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By E. Knut. The College of Metaphysical Studies. 2018.
Suggested Imaging Protocol for Asymptomatic Screening Patients The following protocol pertains to a General Electric 16-slice CT scanner: • Indication: structural evaluation of the colon in patients without colon symptoms or completion CTC if the patient presented to colonoscopy for asymptomatic screening generic clomid 50 mg free shipping women's health raspberry ketone, and no polyps purchase clomid 50 mg without a prescription menstruation vs pregnancy, strictures, or masses found • Bowel preparation: standard catharsis and air insufflation (patient or technician controlled) • Collimation 2. Citarda F, Tomaselli G, Capocaccia R, Barcherini S, Crespi M, Italian Multi- centre Study Group. Special case: can imaging be used to differentiate posttreatment necrosis from residual tumor? Special case: neuroimaging modality in patients with suspected brain metastatic disease D. What is the role of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the diagnosis and follow-up of brain neoplasms? What is the cost-effectiveness of imaging in patients with suspected primary brain neoplasms or brain metastatic disease? Key Points Brain imaging is necessary for optimal localization, characterization, and management of brain cancer prior to surgery in patients with sus- pected or confirmed brain tumors (strong evidence). Due to its superior soft tissue contrast, multiplanar capability, and biosafety, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with and without gadolinium-based intravenous contrast material is the preferred method for brain cancer imaging when compared to computed tomography (moderate evidence). No adequate data exist on the role of imaging in monitoring brain cancer response to therapy and differentiating between tumor recur- rence and therapy related changes (insufficient evidence). No adequate data exist on the role of nonanatomic, physiology-based imaging, such as proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), per- fusion and diffusion MRI, and nuclear medicine imaging [single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emis- sion tomography (PET)] in monitoring treatment response or in pre- 102 Chapter 6 Imaging of Brain Cancer 103 dicting prognosis and outcome in patients with brain cancer (insuffi- cient evidence). Human studies conducted on the use of MRS for brain tumors demon- strate that this noninvasive method is technically feasible, and suggest potential benefits for some of the proposed indications. However, there is a paucity of high-quality direct evidence demonstrating the impact on diagnostic thinking and therapeutic decision making. Definition and Pathophysiology The term brain cancer, which is more commonly referred to as brain tumor, is used here to describe all primary and secondary neoplasms of the brain and its covering, including the leptomeninges, dura, skull, and scalp. Brain cancer comprises a variety of central nervous system tumors with a wide range of histopathology, molecular/genetic profile, clinical spectrum, treat- ment possibilities, and patient prognosis and outcome. The pathophysiol- ogy of brain cancer is complex and dependent on various factors, such as histology, molecular and chromosomal aberration, tumor-related protein expression, primary versus secondary origin, and host factors (1–4). First, the brain is covered by a tough, fibrous tissue, the dura matter, and a bony skull that protects the inner contents. This rigid covering allows very little, if any, increase in volume of the inner content, and therefore brain tumor cells adapt to grow in a more infiltra- tive rather than expansive pattern. Second, the brain capillaries have a unique barrier known as the blood—brain barrier (BBB), which limits the entrance of systemic circulation into the central nervous system. Cancer cells can hide behind the protective barrier of the BBB, migrate with minimal disruption to the structural and physiologic milieu of the brain, and escape imaging detection since an intravenous contrast agent becomes visible when there is BBB disruption, allowing the agent to leak into the interstitial space (5–9). Epidemiology Primary malignant or benign brain cancers were estimated to be newly diagnosed in about 35,519 Americans in 2001 [Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (10). Nearly 13,000 people die from these cancers each year in the United States (CBTRUS, 2000). Almost one in every 1300 children will develop some form of primary brain cancer before age 20 years (11). Cha of childhood cancers were brain cancers, and about one fourth of child- hood cancers deaths were from a malignant brain tumor. The epidemiologic study of brain cancer is challenging and complex due to a number of factors unique to this disease. First, primary and secondary brain cancers are vastly different diseases that clearly need to be differen- tiated and categorized, which is an inherently difficult task. Second, histopathologic classification of brain cancer is complicated due to the het- erogeneity of the tumors at virtually all levels of structural and functional organization such as differential growth rate, metastatic potential, sensi- tivity irradiation and chemotherapy, and genetic lability. Third, several brain cancer types have benign and malignant variants with a continuous spectrum of biologic aggressiveness. It is therefore difficult to assess the full spectrum of the disease at presentation (12). The most common primary brain cancers are tumors of neuroepithelial origin, which include astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, mixed gliomas (oligoastrocytomas), ependymomas, choroids plexus tumors, neuroepithe- lial tumors of uncertain origin, neuronal and mixed neuronal-glial tumors, pineal tumors, and embryonal tumors.
