Segmentation Method of Breast Masses on Ultrasonographic Images Using Level Set Method Based on Statistical Model

It is important to segment mass region accurately in a computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) scheme for evaluating the likelihood of malignancy of the mass on ultrasonographic breast image. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel level set method for segmentation of breast mass on ultrasonographic image. Our database consisted of 151 ultrasonographic images with 70 malignant and 81 benign breast masses. In a novel level set method, an energy function was defined with region-based, edge-based, and regularizing terms. The region-based term analyzed global information, whereas the edge-based term analyzed local information. The regularizing term also controlled the length of the boundary curve. The region of breast mass was segmented so that the energy based on those terms was minimized. With our proposed method, true positive (TP) ratio, false positive (FP) ratio, jaccard similarity (JS), and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) were 92.2%, 9.1%, 84.2%, and 91.3%, respectively. These results tended to be substantially higher than those with two conventional segmentation methods. Our proposed method based on the novel level set method was shown to segment mass region accurately on ultrasonographic breast image.

Computerized Scheme for Histological Classification of Masses with Architectural Distortions in Ultrasonographic Images

Architectural distortion is an important ultrasonographic indicator of breast cancer. However, it is difficult for clinicians to determine whether a given lesion is malignant because such distortions can be subtle in ultrasonographic images. In this paper, we report on a study to develop a computerized scheme for the histological classification of masses with architectural distortions as a differential diagnosis aid. Our database consisted of 72 ultrasonographic images obtained from 47 patients whose masses had architectural distortions. This included 51 malignant (35 invasive and 16 non-invasive carcinomas) and 21 benign masses. In the proposed method, the location of the masses and the area occupied by them were first determined by an experienced clinician. Fourteen objective features concerning masses with architectural distortions were then extracted automatically by taking into account subjective features commonly used by experienced clinicians to describe such masses. The k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) rule was finally used to distinguish three histological classifications. The proposed method yielded classification accuracy values of 91.4% (32/35) for invasive carcinoma, 75.0% (12/16) for noninvasive carcinoma, and 85.7% (18/21) for benign mass, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity values were 92.2% (47/51) and 85.7% (18/21), respectively. The positive predictive values (PPV) were 88.9% (32/36) for invasive carcinoma and 85.7% (12/14) for noninvasive carcinoma whereas the negative predictive values (NPV) were 81.8% (18/22) for benign mass. Thus, the proposed method can help the differential diagnosis of masses with architectural distortions in ultrasonographic images.

Place of Ultrasonographic in Screening Brain Lesions in Premature Newborn at Cotonou

Goal: The goal of this study is to define the epidemiological profile and identify the different brain lesions diagnosed in ultrasonography in preterm infants in Benin environment. Patients and methods: It is a prospective cross-sectional study of analytical aiming. It took place over a period of 6 months, from May 1st to October 31st, 2012 at the National Hospital University Centre Koutoukou Hubert Maga in neonatal units and medical scanning unit. It covered 105 premature newborn, classified into the very prematurity and the moderate prematurity. Results: The very premature represented 35.2% and the moderate premature 64.8%, with an average of 33.5% and 1.9 of standard deviation. The average age when implementing ultrasonographic transfontanellar was 7.2 ± 4.6 days old. The lowest birth weight was observed in very premature with p = 0.0025. The nasopharyngeal septum pellucidum was the most found lesions in 46 preterm infants (43.8%) with no statistically significantly difference in two groups, followed by the ventricular haemorrhage found in 21 preterm infants accounting for 20%, and the grade 1 or sub-ependymal haemorrhage prevailed in 14 premature accounting for 66.7%, afterward periventricular leukomalacia in 4 premature infants and hydrocephalus in 2 premature. Conclusion: The nasopharyngeal septum pellucidum and the sub-ependymal ventricular haemorrhage were the predominant anomalies in premature infants followed by leukomalacia.

