Objective To investigate the value of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in evaluating the short term therapeutic response to radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of primary hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods One hundred and ten lesions were studied in 96 patients. Each patient underwent CEUS within a week before RFA, the number, size, border, inner echo and perfusion pattern of lesions were observed. One month after ultrasound-guided RFA, color Doppler flow imaging, CEUS and contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT, reference standard) were performed to assess the therapeutic response. Results Before RFA, in 96 cases with 110 lesions, 83 lesions showed homogeneous hyper-enhancement and the other 27 heterogeneous hyper-enhancement in arterial phase, and 98 lesions were hypo-enhanced in portal venous phase and late phase and the other 12 iso-enhanced. One month after RFA, 99 of 110 lesions were found no-enhancement in entire CEUS procedure, while 11 lesions showed local enhancement on the edge of lesion. Ninety-six of 110 lesions showed no-enhancement and other 14 with irregular enhancement by CECT. There was no statistical significance between CEUS and CECT (χ2=0.406, Pgt;0.05). Fourteen lesions as tumor residual by CECT were underwent RFA again, and then 1 month after RFA no-enhancement was showed by both CECT and CEUS. Conclusion CEUS can play a role in assessing the short term therapeutic response to RFA of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Sample size calculation is an important factor to evaluate the reliability of the diagnostic test. In this paper, a case study of the clinical diagnostic test of artificial intelligence for identification of liver contrast-enhanced ultrasound was performed to conduct two-category and multi-categories studies. Based on sensitivity and specificity, the sample size was then estimated in combination with the statistical characteristics of disease incidence, test level and one/two-sided test. Eventually, the sample size was corrected by integrating the factors of the proportion of training/test dataset and the dropout rate of cases in the medical image recognition system. Moreover, the application of Sample Size Calculator, MedCalc, PASS, and other software can accelerate sample size calculation and reduce the amount of labor.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the clinical value of the contrast-enhanced ultrasonic in the diagnosis of breast tumors.
MethodsWe electronically and comprehensively searched the databases including The Cochrane Library (Issue 2, 2013), PubMed, CNKI, WanFang Data, Chaoxing medalink, VIP, and CBM for clinical research reports of diagnosing breast cancer with Contrast-enhance ultrasonic (all from foundation to May 2013). Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of the included studies according to the QUADAS items. The Meta-DiSc software (version 1.4) was used to conduct pooling on sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio. Heterogeneity test was performed and the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was drawn for area under the curve (AUC).
ResultsA total of 19 studies involving 1 161 participants were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, specificity, the pooled sensitivity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and DOR were 0.79 (95%CI 0.75 to 0.82), 0.86 (95%CI 0.83 to 0.89), 3.92 (95%CI 2.77 to 6.56), 0.18 (95%CI 0.13 to 0.26), and 25.86 (95%CI 13.77 to 48.55), respectively. The AUC of the SROC curve was 0.917 0.
ConclusionThe current evidence shows that contrast-enhanced ultrasonic has high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of preoperative benign and malignant breast mass, which indicates that it could be used as a good method to diagnosing breast tumors.
