Introduction to the July Issue

Liver metastases are one of the commonest liver tumors and the most common indication for imaging of the liver. Goals of imaging should be an early and accurate detection and diagnosis of metastases to the liver for better patient management and outcomes. The article by Patil et al[1] highlights the state-of-the-art multimodality approach in detecting the characteristics of hepatic metastases. Imaging play an important role not only in diagnosis but also in presurgical planning by accurate segmental localization of the disease for resection as well as volumetric evaluation of the lobes of liver to determine resectability.

Tropical chronic pancreatitis is a multifactorial juvenile (2nd and 3rd decades) form of chronic calcific pancreatitis, usually seen in developing countries in the tropical region, which includes the southern part of India. Radiologists should be aware of this condition for the purposes of early diagnosis and better management of these patients. It is very common in southern India, especially Kerala, with an incidence of 120 to 200 patients per 100,000 population. The clinical triad of abdominal pain, steatorrhea and diabetes with classical imaging appearance on CT/MR allow an accurate diagnosis. The article by Kulkarni et al[2] has beautifully covered this unique clinicoradiological entity.

Acute urinary tract infection is a common presentation in our day-to-day practice. It is important to make an early diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis to prevent complications, due to missed or delayed diagnosis, such as renal infarcts, abscesses and emphysematous pyelonephritis. The review article by Hazarika et al[3] [4] aptly dwells on acute and chronic renal infection, giving a comprehensive overview of what the radiologist needs to know.

The review article on management-driven structured reporting in ovarian cancer by Chandramohan et al[5] is the need of the hour, highlighting the imaging details required for clinical decision-making and thus helping oncogynecologists decide the management of the patient afflicted with ovarian cancer.

The original article on magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) evaluation of disease activity in pediatric Crohn’s disease by Radhakrishnan et al[6] shows good correlation between MRE-based score and pediatric Crohn’s disease activity index (PCDAI) scores. Hence, MRE is valuable tool in management of Crohn’s disease, predicting disease activity and offering a potential alternative to endoscopy in monitoring patient during follow-up.

This issue also covers the imaging evaluation of disorders of sex development and ambiguous genitalia. This is an uncommon condition which has been covered less in literature. Disorder of sex development requires a multidisciplinary approach, and imaging plays a key role in assigning the gender by identifying the gonads and Mullerian duct structures. The article by Eapen et al[7] makes this intricate topic appear lucid.

I really enjoyed reading all these articles and hope that these topics are not only going to be relevant to all the radiologists practicing abdominal radiology but they would also enjoy reading them.

Please stay safe and protected in these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conflict of Interest

None declared.

• References

• 1 Patil PG, Reddy P, Rawat S, Ananthasivan R, Sinha R. Multimodality approach in detection and characterization of hepatic metastases J Gastrointestinal Abdominal Radiol ISGAR 2020; 3 (02) 163-180
• 2 Kulkarni CB, Sekhar R, Moorthy S, Pullara SK, Prabhu NK, Kannan RR. Imaging of tropical chronic pancreatitis—a unique clinico-radiological entity. J Gastrointestinal Abdominal Radiol ISGAR 2019; 3 (02) 144-152
• 3 Hazarika S, Venkataraman R, Das T. et al. Acute renal infection in adult part 1: an overview of what the radiologist needs to know. J Gastrointestinal Abdominal Radiol ISGAR 2020; 3 (02) 126-136
• 4 Hazarika S, Venkataraman R, Das T. et al. Acute renal infection in adult, part 2: emphysematous urinary tract infection—what the radiologist needs to know. J Gastrointestinal Abdominal Radiol ISGAR 2020; 3 (02) 137-143
• 5 Chandramohan A, Panda S, Thomas A. et al. Management driven structured reporting in ovarian cancer. J Gastrointestinal Abdominal Radiol ISGAR 2020; 3 (02) 153-162
• 6 Radhakrishnan S, Chellathurai A, Sankaranrayanan S, Sankar D, Rajan S. Role of MR enterography in evaluation of disease activity in pediatric Crohn’s disease: correlation between MR enterography and pediatric Crohn’s Disease Activity Index Scores. J Gastrointestinal Abdominal Radiol ISGAR 2020; 3 (02) 118-125
• 7 Eapen A, Chandramohan A, Simon B, Putta T, John R, Kekre A. imaging evaluation of disorders of sex development. J Gastrointestinal Abdominal Radiol ISGAR 2020; 3 (02) 181-192

Publication History

Article published online:
12 August 2020