Christina Kalogeropoulou

• Md, PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Patras

Parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) could have poor outcomes, even with accurate preoperative localization of the adenomas, because their intraoperative localization can be challenging. Freehand single photon emission computed tomography (fhSPECT) is a new technique for radio-guided intraoperative navigation. Its use during par...

Primary hyperthyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disorder characterized by hypercalcemia and elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels. The most common cause is a single parathyroid adenoma, though the rest of the cases are due to multiglandular disease [double adenoma/hyperplasia]. The main focus driving this work is to develop a computer-aide...

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy constitutes a common risk factor for maternal pulmonary embolism (PE). This study determines the fetal dose, maternal effective dose (ED), and organs’ doses (ODs) for computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) examinations. METHODS: Patient and dosimetric data, exposure and technical parameters from CTPAs in six pregnant...

Objective: To establish institutional diagnostic reference levels (IDRLs) based on clinical indications (CIs) for three- and four-phase computed tomography urography (CTU). Methods: Volumetric computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol), dose-length product (DLP), patients’ demographics, selected CIs like lithiasis, cancer, and other diseases, and pro...

Background: Sarcopenia, defined as a small cross-sectional area (CSA) in computed tomography (CT) measurements of skeletal muscles, serves as a disease severity marker in various clinical scenarios, including pulmonary conditions and critical illness. Another parameter of sarcopenia, the level of myosteatosis, reflected by the tissue's radiodensit...

This study aimed to assess the influence of overranging on patient effective dose (ED) and radiosensitive organs' dose (OD) of adult patients undergoing two-phase parathyroid computed tomography (CT) examinations utilising Monte Carlo simulation and propose methods for elimination of its impact in clinical practice. The volumetric computed tomograp...

Introduction: Chest X-rays are commonly used to assess the severity in patients that present in the emergency department with suspected COVID-19 pneumonia, but in clinical practice quantitative scales are rarely employed. Aims: To evaluate the reliability and validity of two semi-quantitative radiological scales in patients hospitalized for COVI...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate renal parenchymal trauma of two-step dilation compared to the conventional Amplatz gradual dilation during percutaneous nephrolithotomy on a porcine model. Materials and methods: A nonpapillary percutaneous access tract was established under fluoroscopic guidance in both kidneys of four female p...

Introduction Myositis associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) seems to be an under-recognized entity. Methods In this multicenter, retrospective study, we recorded between 9/12/2019 and 30/9/2021 consecutive patients who presented in five different ILD centers from two European countries (Greece, France) and received a multidisciplinary diagnos...

Although machine learning (ML) has shown promise across disciplines, out-of-sample generalizability is concerning. This is currently addressed by sharing multi-site data, but such centralization is challenging/infeasible to scale due to various limitations. Federated ML (FL) provides an alternative paradigm for accurate and generalizable ML, by onl...

Objective To evaluate whether reducing tract dilation diameter in PCNL (percutaneous nephrolithotomy) procedures results in minimizing of renal trauma of the percutaneous tract. Methods A percutaneous renal access tract was established bilaterally to 11 pigs. Two pigs were euthanized immediately after the experiment, while nine pigs were sacrifice...

Our purpose is to review the scientific literature and collect information regarding clinical and technical parameters of different single- or multi-phase CT protocols, their diagnostic performance and patient dose during parathyroid imaging. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for studies investigating the diagnostic performance of CT in det...

Objective: To estimate organs' absorbed dose from the two-phase CT of parathyroid glands, effective dose (ED) based on three different methods, and compare the dose values with those reported by other published protocols. Methods: Volumetric-computed-tomography-dose-index (CTDIvol), dose-length-product (DLP), and the corresponding scan length du...

Portal vein thrombosis is a common complication associated with malignancies such as hepatocellular carcinoma, with a dismal and negative impact on prognosis. A thorough literature search in Pubmed and Google Scholar, under the terms 'hepatocellular carcinoma AND portal vein thrombosis', regarding the surgical management of portal vein thrombosis w...

