Objective To discuss the clinical value of susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) in the brain vascular malformations. Methods Imaging data of 34 patients with brain vascular malformations proved by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) or pathology obtained on Siemens Sonata 1.5T MR system were studied prospectively, and compared with those of conventional MRI (cMRI) and SWI. Results All 41 lesions of 34 patients with brain vascular malformations showed clearly by SWI. These patients were diagnosed by surgical findings or DSA. These nidus comprised 19 cavernous angiomas, 9 arteriovenous malformations and 6 cerebral venous malformations. Conclusion SWI should be used for clinical diagnosis of brain vascular malformations, and providing more complete and detailed information combining with other sequence.

Objective To explore the prognosis of mild hypothermia treatment in cases of severe traumatic brain injuries(sTBI),improve the knowledge of mild hypothermia treatment on brain injuries.Methods Cases were divided into 2 groups:mild hypothermia treatment group and control group.Mild hypothermia was applied to the cases of sTBI in mild hypothermia group.The prognosis was divided into five grades such as good recovery(GR),moderate disability(MD),severe disability(SD),persisted vegetative state(PVS)and death(D).Results In mild hypothermia group,there were 20 GR cases,5 MD,2 SD and 3 D cases,while in control group,there were 14 GR cases,9 MD,4 SD and 3 D cases.Conclusion Mild hypothermia treatment can improve the prognosis of sTBI.

OBJECTIVETo perform a comparative assessment of the performance of FibroTouch and FibroScan in patients with hepatitis B.

METHODSA total of 211 patients with hepatitis B, including cases of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and of compensated cirrhosis, were enrolled for study between June and November of 2013. The patients underwent FibroScan testing (group 1) and FibroTouch testing (group 3), after which the operator examined a time motion ultrasound image from the FibroScan test and located a specific liver portion for focused FibroTouch testing (group 2). The consistency between the two tests' results was investigated by Pearson's correlation analysis, and the difference of liver stiffness between CHB patients and compensated cirrhosis patients was investigated by the two independent samples t-test or Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULTSThe values of liver stiffness were 5.30 (4.30,8.65) in group 1,6.10 (4.70,8.90) in group 2, and 5.70 (4.50, 8.00) in group 3 (all P < 0.05); the Pearson correlation coefficients were all more than 0.8 (P < 0.05) and there was no statistically significant difference found between the results from FibroScan and FibroTouch.The values of liver stiffness were significantly different between the CHB patients and the compensated cirrhosis patients (P < 0.05). The rates of successful detection were 100% for FibroTouch and 97% for FibroScan.

CONCLUSIONFibroTouch and FibroScan have good consistency in the evaluation of the degree of liver fibrosis. FibroTouch has a higher rate of successful detection than FibroScan.

Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; pathology ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; diagnosis

Background/Aims: Existing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prediction models are derived mainly from pretreatment or early on-treatment parameters. We reassessed the dynamic changes in the performance of 17 HCC models in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) during long-term antiviral therapy (AVT). Methods: Among 987 CHB patients administered long-term entecavir therapy, 660 patients had 8 years of follow-up data. Model scores were calculated using on-treatment values at 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, and 5 years of AVT to predict threeyear HCC occurrence. Model performance was assessed with the area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC). The original model cutoffs to distinguish different levels of HCC risk were evaluated by the log-rank test. Results: The AUROCs of the 17 HCC models varied from 0.51 to 0.78 when using on-treatment scores from years 2.5 to 5. Models with a cirrhosis variable showed numerically higher AUROCs (pooled at 0.65–0.73 for treated, untreated, or mixed treatment models) than models without (treated or mixed models: 0.61–0.68; untreated models: 0.51–0.59). Stratification into low, intermediate, and high-risk levels using the original cutoff values could no longer reflect the true HCC incidence using scores after 3.5 years of AVT for models without cirrhosis and after 4 years of AVT for models with cirrhosis. Conclusions The performance of existing HCC prediction models, especially models without the cirrhosis variable, decreased in CHB patients on long-term AVT. The optimization of existing models or the development of novel models for better HCC prediction during long-term AVT is warranted.