Background There is a growing awareness that prevention and early diagnosis may reduce the high mortality associated with cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases. The role of whole-body computed tomography (WB-CT) in self-referred and asymptomatic patients has been debated. Aim To determine frequency and spectrum of WB-CT findings in average-risk subjects derived from a Medical-Check-Up-Unit, to evaluate recommendations reported and distribution according to sex and age-groups. Materials and methods We retrospectively reviewed 6516 subjects who underwent WB-CT (June 2004/February 2015). All were > 40 years and referred by Medical-Check-Up-Unit of our hospital. The main findings were categorized and classified as normal or not. Its distribution according to sex and age-groups was evaluated using Chi-square test and linear-by-linear association test, respectively. Number of recommendations, type and interval of follow-up were recorded. Descriptive statistics were used. Results WB-CT performed in 6516 patients (69% men, 31% women, mean age = 58.4 years) revealed chest (81.4%), abdominal (93.06%) and spine (65.39%) abnormalities. Only 1.60% had completely normal exploration. Abnormal WB-CT in men was significantly higher than women (98.64% vs. 97.87%; p = 0.021), with significant increase as age was higher (40-49 years: 95.65%; 50-59 years: 98.33%; 60-69 years: 99.47%; > 69 years: 99.89%) (p < 0.001). Although most findings were benign, we detected 1.47% primary tumors (96, mai

Background & aims: Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) has been shown to be profoundly responsible of most of the obesity-associated metabolic derangements. The measurement of VAT usually implies the use of imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomographi(CT), Our aim was to evaluate the accuracy of the determination of VAT by means of abdominal bioimpedance (BIA) with the ViScan device in comparison with Cr and its clinical usefulness in the management of obesity. Methods: We studied a sample of 140 subjects (73 males/67 females) with BMI ranging from 17.7 to 50.4 kg/m(2) to evaluate the accuracy of the ViScan in comparison to CT to determine VAT. To further analyze ViScan's clinical usefulness we studied a separate cohort (n = 2849) analyzing cardiometabolic risk factors. Furthermore, we studied the ability of the ViScan to detect changes in VAT after weight gain (n = 107) or weight loss (n = 335). The study was performed from October 2009 through June 2015. Results: ViScan determines VAT with a good accuracy in individuals with a CT-VAT up to 200 cm(2), and then with lower precision with increasing body mass, exhibiting a moderate high correlation with Cri VAT (r = 0.75, P < 0.001). Importantly, VAT determination with the ViScan exhibits better correlations with several cardiometabolic risk factors such as glucose, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol and markers of fatty liver than anthropometric measurements such as BMI or waist circumference. ViScan is able to detect VAT variations after body weight changes. Conclusions: Since the possibility of measuring VAT by imaging techniques is not always available, abdominal BIA represents a good alternative to estimate VAT, allowing the identification of patients with increased VAT-related cardiometabolic risk and a better management of obese patients. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is being actively tested as an emerging alternative for the treatment of locally advanced colon cancer (LACC) patients, resembling its use in other gastrointestinal tumors. This study assesses the mid-term oncologic outcome of LACC patients treated with oxaliplatin and fluoropyrimidines-based preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery. Patients with radiologically resectable LACC treated with neoadjuvant therapy between 2009 and 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. Radiological, metabolic, and pathological tumor response was assessed. Both postoperative complications, relapse-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS) were studied. Sixty-five LACC patients who received treatment were included. Planned treatment was completed by 93.8 % of patients. All patients underwent surgery without delay. The median time between the start of chemotherapy and surgery was 71 days (65-82). No progressive disease was observed during preoperative treatment. A statistically significant tumor volume reduction of 62.5 % was achieved by CT scan (39.8-79.8) (p < 0.001). It was also observed a median reduction of 40.5 % (24.2-63.7 %) (p < 0.005) of SUVmax (Standard Uptake Value) by PET-CT scan. Complete pathologic response was achieved in 4.6 % of patients. Postoperative complications were observed in 15.4 % of patients, with no cases of mortality. After a median follow-up of 40.1 months, (p (25)-p (75): 27.3-57.8) 3-5 year actuarial RFS was 88.9-85.6 %, respectively. Five-year actuarial OS was 95.3 %. Preoperative chemotherapy in LACC patients is safe and able to induce major tumor regression. Survival times are encouraging, and further research seems warranted.

Oxaliplatin/fluorpyrimidine neoadjuvant chemotherapy induces major tumour shrinkage at both the pathological and radiological levels. The CT scan shows a high accuracy and a low overstaged rate in LACC patients treated by means of a neoadjuvant approach.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery and chemotherapy for LACC is safe without apparent increase of early and medium-term complications