In time his rebellion turned dangerous buy 50 mg clomid free shipping menopause 39, as his drug use led to criminal pursuits and as- saultive behaviors purchase clomid 50mg fast delivery menopause symptoms after hysterectomy. Gregory was adjudicated on his crimes and sent to residential placement for individual, group, and family therapy. In one of his first sessions he was introduced to the art room and took an immediate interest in the sand tray. The sand tray, much like art therapy, gives ex- pression to nonverbal emotional issues in a symbolic form that guards the individual from anxiety-laden conflict. The front of the tray symbolizes freedom (motorcycle), escape (palm trees), and a partially buried serpent (far left side), which I interpreted as representing the destructive forces that threaten from within. The back of the tray con- tains what Gregory described as his father watching sports on television (which was the only activity that continued to unite the two) and a grave- yard (right rear), which he was reluctant to discuss. I then asked him about the praying mantis (left rear), which is situated very close to the father symbol. In an uncharacteristic explanation Gregory spoke at length about how praying mantises fight and kill their opponents with deadly accuracy. Additionally, this substitution was not confined to the art room or the miniatures. Gre- gory’s interpersonal relationships were fraught with resentment as the in- tensity of his animosity shifted from the father to less intrusive victims. In the early stages of family therapy I utilized quiet listening and clari- fication to establish a safe environment that would foster insight and growth. Gregory’s symptomatic behavior began to reflect the problems sur- rounding the marital dyad as issues related to complementarity (Nichols, 1984) and projective identification (Klein, 1946) came to the forefront. The basic structure of this exercise pairs the family constellation into even teams. Often I will direct specific family members to draw with each other; however, select situations call for a less directive approach and in these cases I allow the individuals to decide for themselves. After each pair appoints a leader, I direct them to think of a drawing they would like to complete. Through verbal communication the leaders help their partners to render an exact duplicate. If you recall the case review on Dion, in Chapter 5, this technique was illustrated through his rendering of Figure 5. The paired communica- tion drawing can be utilized in a multiplicity of ways and with any number of people. If you are in a group setting, or if the family has an uneven num- ber of participants, one individual can take on the role of leader while the remainder of the group members form a horseshoe with their backs turned away from one another. As with the majority of art therapy directives, the mental health professional is hindered only by a lack of creativity. Thus, you can employ numerous variations on this technique to maximize any number of goals or objectives. Due to this family’s dysfunctional interaction patterns, their invisible loyalties (Boszormenyi-Nagy & Spark, 1973), and regressive coping styles, I opted to determine the teams. As is evident from the completed drawings, the parents—the leaders of this communication-driven exercise—did not accomplish the goal of an exact rendering. The differences begin with the physical direction of the 280 Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd? In the feed- back stage of this directive the family’s spontaneous comments focused on these tangible, visual, and clearly noticeable differences. Although these obvious signs engendered a spirited discussion, as I noted in Chapter 6, without illumination of the process the session will not be generalized because the interrelationships will be ignored. For this rea- son, I initiated a commentary on the interaction, which was fraught with conflict, power, and control issues. Of further note is that while the mother was directing her son, he not only abandoned the task when he did not understand her direction but was verbally cruel and judgmental, blaming his difficulty on her inadequacies. Similarly, the father, while giving instructions to Gregory, became frus- trated with Gregory’s questions and responded in a manner that was no- ticeably vague and distancing. In an effort to clarify, confront, and interpret I directed the discussion by asking the family which suggestions the partners had listened to and which ones they ignored.
