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Adverse events in radiology are quite rare, but they do occur. Radiation safety regulations and the law obligate organizations to report certain adverse events, harm and near misses, especially events related to patients' health and safety. The aim of this study was to describe and analyse incidents related to radiation safety issues reported in Finland. The data were collected from incident reports documented by radiology personnel concerning notifications of abnormal events in medical imaging made to the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority between 2010 and 2017. During these eight years, 312 reports were submitted. Only events reported from radiology departments were included; nuclear medicine, radiotherapy and animal radiology cases were excluded. The final number of reports was 293 (94%). The majority of the 293 approved reports were related to computed tomography (CT, 68.3%) and to X-ray examinations (27.6%). Altogether 82.9% of those irradiated were adults, most of whom were exposed to unnecessary radiation through CT (86.5%), 5.5% were children, and 4.4% pregnant women. The most common effective dose of unnecessary radiation was 1 mSv or less (89.7% of all examinations). The highest effective doses were reported in CT (from under 1 mSv–20 mSv and above). The reasons for the adverse events were incorrect identification (32%), incorrect procedure, site or side (30%); and human errors or errors of knowledge (20%). Adverse events occurred especially in CT examinations. It is important to collect and analyse incident data, assess the harmful events, learn from them and aim to reduce adverse events. This study emphasizes the need for radiological personnel to obtain evidence-based information on adverse events and focus on training to improve patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: WNT signaling is of key importance in chondrogenesis and defective WNT signaling may contribute to the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis and other cartilage diseases. Biochemical composition of articular cartilage in patients with aberrant WNT signaling has not been studied. Our objective was to assess the knee articular cartilage in WNT1 mutation-positive individuals using a 3.0T MRI unit to measure cartilage thickness, relaxation times, and texture features.Design: Cohort comprised mutation-positive (N = 13; age 17-76 years) and mutation-negative (N = 13; 16-77 years) subjects from two Finnish families with autosomal dominant WNT1 osteoporosis due to a heterozygous missense mutation c.652T>G (p.C218G) in WNT1. All subjects were imaged with a 3.0T MRI unit and assessed for cartilage thickness, T2 and T1ρ relaxation times, and T2 texture features contrast, dissimilarity and homogeneity of T2 relaxation time maps in six regions of interest (ROIs) in the tibiofemoral cartilage.Results: All three texture features showed opposing trends with age between the groups in the medial tibiofemoral cartilage (P = 0.020-0.085 for the difference of the regression coefficients), the mutation-positive individuals showing signs of cartilage preservation. No significant differences were observed in the lateral tibiofemoral cartilage. Cartilage thickness and means of T2 relaxation time did not differ between groups. Means of T1ρ relaxation time were significantly different in one ROI but the regression analysis displayed no differences.Conclusions: Our results show less age-related cartilage deterioration in the WNT1 mutation-positive than the mutation-negative subjects. This suggests, that the WNT1 mutation may alter cartilage turnover and even have a potential cartilage-preserving effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The main aim was to investigate the associations between Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-defined structural pathologies of the knee and physical function.Design: A cohort study with frequency matching on age and sex with eighty symptomatic subjects with knee pain and suspicion or diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis (OA) and 57 asymptomatic subjects was conducted. The subjects underwent knee MRI, and the severity of structural changes was graded by MRI Osteoarthritis Knee Score (MOAKS) in separate knee locations. WOMAC function subscores were recorded and physical function tests (20-m and 5-min walk, stair ascending and descending, timed up & go and repeated sit-to-stand tests) performed. The association between MRI-defined structural pathologies and physical function tests and WOMAC function subscores were evaluated by linear regression analysis with adjustment for demographic factors, other MRI-features and pain with using effect size (ES) as a measure of the magnitude of an association.Results: Cartilage degeneration showed significant association with poor physical performance in TUG-, stair ascending and descending-, 20-m- and 5-min walk-tests (ESs in the subjects with cartilage degeneration anywhere between 0.134 [95%CI 0.037-0.238] and 0.224 [0.013-0.335]) and with increased WOMAC function subscore (ES in the subjects with cartilage degeneration anywhere 0.088 [0.012-0.103]). Also, lateral meniscus maceration and extrusion were associated with poor performance in stair ascending test (ESs 0.067 [0.008-0.163] and 0.077 [0.012-0.177]).Conclusions: After adjustments cartilage degeneration was associated with both decreased self-reported physical function and poor performance in the physical function tests. Furthermore, subjects with lateral meniscus maceration and extrusions showed significantly worse performance in stair ascending tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the associations between multi-feature structural pathology assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the presence of knee pain, and to determine the associations between the locations of structural changes and different knee pain patterns.Method: Eighty symptomatic subjects with knee pain and suspicion or diagnosis of knee OA and 63 asymptomatic subjects underwent knee