Objective To evaluate the association of the size of thyroid nodules and accuracy of fineneedle aspiration cytology in diagnose of thyroid nodules.Methods 691 thyroid nodules in 630 patients pathologically confirmed were retrospectively analyzed in our hospital.All imaging data of preoperative ultrasound-guided FNAC were collected in our review.Yields of FNAC were divided into six levels according to the classification criteria of the Bethesda system(level Ⅰ,insufficient material or nondiagnosed;level Ⅱ,benign ; level Ⅲ,atypical hyperplasia; level Ⅳ,follicular neoplasm ; level Ⅴ,suspicious for malignancy; level Ⅵ,malignant),＞level Ⅳ was the malignant cytologic criteria for diagnosis of thyroid nodules.According to the maximal diameter of thyroid nodules,the nodules were divided into group A(L≤0.5 cm),group B(0.5 cm＜L＜1.0 cm) and group C(L≥1.0 cm).Postoperative pathologic results were taken as the gold standard.Results Of 691 nodules,there were 176(25.47％),298(43.13％) and 217(31.40％) in group A,group B and group C respectively.Among the three groups,accuracy of ultrasound-guided FNAC in group B (90.94 ％) was higher than in group A(80.11％) and group C(83.41 ％),with statistically significant(P ＜0.05).There was not statistically different between group A and group C(P ＞0.05).The specificity,positive predictive value and negative predictive value were not statistically different among three groups(P ＞0.05).Conclusions The size of thyroid nodules was partly associated with accuracy of ultrasound-guided FNAC.

Objective To discuss the value of double contrast-enhanced ultrasound(DCEUS) as a method to predict the pathologic grade of regression to preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy(NAC) in advanced gastric cancer(AGC) patients,the contrast parameters of gastric carcinoma were measured and its correlation with pathologic response degree was analyzed.Methods Fifty seven patients with endoscopic biopsy-proven AGC were considered for a complete resection of the lesion and had a DCEUS prior to and following XELOX pre-operative NAC therapy for 3 cycles.The arrival time (AT),time-to-peak (TTP), baseline intensity(BI) and peak intensity(PI) of the primary gastric tumor were measured.The enhanced intensity(EI)was defined as PI minus BI.The percentage of change of DCEUS parameters before and after NAC therapy and its correlation with phathologic grades of regression was calculated.Patients were divided into responder and nonreponder group according to different pathologic response grade.The differences of DCEUS parameters between two groups were compared.The diagnostic accuracy of DCEUS in prediction of benefit from preoperative NAC was represented by means of receive operating characteristic(ROC)curves. Results After NAC,the PI and EI values of local gastric cancer were significantly lower than before NAC. There were significant differences in PI and EI after NAC between the responder and nonresponder groups. Among the DCEUS parameters showed significant correlation with pathologic grade of regression,the correlation factor was highest in percentage of EI reduction of primary gastric tumor(ρ= -0.501 ,P =0.007).When the optimal cutoff value of EI reduction rate of gastric tumor determined was 27%,a sensitivity of 81 .8% and specificity of 66.7% were achieved.Conclusions DCEUS might be a novel, noninvasive,liable and potential method to select the benefit responder from the preoperative NAC in AGC patient.

Objective To compare the accuracy of CT with other methods to measure the length of thoracic esophageal carcinoma. Methods 598 patients with thoracic esophageal squamous carcinoma were enrolled in this study.All the patients received three-field(cervical,thoracic:and abdominal)radical surgery without pre-operative radiotherapy or chemotherapy.The length of each Iesion was recorded and compared by measuring intraoperative specimen,formalin-fixed specimen,X-ray barium meal examination and CT,respectivelv. Results By the measurement of intraoperative specimen,formalin-fixed specimen,Xray barium meal examination and CT,the mean lengths of lesion were(5.22±1.94),(4.28±1.71),(5.12±1.92)and(6.71±2.52) cm,respectively.The measured length was significantly different between intraoperative specimen and formalin-fixed specimen or CT(t=16.01,P＜0.01;t=-15.54,P＜0.01),but not between intraoperative specimen and X-ray barium meal examination(t=1.62,P＞0.05).The measured lengths gradually decreased in the order of CT,intraoperative specimen,X-ray bailam meal examination and formalin-fixed specimen.For different pathological type(except intracavitary type)and different T staging,there was significant difference in lesion length between intraoperative specimen and CT(P＜0.05),but not between intraoperative specimen and X-ray barium meal examination(P＞0.05). Conclusions The length of esophageal carcinoma measured by intraoperative specimen is shorter than by CT,but longer than by X-ray barium meal examination.Specimen could shrink after foriBalin fixation.X-ray barium meal and other examinations should be referred when using CT to delineate tumor target volume of esophageal carcinoma for radiotherapy.