Metastatic ureteral tumors arising from a primary breast carcinoma are extremely rare. They present with hematuria and radiological findings compatible with obstructive ureteral phenomena. We present a case of an 87-year-old woman with a history of lymphoma and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), during an emergency admission for peptic ulcer, de...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to investigate a potential association between the severity of COVID-19 disease and related 28-day mortality, with the presence of mediastinal lymphadenopathy, the extension of lung parenchymal infiltrates, the presence of pulmonary embolism, the density and distribution of mediastinal and subcutaneous fat, the i...

This study aimed to investigate whether CT-derived measurements of the density and cross-sectional area of paravertebral skeletal muscles at the level of the T10 vertebra upon admission can predict outcomes in COVID-19 pneumonia and may correlate with disease severity. The study included 84 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to two of Greece...

Although machine learning (ML) has shown promise in numerous domains, there are concerns about generalizability to out-of-sample data. This is currently addressed by centrally sharing ample, and importantly diverse, data from multiple sites. However, such centralization is challenging to scale (or even not feasible) due to various limitations. Fede...

Background Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) is a widely used procedure that has drastically changed the management of thoracic aortic diseases. We assess the effectiveness of supra-aortic debranching during antegrade TEVAR procedures with a retrospective analysis of our clinical experience Methods Between December 2005 and April 2017, 5...

This study aims to evaluate the radiation dose during five computed tomography angiography (CTA) examinations performed with a GE Light Speed 16 (16-slice) and a Toshiba Aquilion Prime 80 (80-slice) CT system and to establish institutional DRLs (IDRLs). The volume computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol), dose length product (DLP) per examination,...

The aim of the current prospective pilot study was to describe a hyperaccuracy three-dimensional (HA3D™) model reconstruction technique, specifically developed to maximize the visualization of the renal collecting system’s anatomy, and its relationship with the stones, vessels and renal parenchyma, and to compare the HA3D™ virtual models with the i...

A dose audit was performed to evaluate the radiation dose to 573 adult patients, who underwent eleven common CT examinations in two different CT scanners: one with 16 detector rows (GE Light Speed 16) and one with 80 detector rows (Toshiba Aquilion Prime 80). The volume computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol), dose length product (DLP), as well as...

Background and aims: The Sarc-F questionnaire (1) is implemented by the EWGSOP2 (2) consensus as a screening tool for sarcopenia. To our knowledge, there is no data if it could be used also as a screening tool to detect the more complex form of bone-muscle pair impairment, the osteosarcopenia (3) in communitydwelling older adults. Methods: Methods:...

This study evaluates the patient radiation dose from the two-phase protocols of two different computed tomography (CT) systems and compares this with that delivered by the other similar protocols previously published. Two hundred and fourteen patients with primary hyperparathyroidism were included in the study with a two-phase CT scan between 2008...

The outcomes of COVID-19 in patients treated with biologic agents are a subject of intense investigation. Recent data indicated that patients under rituximab (RTX) may carry an increased risk of serious disease. We performed an electronic search in Medline and Scopus using the keywords rituximab and COVID-19. We present a rare case of severe, protr...

Introduction: Treatment of interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) other than idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) often includes systemic corticosteroids. Use of steroid-sparing agents is amenable to avoid potential side effects. Methods: Functional indices and high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) patterns of patients with non-IPF ILDs receiving...

To assess and compare all current computed tomography angiography (CTA) scoring systems for the diagnostic workup of brain death (BD) to digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and clinical tests. Fifty-two patients with a clinical suspicion of BD underwent CTA and subsequently DSA. The diagnostic performance of all current CTA scoring systems was co...

Objective: Osteoporosis is highly prevalent among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and most commonly presents as a vertebral compression fracture (VCF). Our objective was to quantify the effect of osteoporosis and VCFs on the mortality and pulmonary function tests (PFTs), such as forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)...

Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair (TEVAR) has modified aortic medicine, particularly in patients with traumatic aortic injury (TAI). Conventional repair of TAI in the aortic arch is technically demanding as it requires cardiopulmonary bypass and deep hypothermic arrest with still a significant number of complications. Despite recent improvements...