超声造影对甲状腺可疑结节的定性诊断价值

目的探讨超声造影对不同病理类型甲状腺可疑结节的诊断价值。方法对358例患者424个甲状腺结节行超声造影检查,给予超声造影后定性诊断结果,以术后病理结果为金标准,对超声造影诊断结果与病理结果进行对比,应用χ2检验,对比良、恶性结节不同病理类型的诊断有无差异。结果 (1)超声造影对甲状腺结节良恶性诊断的灵敏度85.3%,特异度为65.4%,阳性预测值为91.6%,阴性预测值为50.0%,诊断符合率为81.6%。(2)恶性结节中甲状腺乳头状癌超声造影诊断符合率为92.2%,误诊率为7.8%;甲状腺微小乳头状癌诊断符合率为91.4%,误诊率为8.6%;结甲并乳头状癌诊断符合率为53.8%,误诊率为46.2%;桥本氏甲状腺炎并乳头状癌诊断符合率为72.7%,误诊率为27.3%,χ2=45.700,不同病理类型甲状腺恶性结节的超声造影诊断有显著差异,并且其差异具有统计学意义(P<0.01)。(3)良性结节中结节性甲状腺肿诊断符合率为66.7%,误诊率为33.3%;结节性甲状腺肿合并胶原变、纤维化或乳头状增生诊断符合率为71.7%,误诊率28.3%;桥本氏甲状腺炎诊断符合率为42.9%,误诊率为57.1%,χ2值为3.973,不同病理类型甲状腺良性结节的超声造影诊断的差异不具有统计学意义(P>0.05)。结论超声造影对于甲状腺乳头状癌、微小乳头状癌及桥本背景下的乳头状癌诊断符合率较高,误诊率较低,对于结甲合并乳头状癌的诊断符合率较低,误诊率较高,不同病理类型甲状腺良性结节的超声造影诊断无明显差异。

Silymarin in non alcoholic fatty liver disease

AIM: This study was undertaken to evaluate the hepatic effects of silybum marianum on non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). METHODS: In 72 patients affected by NAFLD, main metabolic, hepatic and anti-inflammatory parameters were assayed after 3 mo of a restricted diet and before silymarin treatment (twice a day orally). The brightness of liver echography texture (hepatorenal ratio brightness) was also defined at same time. These evaluations were repeated after 6 mo of treatment. RESULTS: Serum levels of some metabolic and anti-inflammatory data nonsignificantly lowered after 6 mo of silymarin. On the contrary, Steato test, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase were significantly (P < 0.001) reduced. Instead, the AST/ALT ratio unchanged. Finally, the hepatorenal brightness ratio, as an index of hepatic steatosis, significantly (P < 0.05) dropped. CONCLUSION: The obtained results indicate that silymarin appears to be effective to reduce the biochemical, inflammatory and ultrasonic indices of hepatic steatosis. Some parameters indicative of early stage of atherosclerosis were also lowered.

Elevated alanine aminotransferase activity is not associated with dyslipidemias,but related to insulin resistance and higher disease grades in non-diabetic non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Objective:To explore demographic and metabolic factors associated with increased alanine aminotransferase(ALT)activity in non-diabetic non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)patients.Methods:Overall 372 patients who consecutively attended to Gastroenterology Clinic of Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences,Tehran,Iran awere diagnosed as NAFLD entered into analysis.Exclusion criteria were having diabetes mellitus and fasting blood glucose over126 mg/dL,active hepatitis B virus infection,having hepatitis C virus positive serology,and to be under corticosteroid therapy.ALT levels were considered pathologically high when it was over30 IU/L for men and over 19 IU/L for women.Results:Bivariate analyses using t test and chisquare test showed that patients with pathologically augmented ALT levels had significantly higher NAFLD grades in their ultrasonographic evaluations(P=0.003).Moreover,these patients represented significantly higher homeostatic model assessment levels(P=0.003),levels of serum insulin(P=0.002),fasting blood glucose(P<0.001),and uric acid(P=0.02).The prevalence of insulin resistance was also higher in patients with increased serum ALT concentrations.Multifactorial logistic regression models showed that ultrasonographic grading of NAFLD(P=0.027)and insulin resistance(P=0.013)were the only variables significantly associated with abnormal ALT levels.Conclusions:This study shows that the associations of increased ALT serum levels in NAFLD patients are different from what are supposed before.By excluding diabetic patients from our population,we find that increased ALT levels are not associated with dyslipidemias but are independently associated with insulin resistance and NAFLD grading on ultrasonographic evaluations.Further studies are needed to confirm our results.

