Letter From the Guest Editor: Pediatric Body Imaging, Part I

Article Outline

• Copyright

Pediatric imaging is a unique radiology subspecialty, which encompasses all aspects of organ systems, congenital and acquired disorders, and imaging modalities. Due to a wide variety of currently and clinically relevant topics in pediatric body imaging, the collection of articles on pediatric body imaging for the Seminars in Roentgenology have been divided into two separate issues. In this and the next issue, I am pleased to present articles devoted to practical reviews of various common and uncommon conditions in the pediatric population. As the guest editor for these two issues focusing on pediatric body imaging, I have selected topics with the aim of providing both radiologists and clinicians caring for pediatric patients with up-to-date information regarding imaging assessment of clinically oriented problems that are currently encountered in daily practice.

The first article, by Dr. Kadom and myself, focuses on reviewing current imaging guidelines, imaging techniques, and imaging findings of various neck masses that can be encountered in pediatric patients. Familiarity with the characteristic imaging findings of these neck masses in children can avoid delayed diagnoses and optimize pediatric patient care.

Intestinal obstructions are the most common surgical emergencies during the neonatal period. Dr. Reid provides us with a helpful three step practical imaging strategy for evaluating newborn intestinal obstructions and an excellent review of the myriad causes and their characteristic imaging features.

The main theme of Drs. Crane and Hernanz-Schulman's article focuses on congenital abdominal masses with emphasis on reviewing optimal use of various currently available imaging modalities, principle imaging techniques, and imaging characteristics. These masses, though relatively rare, must be evaluated effectively in order to expedite diagnosis and treatment.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) continues to be an indispensable non-invasive imaging modality, particularly for preoperative and postoperative evaluation of thoracic large vessels. Dr. Browne and colleagues present the review of the practical MRI technique for evaluating thoracic large vessels in pediatric patients. Important clinical aspects and characteristic MRI features of a variety of thoracic vascular anomalies and abnormalities involving the aorta and pulmonary artery in children are highlighted.

Drs. Phillips and Paladin provide an overview of the current role of imaging children with genitourinary disorders. In particular, they review current imaging techniques for evaluating the pediatric genitourinary tract and describe imaging features of common congenital genitourinary tract anomalies.

With the rapid technical developments and advances of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in recent years, MDCT has enhanced the postoperative evaluation of congenital heart diseases (CHD) in children. Dr. Sunidja and his colleagues provide a step-by-step primer of MDCT evaluation of post-operative CHD in pediatric patients. Emphasis is placed on reviewing surgical procedures for repairing CHD and postoperative MDCT imaging appearance as well as complications after definitive or palliative surgical correction of CHD.

Chest wall lesions in children can arise from a wide variety of conditions and often result in diagnostic dilemmas. Drs. Restrepo and myself offer a comprehensive updated overview of imaging chest wall lesions in pediatric patients with an emphasis on current imaging techniques and characteristic imaging findings that can facilitate accurate diagnosis.

Bone lesions in children are very common and include true bone tumors and tumor-like lesions. The final article by Drs. Khanna and Bennett review the current role of cross-sectional imaging modalities and imaging characteristics of common benign and malignant bone lesions in pediatric patients.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege putting together these two issues devoted to pediatric body imaging. I am indebted and grateful to all the contributing authors – all of whom are leading experts in the field of pediatric body imaging. Their invaluable efforts and extraordinary expertise have helped to create a wealth of information that should facilitate the understanding of pediatric body imaging. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Jannette Collins, for the opportunity to serve as guest editor for two issues of Seminars in Roentgenology. I hope that both radiologists and clinicians who care for pediatric patients will enjoy reading the articles in these two issues and find them valuable and applicable to their practices.