Hartman, Robert P.

334 Background: Sarcopenia, or decreased skeletal muscle mass, has been associated with worse surgical and oncologic outcomes across multiple malignancies. This study investigates the impact of sarcopenia on outcomes after multimodal therapy for esophageal cancer. Methods: Retrospective observational cohort study including adult patients who underwent neoadjuvant therapy followed by esophagectomy for primary esophageal cancer from January 2000 - December 2021. A fully automated abdominal segmentation using deep convolutional neural network was utilized to calculate skeletal muscle index (SMI) from preoperative CT scans performed at our institution. Males with SMI <52.4 cm 2 /m 2 and females with SMI <38.5 cm 2 /m 2 at any point before surgery were classified as sarcopenic. The relationship between sarcopenia and patient demographics, operative details, and complications were explored using chi-square tests. The relationship between sarcopenia and disease-free survival and overall survival were investigated using parsimonious multivariable analysis retaining variables with p-value <0.05 using backward selection method. Results: We identified 200 patients meeting the study criteria with 142 (71%) having sarcopenia at any time prior to surgery. Patients with sarcopenia were significantly older [65.2 (59.6, 71.2) vs 63 (53.6, 67.5), p = .023] and more likely to have had open surgery [129 (90.8%) vs 46 (79.3%), p = .034]. There were no significant differences in sex, history of diabetes, coronary artery disease, renal disease, smoking, cancer type, cancer stage, tumor size, tumor location, or margin status between sarcopenic groups ( p > .05). Sarcopenic patients were significantly more likely to require blood transfusion ≥3 units after esophagectomy [79 (55.6%) vs 8 (13.8%), p < .001] or to experience complications requiring surgical intervention [36 (24.6%) vs 7 (12.1%), p = .048]. Multivariate analysis revealed that sarcopenia was associated with disease-free and overall survival (Table). Conclusions: Sarcopenia is a prognostic factor in patients undergoing multimodal therapy for esophageal cancer. Interventions that aim to prevent decreases in SMI after initiating neoadjuvant therapy should be investigated. Multivariate analysis with sarcopenia predicting outcomes. Disease free survivalHR (95% CI) p-value Overall survivalHR (95% CI) p-value Age 1.04 (1.02, 1.06) < .001 1.04 (1.02, 1.07) < .001 Epicenter Middle Upper 1.88 (1.21, 2.86)3.16 (1.67, 5.98) .001.005< .001 1.96 (1.26, 3.04)4.00 (1.90, 8.44) < .001.003< .001 Stage Stage II Stage III Stage IV 1.88 (0.95, 3.71)2.90 (1.46, 5.75)16.02 (6.12, 41.93) < .001.069.002< .001 1.65 (0.83, 3.25)2.76 (1.37, 5.55)10.14 (4.03, 25.53) < .001.151.005< .001 Cancer type - - 1.76 (1.03, 3.02) .039 Transfusion > 3 pRBC - - 1.54 (0.99, 2.40) .057 BMI prior to cancer diagnosis - - 0.98 (0.94, 1.01 .208 Sarcopenic 1.76 (1.16, 2.67) .007 1.64 (1.04, 2.60) .033

Abstract Objective The aim of this study is to assess whether clinical and imaging characteristics are associated with the hormonal subtype, growth, and adrenalectomy for incidental adrenal cortical adenomas (ACAs). Design This is a single-center cohort study. Methods Consecutive adult patients with incidental ACA were diagnosed between 2000 and 2016. Results Of the 1516 patients with incidental ACA (median age 59 years, 62% women), 699 (46%) had nonfunctioning adenomas (NFAs), 482 (31%) had mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS), 62 (4%) had primary aldosteronism (PA), 39 (3%) had Cushing syndrome, 18 (1%) had PA and MACS, and 226 (15%) had incomplete work-up. Age, sex, tumor size, and tumor laterality, but not unenhanced computed tomography Hounsfield units (HU), were associated with hormonal subtypes. In a multivariable analysis, ≥1 cm growth was associated with younger age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.8 per 5-year increase, P = .0047) and longer imaging follow-up (OR = 1.2 per year, P &lt; .0001). Adrenalectomy was performed in 355 (23%) patients, including 38% of MACS and 15% of NFA. Adrenalectomy for NFA and MACS was more common in younger patients (OR = 0.79 per 5-year increase, P = .002), larger initial tumor size (OR = 2.3 per 1 cm increase, P &lt; .0001), ≥1 cm growth (OR = 15.3, P &lt; .0001), and higher postdexamethasone cortisol (OR = 6.6 for &gt;5 vs &lt;1.8 μg/dL, P = .002). Conclusions Age, sex, tumor size, and laterality were associated with ACA hormonal subtype and can guide diagnosis and management. Tumor growth was more common with younger age and longer follow-up. Unenhanced HU did not predict hormonal subtype or growth. Adrenalectomy for MACS and NFA was mainly performed in younger patients with larger tumor size, growth, and elevated postdexamethasone cortisol.

Background Detection of small renal calculi has benefitted from recent advances in computed tomography (CT) scanner design. Information regarding observer performance when using state-of-the-art CT scanners for this application is needed. Purpose To assess observer performance and the impact of radiation dose for detection and size measurement of <4 mm renal stones using CT with integrated circuit detectors and iterative reconstruction. Material and Methods Twenty-nine <4 mm calcium oxalate stones were randomly placed in 20 porcine kidneys in an anthropomorphic phantom. Four radiologists used a workstation to record each calculus detection and size. JAFROC Figure of Merit (FOM), sensitivity, false positive detections, and calculus size were calculated. Results Mean calculus size was 2.2 ± 0.7 mm. The CTDI vol values corresponding to the automatic exposure control settings of 160, 80, 40, 25, and 10 Quality Reference mAs (QRM) were 15.2, 7.9, 4.2, 2.7, and 1.3 mGy, respectively. JAFROC FOM was ≥ 0.97 at ≥ 80 QRM, ≥ 0.89 at ≥ 25 QRM, and was inferior to routine dose (160 QRM) at 10 QRM (0.72, P < 0.05). Per-calculus sensitivity remained ≥ 85% for every reader at ≥ 25 QRM. Mean total false positive detections per reader were ≤ 3 at ≥ 80 QRM, but increased substantially for two readers ( ≥ 12) at ≤ 40 QRM. Measured calculus size significantly decreased at ≤ 25 QRM ( P ≤ 0.01). Conclusion Using low dose renal CT with iterative reconstruction and ≥ 25 QRM results in high sensitivity, but false positive detections increase for some readers at very low dose levels (≤ 40 QRM). At very low doses with iterative reconstruction, measured calculus size will artifactually decrease.