Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of computed tomography (CT) histogram analysis for thyroid malignant solitary coarse calcification nodules (MSCN).Methods A total of 89 thyroid solitary coarse calcification nodules (coarse calcification ≥5 mm,no definite soft tissue around calcification) confirmed either by surgery or histopathological examination in 86 patients enrolled in this study from Jan.2009 to Dec.2015 were evaluated,including 33 MSCN from 32 patients and 56 benign solitary coarse calcification nodules (BSCN) from 56 patients.Overall,27 cut-off values were calculated by N (4 ≤ N ≤ 30) times of 50 Hounsfield units (HU) in the range of 200 HU to 1500 HU,and each cut-off value and the differences in the corresponding area percentages in the CT histogram were recorded for MSCN and BSCN.The optimal cut-off value and the corresponding area percentage were established by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.Results In the 24 groups with an ROC area under the curve (AUC) of more than 0.7,at a cut-off value of 1150 HU and at an area percentage of no less than 98.4％,the ROC AUC reached a maximum of 0.86,and the accuracy,sensitivity,and specificity were 70.8％,93.9％,and 57.1％,respectively.At a cut-off value of 450 HU and at an area percentage of no less than 46.3％,the accuracy,sensitivity,and specificity were 76.4％,48.5％,and 92.9％,respectively.At a cut-off value of 550 HU and at an area percentage of no less than 81.5％,the accuracy,sensitivity,and specificity were 75.3％,33.3％,and 100％,respectively.Conclusions In comparison with the cut-off value of 1150 HU with an area percentage of no less than 98.4％,the sensitivities for the cut-off value of 450 HU with an area percentage of no less than 46.3％ and for the cut-off value of 550 HU with an area percentage of no less than 81.5％ were lower;however,the specificities increased significantly,providing an important basis for reducing the misdiagnosis of MSCN.

Objective To explore the value of ultrasound gray scale ratio (UGSR) in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC) with different sizes.Methods A retrospective study was made in 702 patients with 1107 nodules which were confirmed by surgery in the Department of Oncology or fineneedle aspiration of HangZhou First people's Hospital,Zhejiang University of medical school from Jan.2016 to Oct.2017.All the thyroid nodules were divided into three groups:D≤ 1 cm group,1＜D≤2 cm group and ＞2 cm group according to their sizes.The UGSR of the PTC and NG were obtained through the RAD info system.Their differences were analyzed and ROC was established to confirm the optimal threshold in the differential diagnosis between PTC and NG among the groups.Results There were 483 PTC and 624 NG in this study.The UGSR of D≤ 1 cm group,1＜D≤2 cm group and ＞2 cm group of PTC and NG were (0.48±0.12) vs (0.76±0.22)(t=33.21,P=0.00);(0.52±0.17) vs(0.80±0.21)(t=1.30,P=0.00) and (0.63±0.20) vs(0.89±0.24)(t=3.58,P=0.00) respectively.The area under the ROC of UGSR in the differentiation of PTC and NG in the three groups were 0.873,0.840 and 0.811 respectively.The Youden indexes were greatest (0.631,0.536 and 0.535 respectively),when the cut-offs of the UGSR were 0.682,0.652 and 0.831 respectively.The sensitivity and specificity to diagnose PTC were 94.8％ and 68.0％,75.0％ and 78.6％,80.3％ and 73.2％ respectively in the three groups.Conclusions The best UGSR value of PTC was variant in thyroid nodule with different size.Recognition of these differences accurately could improve the pre-operative diagnostic accuracy of PTC.Also the method is simple to operate and easy to apply.

Objective To study the association between reasons for smoking and results related to successful smoking cessation. Methods A community-based case-control study was conducted with 642 male adults recognized as successful spontaneous smoking quitters being the subject cases while another 700 male adults who had failed to quit smoking were served as the controls. Russell Reason for Smoking Questionnaire(RRSQ)was used to investigate the reasons for smoking. Dominance logistic regression was performed to determine the relative importance of reasons for starting smoking and the endpoint of successful quit smoking. Results After adjusting the potential confounders of age,age of smoking initiation,marital status,profession,and education,the adjusted means of sedative and stimulation of RRSQ in the successful quitters were significant lower than that in the failed quitters. Results from the dominance logistic regression showed that the first two important factors for smoking cessation were sedative and stimulation of RRSQ,followed by psychological image,automatic,hand-mouth activity,indulgence,and addiction. Conclusion This study demonstrated that factors as dependence-addiction showed more important impacts than the social-psychological ones on the endpoint of successful smoking cessation.

OBJECTIVETo study the association between reasons for smoking and results related to successful smoking cessation.

METHODSA community-based case-control study was conducted with 642 male adults recognized as successful spontaneous smoking quitters being the subject cases while another 700 male adults who had failed to quit smoking were served as the controls. Russell Reason for Smoking Questionnaire (RRSQ) was used to investigate the reasons for smoking. Dominance logistic regression was performed to determine the relative importance of reasons for starting smoking and the endpoint of successful quit smoking.

RESULTSAfter adjusting the potential confounders of age, age of smoking initiation, marital status, profession, and education, the adjusted means of sedative and stimulation of RRSQ in the successful quitters were significant lower than that in the failed quitters. Results from the dominance logistic regression showed that the first two important factors for smoking cessation were sedative and stimulation of RRSQ, followed by psychological image, automatic, hand-mouth activity, indulgence, and addiction.

CONCLUSIONThis study demonstrated that factors as dependence-addiction showed more important impacts than the social-psychological ones on the endpoint of successful smoking cessation.

Adult ; Behavior, Addictive ; Case-Control Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Smoking ; psychology ; Smoking Cessation ; statistics & numerical data ; Smoking Prevention ; Surveys and Questionnaires