Objective To study the clinical significance of combined routine ultrasound and ultrasound elastography in diagnosing thyroid microcarcinoma so as to facilitate the diagnoses of the thyroid diseases of the pilot.Methods Totally 284 thyroid nodules with the sizes less than 1 cm underwent routine ultrasound and ultrasound elastography examinations from June 2013 to June 2016.Results There were 221 benign nodules (77.8％) and 63 malignant ones (22.2％) confirmed by FNAC cytological,surgical and pathological examinations.Of the 63 malignant nodules,there were 60 cases of thyroid papillary carcinoma,one case of follicular carcinoma and two cases of medullary carcinoma.There was significant difference between the strain ratios of the benign and malignant nodules (P＜0.05),the ultrasound elastography scores of the benign nodules were statistically different from those of the malignant nodules (P＜0.05).The sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of ultrasound elastography were 90.3％,83.2％ and 86.9％ respectively when used to diagnose the thyroid nodule with the size less than 1 cm.Conclusion Routine ultrasound combined with ultrasound elastography can improve the diagnosis accuracy of small thyroid cancer,and is of great significance in early diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer of the pilot.

Objective To assess the left atrial early function in pilots with essential hypertension by strian rate imaging (SRI). Methods Twenty-five hypertensive pilots without left ventricular hypertrophy and expansion (LVN) were selected. Twenty-ifve healthy pilots were included as control group. At the left ventricular apical four-chamber view, three-chamber view, two-chamber view, the systolic, early and late diastolic peak strain rate (SRs, SRe, SRa) curves were acquired by SRI in the basal section, the middle section and the upper section of the wall of left atrium. The average strain rate (mSRs, mSRe, mSRa) was calculated. The LA maximal, minimal and pre-systolic volume (LAVmax , LAVmin and LAVp), LA passive ejection fraction (LAPEF), LA active ejection fraction (LAAEF) , left atrial stroke volume (LASV), E/A and E/E′ were calculated. Results The LAPEF, LAAEF, LASV, E/A, E/E′were (38.96±6.43)%, (61.11±5.86)%, (14.74±5.33)mm, 1.23±0.08, 8.63±1.77 in the control group, and were (34.18±5.72)%, (63.23±6.89)%, (10.12±3.23)mm, 1.04±0.26, 7.16±0.84 in the study group. Compared with the control group, signiifcant difference was detect in LAPEF, LAAEF, LASV, E/E′(t=4.840, 2.690, 4.801, 2.950, all P<0.05). No signiifcant difference was found in E/A between the study and control group (t=-1.424, P=0.178). There was signiifcant positive correlation between SRa and E/E′(r=0.632, P<0.05). Conclusion SRI could be applied in the evaluation of early left atrial function. In pilots with essential hypertension, the changes of strain rate in left atrial wall, which is prior to the modeling geometry of left ventricular, could be detected by SRI.