silicon and Thoracic-Neoplasms

A 71-year-old man who had undergone chest wall resection and reconstruction with a Dacron mesh silicone prosthesis for chondrosarcoma 23 years previously presented with a chest wall hematoma. Since the hematoma was found to increase in size over time, we performed an operation to achieve hemostasis. Operative findings showed that the prosthesis had separated into three sheets.

Topics: Aged; Anticoagulants; Bone Neoplasms; Chondrosarcoma; Hematoma; Hemorrhage; Hemostatic Techniques; Humans; Male; Plastic Surgery Procedures; Polyethylene Terephthalates; Prosthesis Design; Prosthesis Failure; Reoperation; Silicon; Surgical Mesh; Thoracic Neoplasms; Thoracic Surgical Procedures; Thoracic Wall; Time Factors; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The authors compared a solid-state amorphous silicon (a-Si) detector and screen-film radiography (SFR) with regard to the detection of simulated pulmonary lesions. Evaluation of the impact of a dose reduction of 50% with this digital flat-panel detector was of special interest.. A self-scanning flat-panel detector, based on a-Si technology with 143 x 143 microm pixel size, 1 k x 1 k matrix and 12-bit digital output was used. An asymmetric state-of-the-art screen-film system was compared with a-Si images taken at the same dose as SFR-images and at a dose reduced by 50%. An anthropomorphic chest phantom was superimposed by templates containing nodules, linear structures, reticular, and micronodular opacities in a random distribution. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed for 23,040 observations made by four independent observers. Student's t test (95% confidence-level) was used for statistical analysis.. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that a-Si images taken at the same dose as SFR-images were significantly superior to SFR with respect to the detectability of lines (P = 0.01) and micronodular opacities (P < 0.01). For the other objects and the a-Si images taken at a reduced dose, it yielded no statistically significant differences between both imaging modalities.. The results of this phantom study indicate that a-Si detector technology holds promise in terms of dose reduction in chest radiography without loss of diagnostic accuracy compared with SFR.

Topics: Humans; Phantoms, Imaging; Radiation Dosage; Radiographic Image Enhancement; Radiography, Thoracic; ROC Curve; Silicon; Thoracic Neoplasms; X-Ray Intensifying Screens