We have in our culture and language several conceptual alternatives which are not understood or appreciated by those who would dispense with them in the name of "efficiency clomid 25 mg without a prescription breast cancer 30s. See also the extensive discussion of symmetry in the various works of Mark Turner cited in the bibliography purchase 100mg clomid mastercard womens health instagram. CHAPTER 2 HEALTH AND DISEASE: FLUID CONCEPTS EVOLVED NON-LITERALLY "While there is no a priori standard of health with which the actual state of human beings can be compared so as to determine whether they are well or ill, or in what respect they are ill, there have developed, out of past experience, certain criteria which are operatively applicable in new cases as they arise. While symptoms are literally given in experience, diseases are constructs which attempt to relate and explain symptoms. The notion that all diseases ought to have a common essence, originating in the conviction that a category like "disease" must be either classical or incoherent, has motivated a search for the unifying principle or set of necessary and suffi- cient conditions to identify candidate syndromes as diseases. This chapter gives a preliminary sketch of unifying concepts, or models, which have been put forth as philosophical criteria of "disease" and also others, less explicitly discussed, on which common sense notions of health and disease seem to be based. I will argue that no one of these concepts is adequate to lay down a basis on which "disease" can be made into a classical category. Yet each of them has value as one of a cluster of models, often metaphorical, on which our understanding of disease is based. Some of the metaphors for causation described in Chapter One fit particular models of disease better than others. We will find that no one concept of causation can begin to be adequate universally when considering diseases and their treatments, just because of the diverse models which are more or less appropriate to the various categories of disease. Additionally, there is no privileged level of analysis on which the causation of disease must be described, nor is there a privileged choice for every purpose among causes of various remoteness or proximity to the targeted disease events. While no discrete principle unifies all diseases, they are linked to each other in such a way that a meaningful and useful, but radial category is generated. Not everything that is meaningful or useful is necessarily precise, as Wittgenstein pointed out when discussing the category of "games" united only by what he called "family resemblance. Each cognitive model of 41 42 CHAPTER 2 "disease" has its correlative version of health. And as we shall see, the relation between these "opposites" is not simple contradiction and mutual annihilation. The focus of the philosophical literature on the subject has been to judge the adequacy of the various concepts of disease and health. Rather than undertake such a task with the idea of settling on one best definition, we need to better understand how these concepts are generated and in what situations they seem to work. This survey should afford ample evidence that conventional ideas of "efficiency" provide little compass for action given the conceptual terrain. We will find no literal, univocal core concept of disease, although some concepts seem to have wider applications than others. And the array of what are called "diseases" is a non-classical, radial category having central exemplary examples and exhibiting prototype effects. Given the enormous complexity and dynamism of the main disease models which will be outlined, the projection of purposes in clinical care simply cannot be mechanized in rigorous fashion. The idea that "costs" and "benefits" or even "costs" and "effects" are well formed concepts usable in formulating logical rules for decision making is founded on a fictional view of both the disease category and the nature of value. The first part of this chapter focuses on how Western medicine and popular culture, at least, operationally assume diverse concepts of disease. The several concepts of disease form a complex "cluster" of what George Lakoff calls idealized cognitive models. His example of such a cluster is the concept mother: Individual models in this cluster are as follows: (a) The birth model – The person who gives birth is the mother. Nevertheless, some of the concepts are, in most contexts, more central than others. When the cluster of cognitive models for "mother" acts as a source domain for understanding target domains metaphorically, the structure of this cluster suggests the meaningful metaphorical extensions. Like "mother," "game" and "business," "disease" is a cluster of related cognitive models at least close to those I have suggested below. The second part of the chapter details why the "disease" category must be understood as a radial category, extended by many devices from central prototypical members. If anything is close to foundational in this semantic structure, I will contend that it is "symptoms. These include "crime," "weakness," "old age," "lack of fertility," "suffering," "eccentricity" and probably others.
