skin as the next experimental quantum frontiers share US$30,000 science award

ASU researchers showcase scalable tech solutions for older adults living alone with cognitive decline at AAAS 2026

Scientists identify smooth regional trends in fruit fly survival strategies

Antipathy toward snakes? Your parents likely talked you into that at an early age

Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for Feb. 2026

Online exposure to medical misinformation concentrated among older adults

Telehealth improves access to genetic services for adult survivors of childhood cancers

Outdated mortality benchmarks risk missing early signs of famine and delay recognizing mass starvation

Newly discovered bacterium converts carbon dioxide into chemicals using electricity

Flipping and reversing mini-proteins could improve disease treatment

Scientists reveal major hidden source of atmospheric nitrogen pollution in fragile lake basin

Biochar emerges as a powerful tool for soil carbon neutrality and climate mitigation

Tiny cell messengers show big promise for safer protein and gene delivery

AMS releases statement regarding the decision to rescind EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding

Parents’ alcohol and drug use influences their children’s consumption, research shows

Modular assembly of chiral nitrogen-bridged rings achieved by palladium-catalyzed diastereoselective and enantioselective cascade cyclization reactions

Promoting civic engagement

AMS Science Preview: Hurricane slowdown, school snow days

Deforestation in the Amazon raises the surface temperature by 3 °C during the dry season

Model more accurately maps the impact of frost on corn crops

How did humans develop sharp vision? Lab-grown retinas show likely answer

Sour grapes? Taste, experience of sour foods depends on individual consumer

At AAAS, professor Krystal Tsosie argues the future of science must be Indigenous-led

From the lab to the living room: Decoding Parkinson’s patients movements in the real world

Research advances in porous materials, as highlighted in the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Sally C. Morton, executive vice president of ASU Knowledge Enterprise, presents a bold and practical framework for moving research from discovery to real-world impact

Biochemical parameters in patients with diabetic nephropathy versus individuals with diabetes alone, non-diabetic nephropathy, and healthy controls

Muscular strength and mortality in women ages 63 to 99

[Press-News.org] Diagnostic yield of non-contrast pituitary MRI for pediatric pathologies
2021 ARRS Virtual Annual Meeting Scientific Electronic Exhibit found non-contrast pituitary MRI for central precocious puberty, growth hormone deficiency, short stature has similar diagnostic yield as standard contrast-enhanced protocol