MRI. Severity of structural changes was graded by MRI Osteoarthritis Knee Score (MOAKS) in separate knee locations. The associations between cartilage damage, bone marrow lesions (BMLs), osteophytes, Hoffa's synovitis, effusion-synovitis, meniscal damage and structural pathologies in ligaments, tendons and bursas and both the presence of pain and the knee pain patterns were assessed.Results: The presence of Hoffa's synovitis (adjusted RR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2-1.3) and osteophytes in any region (2.07, 1.19-3.60) was significantly associated with the presence of pain. Any Hoffa's synovitis was associated with patellar pain (adjusted RR 4.70, 95% CI 1.19-3.60) and moderate-to-severe Hoffa's synovitis with diffuse pain (2.25, 1.13-4.50). Medial knee pain was associated with cartilage loss in the medial tibia (adjusted RR 2.66, 95% CI 1.22-5.80), osteophytes in the medial tibia (2.66, 1.17-6.07) and medial femur (2.55, 1.07-6.09), medial meniscal maceration (2.20, 1.01-4.79) and anterior meniscal extrusions (2.78, 1.14-6.75).Conclusions: Hoffa's synovitis and osteophytes were strongly associated with the presence of knee pain. Medial pain was associated most often with medially located structural pathologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To validate a new, non-joint-specific radiological classification system that is suitable regardless of the site of the osteonecrosis (ON) in patients with cancer.Material and Methods: Critical deficiencies in the existing ON classification systems were identified and a new, non-joint-specific radiological classification system was developed. Seventy-two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of patients with cancer and ON lesions were graded, and the validation of the new system was performed by assessing inter- and intra-observer reliability.Results: Intra-observer reliability of ON grading was good or very good, with kappa values of 0.79-0.86. Interobserver agreement was lower but still good, with kappa values of 0.62-0.77. Ninety-eight percent of all intra- or interobserver differences were within one grade. Interobserver reliability of assessing the location of ON was very good, with kappa values of 0.93-0.98.Conclusion: All the available radiological ON classification systems are joint specific. This limitation has spurred the development of multiple systems, which has led to the insufficient use of classifications in ON studies among patients with cancer. The introduced radiological classification system overcomes the problem of joint-specificity, was found to be reliable, and can be used to classify all ON lesions regardless of the affected site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Electronic patient record (EPR) and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) can be connected to wireless terminals which deliver information to the point of care. We present our experiences with mobile teleradiology using special type mobile phones: smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA) with phone functions. According to the results, these terminals are feasible for emergency situations and mainly for evaluation of neurosurgical CT images. The article also describes the different experiences with GSM and GPRS mobile networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Styrene-butadiene latices are widely used as binders in pigmented coatings for the paper and board industry. White pitch deposition, which is one type of surface fouling, is a well-known problem at paper machines using coated broke as a raw material. The main component of white pitch is latex, such as styrene-butadiene. The viscoelastic properties of styrene-butadiene latex have been found to affect on white pitch formation, but the effect of carboxylation has not been studied extensively. Carboxylation has traditionally performed to latices in order to increase colloidal stability, but it has also effect on mechanical properties of the latices. In this paper, we studied the adhesion potential of three styrene-butadiene latices by using a cylindrical probe tack method under dry and aqueous conditions while varying the carboxylation degree of the latex. Adhesion potential was measured using low and high energy surfaces as adherents. The results show that carboxylation influences adhesion potential of latices in both dry and aqueous environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Styrene–butadiene latices are widely used as binders in pigmented coatings for the paper and board industry, primarily because of their good ability to bind pigments and fibres. White pitch deposition is a well-known problem at the drying section of paper machines using coated broke as a raw material. The main component of white pitch is latex, such as styrene–butadiene. The viscoelastic properties of styrene–butadiene latex affect white pitch formation. In this paper, we studied the sticking potential of different styrene–butadiene latices by using a cylindrical probe tack method under dry and wet conditions and varying the cross-linking density of the latex. In addition, the tackiness of the latices was measured as a function of decreasing moisture content to simulate the process in the drying section of a paper machine. The results show that the sticking potential can be derived from the storage modulus in dry conditions. The presence of water in the styrene–butadiene structure changes the sticking behaviour, and the results support the hypothesis of water acting as a plasticiser for latex. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The surfaces of the drying cylinders of paper machine in the early part of the drying section are susceptible to deposition; sticky contaminants easily move from the paper web to the hot cylinder surfaces. These surfaces are usually coated with low surface energy coatings to increase dirt repellency. In this paper, a method for measuring the dirt repellency of dryer cylinder coatings and the results obtained using models of sticky materials are reported. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]