THE USEFULNESS OF ^(99)Tc-PMT DELAYED HEPATOBILIARY IMAGING IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF SMALL HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA

This investigation was aimed to assess the usefulness of delayed hepalobillary Imaging in the diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Sixty-two patients with this hepatic cancer were Included in the study. 56 males and 6 females, with a mean age of 50. 6 yr. (32 - 72 years old). All patients were performed by surgery, verified histologically, and these tumors were smaller than 5 cm. Liver scans were performed 5 minutes, 2 hours and 5 hours after the administration of radlopharmaceutices. In 31 of the 62 patients (50%), the tumor exhibited equal radioactivity uptake or greater radioactivity uptake than the surrounding liver in delayed imaging. And the sensitivity was 33. 3% (2/6), 41.2% (7/17), 60.0% (9/15) and 54.2% (13/24) In the tumor size was ≤2 cm, 2-3cm, 3-4 cm and 4 - 5 cm, respectively. The smallest mass to be detected was only 1. 2 cm. The uptake of radiopharmaceutic was nonsignificantly related to serum AFP level and hepatic cirrhosis (P>0. 05). These results show that 99-Tc-PMT delayed hepatobiliary imaging can be useful in the diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma.

Using receiver operating characteristic curves to evaluate the diagnostic value of the combination of multislice spiral CT and alpha-fetoprotein levels for small hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients

BACKGROUND： The various combination of multiphase enhancement multislice spiral CT （MSCT） makes the diagno- sis of a small hepatocellular carcinoma （sHCC） on the back- ground of liver cirrhosis possible. This study was to explore whether the combination of MSCT enhancement scan and alpha-fetoprotein （AFP） level ficiency for sHCC. could increase the diagnostic ef- METHODS： This study included 35 sHCC patients and 52 cir- rhotic patients without image evidence of HCC as a control group. The diagnoses were made by three radiologists em- ploying a 5-point rating scale, with postoperative pathologic results as the gold standard. Receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diag- nostic value of the three MSCT combination modes （arterial phase＋portal-venous phase, arterial phase＋delayed phase, arterial phase＋portal-venous phase＋delayed phase） and AFP levels for sHCC on the background of liver cirrhosis. RESULTS： The area under ROC curve （AUC）, sensitivity, and specificity of the combination of arterial phase＋portal- venous phase＋delayed phase were 0.93, 93%, and 82%, respectively. The average AUC of the arterial phase＋portal- venous phase＋delayed phase combination was significantly greater than that of the arterial phase＋portal-venous phase （AUC=0.84, P=0.01） and arterial phase＋delayed phase （AUC=0.85, P=0.03）. Arterial phase＋portal-venous phase had a smaller AUC （0.84） than arterial phase＋delayed phase （0.85）, but the difference was insignificant （P=0.15）. After combining MSCT enhancement scan with AFP, the AUC, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.95, 94%, and 83%, respectively, indicating a greatly increased diagnostic efficiency for sHCC. CONCLUSIONS： The combination of AFP and 3 phases MSCT enhancement scan could increase the diagnostic efficiency for sHCC on the background of liver cirrhosis. The application of ROC curve analysis has provided a new method and reference in HCC diagnosis.

Delayed range-gating super-resolution imaging lidar with high accuracy

We present a range-gating delayed detection super-resolution imaging Iidar with high accuracy based on the signal intensities of three consecutive delay samples. The system combines the range and signal intensity information from multi-pulse detections to calculate the pulse peak position under the assumption of a Gaussian pulse shape. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm effectively calculates pulse peak position and exhibits excellent accuracy with super-resolution. Accuracy analysis shows that accuracy is best improved by enhancing signal-to-noise ratio, strategically selecting samples, reducing pulse width, and appropriately choosing the delayed periods between samples.

Magnetic resonance imaging for non-invasive clinical evaluation of normal and regenerated cartilage

With the development of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine,it is much desired to establish bioimaging techniques to monitor the real-time regeneration efficacy in vivo in a non-invasive way.Herein,we tried magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)to evaluate knee cartilage regeneration after implanting a biomaterial scaffold seeded with chondrocytes,namely,matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation(MACI).After summary of the T2 mapping and the T1-related delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI imaging of cartilage(dGEMRIC)in vitro and in vivo in the literature,these two MRI techniques were tried clinically.In this study,18 patients were followed up for 1 year.It was found that there was a significant difference between the regeneration site and the neighboring normal site(control),and the difference gradually diminished with regeneration time up to 1 year according to both the quantitative T1 and T2 MRI methods.We further established the correlation between the quantitative evaluation of MRI and the clinical Lysholm scores for the first time.Hence,the MRI technique was confirmed to be a feasible semiquantitative yet non-invasive way to evaluate the in vivo regeneration of knee articular cartilage.

Myocardial fibrosis detection in arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy by 3. 0T magnetic resonance imaging

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is characterized by fibro-fatty replacement of the right ventricle.However,the feasibility and significance of myocardial fibrosis detec-ted by delayed enhancement (DE) using 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in.ARVD /C is seldomly studied.Methods Twenty-seven consecutive patients were prospectively evaluated for ARVD /C.Magnetic reso-nance imaging was performed on a 3.0T scanner.Ten minutes after intravenous administration of 0.2 mmol /kg of gadodiamide,DE-MRI was obtained.Diagnosis of ARVD /C was based upon the Task Force criteria and in-cluded MRI findings.Results Seventeen(59% ) of 27 patients met the Task Force criteria for ARVD /C.Right ven-tricle DE was found in all (100% ) ARVD /C patients compared with none (0%) of the 10 patients without ARVD /C (P <0.001) .Additional left ventricular DE was found in 8/17 ARVD/C patients while without left ventricular mor-phological and functional abnormalities detected by echocardiography or MRI.Conclusions DE using 3.0T MRI could effectively detect myocardial fibrosis in the right and left ventricular myocardium in ARVD /C patients.Detection of myocardial fibrosis may have an important clinical significance in ARVD/C diagnosis.Histological left ventricle in-volvement may be easily missed by echocardiography.