Current status and future applications of contrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasonography

Endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS) is currently an in-tegral investigation of many gastrointestinal disorders.It has been shown to have a higher efficacy thanconventional computed tomography in detection andcharacterization of small lesions especially in the pan-creas. Much effort has been put to further improvethe sensitivity, specificity and overall accuracy of EUS.One of the major advances is the utilization of contrastagents for better delineation of the vascularity and tis-sue perfusion of the target lesion. This article describesthe basic principles of ultrasound contrast agents andthe different modalities used in contrast-enhanced EUS(CE-EUS) including contrast-enhanced Doppler EUS(CED-EUS) and contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS(CEH-EUS). In addition, the current applications of contrastenhanced EUS in different gastrointestinal conditionswere discussed. Furthermore, the future developmentof hybrid approaches combining CE-EUS with other im-aging modalities and the potential therapeutic aspectof using it as a vector for drug delivery were also dis-cussed.

Comparison of outcomes between complete and incomplete congenital duodenal obstruction

BACKGROUND Congenital duodenal obstruction (CDO) can be complete (CCDO) or incomplete (ICDO). To date there is no outcome analysis available that compares both subtypes. AIM To quantify and compare the association between CCDO and ICDO with outcome parameters. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed all patients who underwent operative repair of CCDO or ICDO in our tertiary care institution between January 2004 and January 2017. The demographics, clinical presentation, preoperative diagnostics and postoperative outcomes of 50 patients were compared between CCDO (n = 27;atresia type 1-3, annular pancreas) and ICDO (n=23;annular pancreas, web, Ladd′s bands). RESULTS In total, 50 patients who underwent CDO repair were enrolled and followed for a median of 5.2 and 3.9 years (CCDO and ICDO, resp.). CCDO was associated with a significantly higher prenatal ultrasonographic detection rate (88% versus 4%;CCDO vs ICDO, P<0.01), lower gestational age at birth, lower age and weight at operation, higher rate of associated congenital heart disease (CHD), more extensive preoperative radiologic diagnostics, higher morbidity according to Clavien-Dindo classification and comprehensive complication index (all P≤0.01). The subgroup analysis of patients without CHD and prematurity showed a longer time from operation to the initiation of enteral feeds in the CCDO group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION CCDO and ICDO differ with regard to prenatal detection rate, gestational age, age and weight at operation, rate of associated CHD, preoperative diagnostics and morbidity. The degree of CDO in mature patients without CHD influences the postoperative initiation of enteral feeding.

Preeclampsia: Definitions, screening tools and diagnostic criteria in the supersonic era

Preeclampsia is still a major risk factor for maternal-fetal health. Therefore, early identifcation of pregnant women at risk for preeclampsia is a big priority in ob-stetrics in order to decrease the mortality and morbidity associated with this disease. On the basis of well known and new pathophysiological mechanisms of preeclamp-sia, different biochemical and ultrasonographic param-eters have been investigated in the literature, without fnding an ideal marker for early screening. In this brief review, we present the best studied ultrasonographic markers and the most recent genetic factors and prom-ising emerging biomarkers of preeclampsia, to date. We hope that in the future the combination of these tests will allow us to predict which women are at risk of preeclampsia.