We report a case of successful open repair of a 7.5-cm juxtarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in the presence of a left-sided inferior vena cava (LS-IVC) crossing the aorta at the level of the renal arteries in a 72-year-old man. The orifice of the right renal artery was slightly caudal to that of the left renal artery and concomitant occlusive...

The GREECE trial (NCT04631809) aims to compare CCTA-guided ICA (CTgICA) versus the ICA alone. It is a multicenter, randomized, controlled study which will be conducted in 9 Greek hospitals for 24 months. Our aim is to investigate whether the information obtained by CCTA will guide ICA in everyday clinical practice, targeting on decision-making with...

Purpose: Purpose of this study is the development and evaluation of an intelligent decision support system that will accurately predict the risk of rupture in incidentally detected intracranial aneurysms. Patients-Methods: 100 patients with intracranial aneurysms (both ruptured and unruptured) detected by computed tomography angiography (CTA) and...

Here is presented the development and evaluation of an intelligent prediction system for the identification of parathyroid multi- or single adenomas disease or cancer, based on CT images during preoperative mapping, developed with Machine Learning approaches. There were used on a retrospective chart analysis, data from 119 histologically proven PHP...

Objective The aim was to validate the SYM VEIN consensus 3D scoring tool in chronic venous disease (CVD). Methods This was a prospective cohort study with a total of 35 consecutive patients with CVD. Patients with CVD undergoing saphenectomy were assessed with the revised Venous Clinical Severity Score (r-VCSS), the CIVIQ-20 quality of life score...

To date, no therapy has demonstrated definite efficacy for patients with COVID‐19. Antiviral, as well as, anti‐inflammatory approaches, as these represented by remdesivir (RDV) and tocilizumab (TCZ) use, have been recently put forward. However, data upon optimal choice of one over the other, or potential need for regimen combination, remains an ope...

The development and evaluation of an intelligent prediction system for the identification of parathyroid multi- or single adenomas disease or cancer, based on CT images during preoperative mapping, developed with Machine Learning approaches. Data from 119 histologically proven PHPT patients referred to our Hospital University Department of Radiolog...

Purpose Vascular calcification (VC) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease in hemodialysis patients while Matrix GLA protein (MGP) is one of the most potent inhibitors of VC and its activation is vitamin K dependent. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of oral vitamin K2 supplementation in the prevention of VC progres...

Background: Between 2017 and 2018, Greece experienced a measles outbreak, affecting >3000 patients, most of which were unvaccinated. Measles associated pneumonia (MAP) is the most common serious compilation of the disease, but very few recent reports regarding its presentation are available. Materials and methods: Between January and May of 2018...

Purpose: Vascular calcification (VC) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease in hemodialysis patients while Matrix GLA protein (MGP) is one of the most potent inhibitors of VC and its activation is vitamin K dependent. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of oral vitamin K2 supplementation in the prevention of VC progre...

Background: According to previous studies, CT scan exhibits the highest sensitivity and specificity rates among the imaging methods for parathyroid glands. The purpose of this work is the development and evaluation of an intelligent decision support system for the appropriate surgical intervention of parathyroid gland based on the evaluation of CT...

We report a case of a young female with known history of pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis who was initially presented in the emergency department of a university hospital with respiratory distress. Clinical assessment and diagnostic workup revealed left hemithorax subcutaneous emphysema, bilateral pneumothorax, and atelectasis in both lower...

Objective: To compare two endograft types, the original GORE EXCLUDER AAA endoprosthesis (W. L. Gore & Associates, Flagstaff, Ariz) with the repositionable GORE EXCLUDER featuring the C3 delivery system, which allows repositioning of the proximal part of the graft to achieve accurate placement in relation to the renal arteries, in unselected patie...

Background and purpose: Brain CT Perfusion (CTP) is an X-ray imaging technique for the assessment of brain tissue perfusion, which can be used in several different entities. The aim of this study is the evaluation of the radiation dose to patients during a comprehensive brain CT prescription protocol (CPP) consisting of an unenhanced brain CT, a b...

