Ultrasonic elastography in clinical quantitative assessment of fatty liver

AIM: To investigate the clinical application of ultrasonic elastography in quantitative assessment of fatty liver grading. METHODS: A total of 105 patients with fatty liver were divided into mild group (n = 46), moderate group (n = 39), and severe group (n = 20). Forty-five healthy individuals served as a normal control group. All patients who underwent routine ultrasound scan and further ultrasonic elastography were evaluated accordingly to the evaluation standards for ultrasonic elastography. The ratio of surface areas of blue region/total surface area in the desired region was measured. RESULTS: Ultrasonic elastography technique, in comparison to traditional ultrasound, had a rather high consistence in grading of fatty liver [κ value = (95.3%63.6%)/(1%-63.6%) = 0.87, P = 0.001]. The score of ultrasonic elastography increased with the severity of fatty liver with a sensitivity of 97.14% and a specificity of 91.11%. A significant difference was found in the ratio of surface areas of blue regions between different groups (P < 0.05).CONCLUSION: Ultrasonic elastography can be used in quantitative assessment of the severity of fatty liver.

Urban Impact on Landfalling Tropical Cyclone Precipitation:A Numerical Study of Typhoon Rumbia(2018)

Coastal urban areas are prone to serious disasters caused by landfalling tropical cyclones(TCs). Despite the crucial role of urban forcing in precipitation, how fine-scale urban features impact landfalling TC precipitation remains poorly understood. In this study, high-resolution ensemble simulations of Typhoon Rumbia(2018), which crossed the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, were conducted to analyze the potential urban impact on TC precipitation. Results show that the inner-core rainfall of Rumbia is strengthened by approximately 10% due to the urban impact near the landfall,whereas minor differences in outer-core rainfall are found when the urban impact is excluded. Further diagnostic analyses indicate that low-level upward motion is crucial for precipitation evolution, as both co-vary during landfall. Moreover, the frictionally induced upward motion plays a decisive role in enhancing the rainfall when the urban impacts are included.Urban surface friction can decelerate the tangential wind and therefore destroy the gradient balance and strengthen the radial wind within the boundary layer and thus can enhance upward motion. This study demonstrates that urban surface friction and related physical processes make the most significant contribution to landfalling TC rainfall enhancement.

Investigation on the automatic parameters extraction of pulse signals based on wavelet transform

This paper analyses a key problem in the quantification of pulse diagnosis. Due to the subjectivity and fuzziness of pulse diagnosis,quantitative methods are needed. To extract the parameters of pulse signals,the prerequisite is to detect the corners of pulse signals correctly. Up to now,the pulse parameters are mostly acquired by marking the pulse corners manually,which is an obstacle to modernize pulse diagnosis. Therefore,a new automatic parameters extraction approach for pulse signals using wavelet transform is presented. The results testified that the method we proposed is feasible and effective and can detect corners of pulse signals accurately,which can be expected to facilitate the modernization of pulse diagnosis.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging for intestinal lymphoma

BACKGROUND Intestinal lymphoma is a rare tumor.Contrast-enhanced ultrasound(CEUS)findings of intestinal lymphoma have not been reported previously,and the relationship between CEUS and clinicopathological features and prognostic factors is still unknown.AIM To describe the B-mode US and CEUS features of intestinal lymphoma and investigate the correlation of CEUS and histopathological features.METHODS This was a single-center retrospective study.Eighteen patients with histologically confirmed intestinal lymphoma underwent B-mode US and CEUS examinations between October 2016 and November 2019.We summarized the features of Bmode US and CUES imaging of intestinal lymphoma and compared the frequency of tumor necrosis in intestinal lymphomas with reference to different pathological subtypes(aggressive or indolent)and clinical stage(early or advanced).The time–intensity curve parameters of CEUS were also compared between patients with normal and elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase.RESULTS In B-mode imaging,four patterns were observed in intestinal lymphoma:Mass type(12/18,66.7%),infiltration type(1/18,5.6%),mesentery type(4/18,22.2%)and mixed type(1/18,5.6%).All cases were hypoechoic and no cystic areas were detected.On CEUS,most cases(17/18,94.4%)showed arterial hyperechoic enhancement.All cases showed arterial enhancement followed by venous wash out.A relatively high rate of tumor necrosis(11/18,61.1%)was observed in this study.Tumor necrosis on CEUS was more frequent in aggressive subtypes(10/13,76.9%)than in indolent subtypes(1/5,20.0%)(P=0.047).There were no correlations between tumor necrosis and lesion size and Ann Arbor stage.There was no significant difference in time–intensity curve parameters between normal and elevated lactate dehydrogenase groups.CONCLUSION B-mode US and CEUS findings of intestinal lymphoma are characteristic.We observed a high rate of tumor necrosis,which appeared more frequently in aggressive pathological subtypes of intestinal lymphoma.