Objective To compare the accuracy of double contrast-enhanced ultrasound (DCEUS) and multi-detector row CT (MDCT) in determining the gross classification in patients with gastric carcinoma (GC) preoperatively.Methods 239 patients with GC proved by endoscopic biopsy were included.DCEUS (intravenous microbubbles combined with oral contrast-enhanced ultrasound) and MDCT were performed preoperatively.The diagnostic accuracy of DCEUS and MDCT in determining gross classification was calculated and compared.Results The overall accuracy of DCEUS in determining the gross appearance of GC was higher than that of MDCT (85％ vs.80％,P ＜ 0.05);there was no significant difference in accuracy between DCEUS and MDCT for Borrmann Ⅰ and Ⅳ classification of AGC (x2 =1.175,P =0.323 for type Ⅰ;x2 =2.171,P =0.141 for type Ⅳ);the accuracy of DCEUS for EGC,Borrmann Ⅱ and Ⅲ classification of GC was higher than that of MDCT (x2 =16.307,P =0.000 for EGC;x2 =39.950,P =0.000 for type Ⅱ;x2 =35.770,P =0.000 for type Ⅲ).Conclusion DCEUS is valuable in determining gross typing of gastric adenocarcinoma preoperatively.

Objective To assess the characterization and usefulness of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) to diagnose focal lesions of pancreas in comparison to contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT).Methods 177 cases of focal solid lesions of the pancreas confirmed by pathology were collected.The enhanced patterns and diagnostic capability of CEUS were analyzed,and these results were compared with those of CECT.Results The diagnostic accuracies of ultrasound,CEUS and CECT were 61.6％ (109/177),89.3％ (158/177),and 92.1％ (163/177),respectively.There was no significant difference between the diagnostic accuracies of CEUS and CECT (P =0.071).The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value (PPV),negative predictive value (NPV),and accurate rate for CEUS were 90.9％,63.6％,73.8％,86.2％,82.5％ (the areas under the curve,AUC =0.820),and 89.8％,69.3％,76.7％,85.9％,84.7％ for CECT (AUC =0.847),respectively,when the hypo-enhanced was regarded as the cut value.No significant difference was found between these results from CEUS and CECT (P =0.071).Conclusions The diagnostic ability of CEUS in focal lesions of the pancreas is similar to that of CECT.

Objective: To assess value of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in TN staging of pancreatic cancer and compared with contrast enhanced computed tomography(CECT). Methods: Seventy-eight cases with pancreatic cancer confirmed by pathology were enrolled in this study. All patients were examined using CEUS and CECT and staged according to the 8th guideline of pancreas tumors of AJCC. The diagnostic accuracies of CEUS in TN staging of pancreas tumors were compared with CECT. Results: The diagnostic accuracies of CEUS in T staging and N staging of pancreatic cancer were 80.8%, and 78.2%, respectively. For CECT, the diagnostic accuracies in T staging and N staging were 88.5%, and 88.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference in the diagnostic accuracies between CEUS and CECT in T staging(χ²=1.56, P=0.21). The diagnostic accuracy of CEUS in N staging was significantly lower than that of CECT(χ²=3.86, P=0.04). Conclusions The diagnostic accuracy of CEUS in T staging of pancreatic cancer is similar to that of CECT, while in its N staging is lower than that of CECT.