Objective To investigate the role of strain elastography using calculated strain ratio and visual elastography score in differentiating nonneoplastic, benign, and malignant neoplastic intratesticular lesions. Materials and Methods The study was approved by the hospital review board as a retrospective review of 86 patients examined with gray scale,...

A 41-year-old woman presented with a large painful and tender mass of the left side of her neck located just below the angle of the mandible. She was also complaining of frequent attacks of symptoms ranging from dizziness upon resuming the erect position to frank syncope. Color-coded duplex showed a large well-vascularized vascular mass at the leve...

Biomedical research in Greece has rapidly developed during the last 30 years. Diagnostic imaging groundwork is a significant field of interest which has been developed by taking advantage of the basic and applied research capacities including the use of small and large animal models, conventional and/or genetically modified ones. This important out...

Objectives To investigate the anatomical relations of the papillary, infundibular and pelvic approach to percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and evaluate the amount of vascularization at the respective sites. Materials 99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid SPECT/CT renal scintigraphies or Computerized tomographies perfusion (CTP) were performed in 40 pati...

Purpose Erectile dysfunction (ED) has been linked to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This study used computed tomography (CT) to identify cephalometric and upper airway anatomic features in patients with OSA that correlate with the presence of ED. Methods In this prospective study, 20 CT cephalometric and upper airway measurements, most commonly ass...

Background: Thalassemic patients demonstrate an increased rate of extracardiac vascular complications and increased carotid wall intima-media thickness (cIMT), but very low prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD). We investigated the atheroma burden by assessing the coronary artery calcium (CAC) and cIMT in these patients. Methods: We examin...

Background: All patients with liver cirrhosis should undergo screening endoscopy, but there are limitations and this approach places a heavy burden upon endoscopy units. The aim of this study was to compare multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and the platelet/spleen diameter ratio as non-invasive methods for the detection of gastroesophageal...

The mammographic spectrum is one of the major factors affecting image quality in mammography. In this study, a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation model was used to evaluate image quality characteristics of various mammographic spectra. The anode/filter combinations evaluated, were those traditionally used in mammography, for tube voltages between 26 and 3...

Primary goal of this study is to select optimal registration schemes in the framework of interstitial lung disease (ILD) follow-up analysis in CT. A set of 128 multiresolution schemes composed of multiresolution nonrigid and combinations of rigid and nonrigid registration schemes are evaluated, utilizing ten artificially warped ILD follow-up volume...

A rare complication of chronic pancreatitis is the formation of single or multiple mediastinal pseudocysts, which are fueled from the pancreas through anatomical openings of the diaphragm. We present a rare case with a difficult diagnosis, treatment and potentially catastrophic complications. A 53-year-old Caucasian man was referred to our hospital...

Insulinomas are the most common pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Most insulinomas are benign, small, intrapancreatic solid tumors and only large tumors have a tendency for malignancy. Most patients present with symptoms of hypoglycemia that are relieved with the administration of glucose. We herein present the case of a 75-year-old woman who prese...

Poster: "ECR 2015 / C-1389 / Assessment of usefulness of multi-parametric ultrasound imaging of the testis in determining malignant versus benign disease: Blinded review of diagnostic capabilities " by: "E. Konstantatou1, A. Iqbal1, L. Derchi2, M. Bertolotto3, M. Valentino4, C. Kalogeropoulou5, P. Sidhu1; 1London/UK, 2Genoa/IT, 3Trieste/IT, 4Tolmez...

The aim of this retrospective study was twofold: (1) to show the role of multi-detector computed tomography angiography (MDCTA) in the evaluation of intracranial arterial anatomic variations; (2) to highlight their clinical importance with illustrated example cases. One thousand seven hundred thirty-nine patients who underwent carotid and/or cerebr...

Partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (PAPVR) is a left-to-right shunt where one or more, but not all, pulmonary veins drain into a systemic vein or the right atrium. We report a case of a 45-year-old male with PAPVR to superior vena cava which was incidentally discovered during a right lower bilobectomy for lung cancer.