Similar pattern of abnormal- ity is noted within the frontal sinuses (white arrowheads) purchase 50mg clomid menstrual ovulation. C: Diffusion-weighted MRI depicts marked reduced diffusion within the frontal lesion (black arrow) and the frontal sinus lesion (white arrows) proven 25mg clomid breast cancer 90, both of which were proven to be a bacterial abscess at histopathology. Case 3 A 53-year-old man with frontal abscess with irregular enhancement with central necrosis simulating a brain cancer. Suggested Imaging Protocol In patient with suspected primary brain neoplasm or metastasis, this is the MRI protocol recommended (Table 6. Future Research • Rigorous technology assessment of noninvasive imaging modalities such as MRS, diffusion and perfusion MRI, functional MRI, PET, and SPECT Table 6. MR imaging protocol for a subject with suspected brain cancer or metastasis 3D-localizer Axial and sagittal precontrast T1-weighted imaging Diffusion-weighted imaging Axial fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) Axial T2-weighted imaging Axial, coronal, and sagittal postcontrast T1-weighted imaging Optional: dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion MRI Proton MR spectroscopic imaging Consider doing gadolinium enhanced MRI of entire spine to rule out metastatic disease Chapter 6 Imaging of Brain Cancer 117 • Assessment of the effects of imaging on the patient outcome and costs of diagnosis and management • Rigorous cost-effectiveness analysis of competing imaging modalities References 1. Descrip- tive epidemiology of primary brain and CNS tumors: results from the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States, 1990–1994. Special case: which patients should undergo imaging after initial treatment to look for metastatic disease? Ultrasound probably aids in the effectiveness of biopsy for diagnosis, Key Points although imaging is not of proven value in screening (moderate evidence). Skeletal scintigraphy and computed tomography (CT) play a crucial role in assessing metastatic disease; they can be eliminated, however, in patients whose tumor volume, Gleason score, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) are relatively low (strong evidence). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most accurate of the imaging techniques in local staging, but its relative expense and persistent false-positive and false-negative rates for locally invasive disease suggest that it should be interpreted along with all additional avail- able data, and reserved for patients in whom other data leave treat- ment choices ambiguous (strong evidence). Assessment of metastatic tumor burden by bone scan and CT are of prognostic value. After initial therapy, monitoring disease is primar- ily done with serial PSA determinations; imaging for recurrence should be limited to patients whose PSA levels clearly indicate recur- rent or progressive disease and in whom imaging results have the potential to affect treatment (limited evidence). Newhouse Definition and Pathophysiology Although there are a number of histologic varieties of prostate malignan- cies, overwhelmingly the most common is adenocarcinoma. Etiologic factors are not known in detail, but it is clearly an androgen-dependent disease in most cases; it is almost unheard of in chronically anorchid patients. Age is the most important risk factor; the disease is very rare in men under 40, but in men over 70, histologic evidence of intraprostatic ade- nocarcinoma can be found in at least half. Black men are more prone to develop the tumor, and it is more likely to be biologically malignant among them. There are probably environmental factors as well, but these are less well established. Epidemiology Prostate cancer is the most common internal malignancy of American men, and the second most common cause of death. Overall Cost to Society Although the low ratio of annual deaths to new cases reflects the fact that most histologic cases are not of clinical importance, the high absolute numbers of deaths and the 9-year average loss of life that each prostate cancer death causes suggest that the cost to society is huge. Most patients who die of prostate cancer are under treatment for years, and patients whose cancer is cured usually require major surgery or radiotherapy. The exact cost to society in the United States of prostate cancer is not clear, but if the cost of screening and treatment are added to the indirect cost of income loss and diversion of other resources, a very approximate figure of $10 billion a year would not be an excessive estimate. Goals The goals of imaging in prostate cancer are (1) to guide biopsy of the peripheral zone, (2) to stage prostate cancer accurately, and (3) to detect metastatic or recurrent cancer. Methodology The Ovid search engine was used to query the Medline database from 1966 to May 2004 for all searches. No language limitations were imposed, but for arti- cles published in languages other than English only the abstracts were reviewed. Each search was also limited to the radiologic literature by the phrase radiology or radi- ography or ultrasound or sonography or ct or (computed tomography) or MRI or (magnetic resonance imaging) or scan or scintigraphy or PET or (positron emis- sion tomography). Individual searches were then limited by using the Chapter 7 Imaging in the Evaluation of Patients with Prostate Cancer 121 phrases screen or screening, diagnosis, stage or staging, or recurrence or (monitor or monitoring) as appropriate. Summary of Evidence: Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) lacks the sensitivity and specificity that would be required to recommend it as a stand-alone screen. If it is used in combination with digital rectal examination (DRE) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA), the additionally discovered tumors are very few and a normal TRUS cannot obviate biopsy, which might other- wise be indicated by an abnormal DRE or PSA (insufficient evidence for using TRUS alone). Supporting Evidence: Transabdominal sonography of the prostate gland provides insufficient resolution of prostatic tissue to be of value in searching for prostate cancer. High-frequency transrectal probes provide better spatial resolution, and since their introduction, there has been con- tinued interest in the role of sonography in screening for prostate cancer (2–7).
