Objectives:To study the ultrasonogram, diagnosis and significance of testicular microlithiasis (TM). Methods:The clinical data and ultrasonographic outcomes of 97 patients with the genital system diseases were retrospectively analyzed. Results:Five patients with TM were found, and the prevalence of TM is 5.2%. of 5 cases, 2 cases were associated with infertility, 1 cases with orchitis,1 case with seminoma, and 1 case with mature teratoma. Three cases with varicocele,2 cases with atrophic testis, 1 case with hydrocele and 1 case with spermatocele, were found out with the use of a high frequency transducer. The sonographic appearance of TM is multiple tiny(1-3 mm),no acoustic shadowing hyperechoic foci that are randomly scattered throughout the testicular parenchyma. Conclusions:Testicular microlithiasis has been associated with a variety of clinical entities, and it is an uncommon condition in which calcified concretions fill the lumen of seminiferous tubule, commonly diagnosed by high frequency (5～10 MHz ) testicular ultrasound. The accepted standard of TM is multiple small nonshadowing hyperechoic foci up to 3 mm in size, with five or more evident on a single sonogram.

ABSTRACT:In recent years ,there has been high prevalence of murine typhus in Yunnan Province ,People's Republic of China .A large outbreak of murine typhus occurred in Xishuangbanna Prefecture ,Yunnan Province in 2010 .However ,not all cases were confirmed by laboratory assays ;therefore ,field epidemiologic and laboratory investigations of murine typhus in Xishuangbanna Prefecture were conducted in 2011 .Blood samples were collected from clinical diagnostic cases at the acute and convalescence stages of murine typhus in Xishuangbanna Prefecture ,Yunnan Province ,from June to September of 2011 ,and blood and spleen samples were collected from mice sharing the same habitats as the patients .Immunofluorescence assays were used to test for the presence of IgM and IgG antibodies against Rickettsia typhi in sera from patients and mice .Real‐time PCR was used to detect the groEL gene of R .typhi in blood clots from patients at the acute stage and in spleen tissue from mice .A total of 1 157 clinically diagnosed murine typhus cases occurred in Xishuangbanna Prefecture ,Yunnan Province in 2011 ,with an incidence of 102 .10/100 000 .Of these cases ,80 were investigated by laboratory assays and 74 of 80 patients were confirmed to have murine typhus .The coincidence rate between the clinical diagnosis and laboratory detection was 92 .50% .The positivi‐ty rate for IgG antibodies against R .typhi was 14 .0% (14/100) for Rattus f lavipectus ,while the rate by PCR was 9 .0%(9/100) .That laboratory diagnoses confirmed that the severity of the murine typhus outbreak in Xishuangbanna cannot be ig‐nored .The distribution of host animals transmitting R .typhi underscores this conclusion .