A model for automatic identification of human pulse signals

This paper presents a quantitative method for automatic identification of human pulse signals. The idea is to start with the extraction of characteristic parameters and then to construct the recognition model based on Bayesian networks. To identify depth, frequency and rhythm, several parameters are proposed. To distinguish the strength and shape, which cannot be represented by one or several parameters and are hard to recognize, the main time-domain feature parameters are computed based on the feature points of the pulse signal. Then the extracted parameters are taken as the input and five models for automatic pulse signal identification are constructed based on Bayesian networks. Experimental results demonstrate that the method is feasible and effective in recognizing depth, frequency, rhythm, strength and shape of pulse signals, which can be expected to facilitate the modernization of pulse diagnosis.

QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF AgNOR IN DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS BETWEEN NON-HODGKIN'S LYMPHOMA AND REACTIVE HYPERPLASIA

The argyrophilic staining technique was used in differential diagnosis between non-odgkin's lymphoraa (NHL) and reactive hyperplasia (RH) of lymphatic tissues in 30 cases of RH and 71 cases of NHL which were classified as low (11 cases), moderate (49 cases) and high malignant (11 cases) groups. The mumber and the area of Ag nucleolar organizer region (AgNORs) in 100 cells of each case were examined by both IBAS-200 cytoimage analyser and microscope. The results showed that there was significant difference in the number, but not in area, of AgNOR granules between RH and low malignant group of NHL (P< 0.001). In NHL, the significant differences in the number and area of AgNORs were found between each groups (P<0.05 or P< 0.001). It was also observed that in NHL, the number of AgNOR was negatively correlated with the area of the granules, and the shapes and distribution patterns of AgNOR were significantly different between each groups. Our results suggest that the quantitative study of AgNOR combining with the histological characteristics is very helpful in the differential diagnosis of RH and NHL and in the classification of NHL.

Improving accuracy of damage quantification based on two-level consistency control of PZT layers

Structural health monitoring-based quantitative damage diagnosis technique plays a key role in real-time condition monitoring.Among the current research,piezoelectric(PZT)sensor and Guided Wave(GW)based damage quantification methods are promising,which normally establish a calibration model between GW feature and damage degree by experiments on batch specimens,and then conduct the calibration model on the monitored specimen.However,the accuracy of PZT and GW based damage quantification is affected by dispersion introduced by sensor network performance,structural material,and damage propagation among the adopted batch specimens.For improving the accuracy of damage quantification,this paper adopts PZT layer as sensor network and creatively implements theoretical and experimental research on batch PZT layers consistency control.On one hand,a two-level consistency control method based on multidimensional features-Euclidean distance is proposed to ensure the performance consistency of PZT layers placed on different specimens.On the other hand,experimental research on typical aircraft lug structures is also carried out to evaluate the requirement on performance consistency of PZT layers when performing quantitative damage diagnosis,and further verify the proposed two-level consistency control method.Experimental results show that the accuracy of damage quantification raises by 38% when the dispersion of different PZT layers is controlled within 5%.

Logistic Regression Analysis of Damp-Heat and Cold Damp Impeding Syndrome of Rheumatoid Arthritis:A Perspective in Chinese Medicine

Objective： To investigate a method for quantitative differential diagnosis of damp-heat and cold-damp impeding syndrome of rheumatoid arthritis （RA） in Chinese medicine （CM）. Methods： Laboratory parameters were collected from 306 patients with RA. The clinical symptoms and laboratory parameters were compared between patients with these two syndromes （158 with RA of damp-heat impeding syndrome, and 148 with RA of cold-damp impeding syndrome）, and a regression equation was established to facilitate discrimination of the two RA syndromes. Results： There were significant differences in disease activity score in 28 joints [DAS28 （4）], erythrocyte sedimentation rate （ESR）, white blood cell count （WBC）, C-reactive protein （CRP）, platelet count （PLT）, albumin （ALB） and globulin （GLB） between the two syndrome of RA （P〈0.05）. Logistic regression analysis showed that the parameters ESR, WBC, CRP, joint pyrexia, joint cold, thirst, sweating, aversion to wind and cold, and cold extremities were statistically useful to discriminate damp-heat from cold-damp impeding syndrome. The regression equation was as follows： P=1/{1＋exp[-（3.0-0.021X1-0.196X2-0.163X3- 1.559X4＋1.504X5-0.927X6-1.039X7＋1.070X8＋1.330X9）]}. The independent variables X1-X9 were ESR, WBC, CRP, hot joint, cold joint, thirst, sweating, aversion to wind and cold, and cold limbs. A P value 〉 0.5 signified cold-damp impeding syndrome, and a P value 〈 0.5 signified damp-heat impeding syndrome. The accuracy was 90.2%. Conclusion： The regression equation may be useful for discriminating damp-heat from cold-damp impeding syndrome of RA.