Objective To observe the therapeutic effect of ultrasonic microbubble combined with bevacizumab (Avastin) on choroidal neovascularization induced by photocoagulation in rabbits.Methods CNV was induced by photocoagulation with argon laser in 30 rabbits (60 eyes).All of the rabbits underwent fundus fluorecein angiography (FFA) 21 days after photocoagulation; 6-8 hours later, 3 rabbits were randomly chosen to be executed to having the immunohistochemical examination.Twenty one days after photocoagulation, 27 rabbits were divided randomly into 3 groups: bevacizumb, ultrasonic microbubble + bevacizumb,and control group; each group has 9 rabbits (18 eyes).The rabbits in control group had no interference treatment; while the rats in bevacizumb and ultrasonic microbubble + bevacizumb group underwent injection with bevacizumb or ultrasonic microbubble + bevacizumb respectively.FFA was performed on all of the rabbits 7,14,and 28 days after photocoagulation to observe the inhibition of CNV; immunofluorecence and Western blot were used to detect the expression of VEGF in retina and choroid.Twentyeight days is the time point to determine the therapeutic efficacy. The expression of VEGF and the results of FFA were the sdandards of the judgement of therapeutic efficacy.Results Proliferaion of CNV to the retinal inner layer and the obvious leakage of fluoresein in the photocoagulation area indicated that the model of CNV was set up successfully. Twenty eight days after injection,obvious fluorescent leakage was found in the control group, and the average fluorescent leakage in bevacizumab group differed much from the control group（t=16.2952，Plt;0.05）; while the difference between ultrasonic microbubble + bevacizumb group and bevacizumab group was also significant (t=4.7955，Plt;0.05) . At the same time point, the expression of VEGF in bevacizumab group detected by immunofluorecent assay and Western blot differed much from the control group (t=7.0327，9.2596；Plt;0.05),and the difference of VEGF between ultrasonic microbubble + bevacizumb group and bevacizumab group was significant（t=2.9724,17.1937；Plt;0.05）. this experiment show that ultrasound combined bevacizumab intravitreal injection of the therapeutic effect of CNV superior to other groups(Plt;0.01).Conclusion Ultrasound microbubble combined with bevacizumab injection may improve the therapeutic effect on CNV by inhibiting the expression of VEGF.
Due to its irregular shape and varying contour, pancreas segmentation is a recognized challenge in medical image segmentation. Convolutional neural network (CNN) and Transformer-based networks perform well but have limitations: CNN have constrained receptive fields, and Transformer underutilize image features. This work proposes an improved pancreas segmentation method by combining CNN and Transformer. Point-wise separable convolution was introduced in a stage-wise encoder to extract more features with fewer parameters. A densely connected ensemble decoder enabled multi-scale feature fusion, addressing the structural constraints of skip connections. Consistency terms and contrastive loss were integrated into deep supervision to ensure model accuracy. Extensive experiments on the Changhai and National Institute of Health (NIH) pancreas datasets achieved the highest Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) values of 76.32% and 86.78%, with superiority in other metrics. Ablation studies validated each component’s contributions to performance and parameter reduction. Results demonstrate that the proposed loss function smooths training and optimizes performance. Overall, the method outperforms other advanced methods, enhances pancreas segmentation performance, supports physician diagnosis, and provides a reliable reference for future research.
ObjectiveTo assess the image quality and radiation dose of gemstone CT coronary angiography (CCTA) with low tube voltage and low concentration contrast medium.
MethodsSixty-nine patients who underwent CCTA from January to March 2014 were randomly divided into group A and B. CCTA was performed in thirty-four patients in group A with tube voltage of 100 kV and concentration of contrast medium of 300 mgI/mL. And thirty-five patients in group B underwent CCTA with 120 kV and 370 mgI/mL. According to upgrading American Heart Association standard all segments and all vessels were evaluated. We measured the CT value of ascending aortic root, left main coronary artery, and the initial segment of left anterior descending branch, left circumflex, right coronary artery, and also adjacent tissues. Besides, we recorded CT dose volume index (CTDIvol) and the dose length product (DLP) and calculated effective radiation dose.
ResultsThe image quality scores were not significantly different between two groups (P>0.05). The density in the contrast enhanced vessel lumens in group A were signifcantly higher than that in group B (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in signal to noise ratio and carrier to noise ratio between the two groups (P>0.05). Noise in group A was higher than that in group B (P<0.05). The CTDIvol and effective radiation dose in group A were significantly lower than those in group B (P<0.05).
ConclusionThe combination of 100 kV with low concentration contrast medium (300 mgI/mL) still maintains the image quality, as well as significantly lowers the radiation dose and the dose of iodine.