In this study, the performance of a recently proposed computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) scheme in detection and 3D quantification of reticular and ground glass pattern extent in chest computed tomography of interstitial lung disease (ILD) patients is evaluated. CAD scheme performance was evaluated on a dataset of 37 volumetric chest scans, considering...

Objective: To evaluate the mid-term effects of haemostatic sealant application during tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) on renal drainage and histology in an in vivo porcine study. Materials and methods: Bilateral percutaneous access was established in 28 porcine renal units. At the end of the procedure, a type 1 absorbable fish origi...

There is currently a lack of information on presentation patterns and the appropriate investigation and treatment of aortic brucellosis. Herein a case affecting the iliac component of an aorto-iliac aneurysm, managed successfully with in situ graft repair, is reported. A review of the literature identified 25 cases, with the infrarenal abdominal ao...

Active liver hemorrhage with hemodynamic instability is a serious situation often requiring surgical intervention. The most common causes of hepatic bleeding are trauma and tumors of the liver parenchyma: mainly hepatocellular carcinoma and adenoma. Liver hemorrhage from blunt trauma or spontaneous tumor rupture is sometimes difficult to control wi...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the main cause of mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The pathophysiology of coronary artery disease in CKD is multifactorial including, in addition to traditional risk factors (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus), parameters related to uremia. The study consisted of measuring corona...

To assess the safety and efficacy of long-term treatment with rituximab (RTX) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Eight patients with SSc-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) received 4 cycles of RTX and had a follow-up of 2 years. Lung involvement was assessed by pulmonary function tests and chest HRCT. Skin involvement was assessed b...

Drug-eluting stents proved to minimize neointimal hyperplasia in coronary vessels. Hyperplastic reaction is the most common unwelcome event related to the use of metal mesh stents in the ureter. We evaluated the effect of zotarolimus-eluting stent (ZES) Endeavor Resolute in the porcine and rabbit ureter. A ZES and a bare metal stent (BMS) were inse...

Liver metastases are rare in salivary gland tumors and have been reported only once to be the first manifestation of the disease. They are usually treated with surgical resection of the primary tumor and systemic chemotherapy. Drug-eluting bead chemoembolization has an evolving role in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as in the tr...

The automated segmentation of vessel tree structures is a crucial preprocessing stage in computer aided diagnosis (CAD) schemes of interstitial lung disease (ILD) patterns in multidetector computed tomography (MDCT). The accuracy of such preprocessing stages is expected to influence the accuracy of lung CAD schemes. Although algorithms aimed at imp...

The diagnostic accuracy of flat panel digital detector (FPDD) cinefluoroscopy for coronary artery calcium (CAC) detection, compared to multiple detector computed tomography (MDCT), is not known. CAC was assessed by FPDD cinefluoroscopy (graded as 0,1, 2 and 3) and calcium score (CACS) was determined by MDCT in 151 asymptomatic individuals of low to...

We present a 46-year-old female smoker who was admitted to the emergency department of our hospital due to cough with blood-tinged sputum for the last four days before admission. Using echocardiography and Multi-Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) heart Echinococcosis was diagnosed. Echinococcosis is a severe health issue in some geographical regio...

A 76 year old man presented with left lateral abdominal pain and fever. Clinical examination revealed localized tenderness with rebound sign. Laboratory investigation revealed leukocytosis. The patient was submitted to MDCT for further diagnostic work-up. Imaging Findings CT depicted the presence of extraluminal air bubbles (red arrows in Fig 1a-d)...

A 15 year old adolescent boy presented to the emergency department due to an episode of acute lower GI bleeding. The patient was submitted to abdominal MDCT scan in order to search for the site of haemorrhage. The patient was later submitted to a GI nuclear scan with Tc99m pertechnetate. Imaging Findings After contrast administration, there was int...

Accurate and automated Lung Field (LF) segmentation in volumetric computed tomography protocols is highly challenged by the presence of pathologies affecting lung borders, also affecting the performance of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) schemes. In this work, a three-dimensional LF segmentation algorithm adapted to interstitial lung disease pattern...