Objective To investigate the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in detection and diagnosis of small primary liver cancer. Methods SonoVue-enhanced ultrasonography were performed on 353 patients with 378 primary liver cancer, less than 3 cm in diameter. Enhancement patterns and enhancement phases of hepatic lesions on contrast-enhanced ultrasonography were analyzed and compared with the results of histopathology. Results In all hepatic tumors, 96.6% （365/378） lesions enhanced in the arterial phase. Among them, 317 (83.9%) tumors enhanced earlier than liver parenchyma and 48 (12.7%) tumors enhanced synchronously with liver parenchyma, and 342 (90.5%) tumors showed early wash-out in the portal and late phases. With regard to the enhancement pattern, 329 (87.0%) tumors presented whole-lesion enhancement, 35 (9.3%) to be mosaic enhancement and 14 (3.7%) to be rim-like enhancement. If taking the whole-lesion enhancement and mosaic enhancement in arterial phase as diagnotic standard for primary liver cancer on contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, the sensitivity was 92.9%(351/378), and if the earlier or synchronous enhancement of the tumor compared with liver parenchyma in arterial phase and the wash-out in portal phase were regarded as the stardand, the sensitivity was 87.3%(330/378). Conclusion Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography could display real-time enhancement patterns as well as the wash-out processes both in hepatic tumors and the liver parenchyma. It might be of clinical value in diagnosis of primary liver cancer based on the hemodynamics of hepatic tumors on contrast-enhanced ultrasonography.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the differential diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) for renal solid space-occupying lesions.
MethodsDatabases including EMbase, PubMed, The Cochrane Library (Issue 11, 2014), CNKI, CBM, VIP and WanFang Data were searched for diagnostic tests about CEUS and CECT for renal solid space-occupying lesions from inception to September, 2014. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed using Meta-Disc 1.4 software.
ResultsA total of 13 studies involving 754 specimens were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that:the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio (combined effect and its 95%CI) in the CEUS group were 0.96 (95%CI 0.94 to 0.97), 0.77 (95%CI 0.70 to 0.83), 3.82 (95%CI 2.93 to 4.97), 0.06 (95%CI 0.04 to 0.10), 64.33 (95%CI 36.79 to 112.51), and in the CECT group were 0.84 (95%CI 0.81 to 0.87), 0.73 (95%CI 0.65 to 0.79), 2.81 (95%CI 2.22 to 3.56), 0.23 (95%CI 0.16 to 0.34), 13.85 (95%CI 6.79 to 28.26). There were significant differences between the CEUS group (0.960 8, 95%CI 0.927 3 to 0.994 3) and the CECT group (0.866 8, 95%CI 0.788 8 to 0.944 8) in the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve (P<0.05). The similar results were observed in cases with small renal tumors≤4 cm (AUC:0.973 7 vs. 0.861 3, P<0.05).
ConclusionCEUS has higher differential diagnostic value than CECT for renal solid space-occupying lesions.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy of statins for contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) prevention in cardiac intervention surgery patients.
MethodsWe electronically searched databases including PubMed, Web of Knowledge, The Cochrane Library (Issue 5, 2015), VIP, WanFang Data and CNKI to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about statins for CIN prevention in cardiac intervention surgery patients from inception to May 2015. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software.
ResultsA total of 25 RCTs involving 37 353 patients were included, among them, 3 794 were CIN patients. The results of meta-analysis indicated that: compared with the placebo/blank group, the incidence rate of CIN was decreased in the statins group with a significant difference (OR=0.68, 95%CI 0.63 to 0.73, P<0.000 01).
ConclusionCurrent evidence shows statins can reduce incidence of CIN in cardiac intervention surgery patients. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, the above conclusions need more high quality studies to verify.
Objective To approach the enhancing patterns of hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) under contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and improve the recognition on diagnosis for FNH by contrast-enhanced ultrasound. Methods The clinical data of 12 patients with histologically proved FNHs having accepted contrast-enhanced ultrasound examination from May 2007 to February 2009 in West China Hospital of Sichuan University were retroptectively analyzed, and related literatures were reviewed. Results All FNHs were rapidly enhanced in arterial phase and spoke-wheel-like sign was detected in 9/12 lesions. Slightly hyper-enhancement or iso-enhancement were showed in 11/12 lesions, while 1/12 lesions showed hypo-enhancement in late phase. Conclusion Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can display the dynamic blood perfusion of FNH, especially spoke-wheel-like arterial flow in early arterial phase, which is of great value for the diagnosis of FNH.
