AIM: To develop and perfect the similarity algorithm on chromatographic fingerprints of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). METHODS: The experimental and simulated data were used to investigate and verify the characteristics on the new and former methods on similarity evaluation for chromatographic fingerprints method. RESULTS: There are many strong points for new similarity algorithm in practice. CONCLUSION: The new method provides more rationality and practicability in TCM quality control and analysis compare to existing methods.

Background and purpose:Neoadjuvant chemotherapy to breast cancer has become a mature treat-ment method. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in assessing the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).Methods:Twenty-four female patients with breast carcinoma (24 were all inva-sive ductal carcinoma) underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) before, after the second and ifnal cycle of NAC. For each patient and each MRI examination, the maximum diameter of tumor, volume transfer constant (Ktrans), exchange rate constant (Kep), and extravascular extracellular volume fraction (Ve) were compared. According to the method of response evaluation criteria in solid tumor (RECIST), the results of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were divided into responder and non-responder.Results:All 24 patients were unilateral and single breast cancer; there were 17 cases of responders and 7 cases of non-responders according to RECIST criteria. For 17 cases of responders, both the average values ofKtrans andKepwere signiifcantly descended after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (allP<0.05).Conclusion:The quantitative parameters ofKtrans andKep can evaluate objectively and veridically the response to neoadjuvant chemother-apy for breast cancer in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI.

Objective To describe the radiological features of mastitis.Methods Imaging findings were retrospectively reviewed in 58 women with mastitis,which was confirmed by pathological results.The imaging features were described according to the BI-RADS (breast imaging reporting and data system).All 58 patients had preoperative MRI,while 49 of them were examined with sonograms and 30 with mammograms preoperatively.Results Overall,no remarkable findings were reported on 6 mammography and 2 sonography examinations,but all 58 lesions were identified on MRI in our study.Asymmetrical density (n =16,53.3％) on mammograms and solitary or multiple separated/contiguous hypoechoic mass-like lesions (n =34,69.4％) on ultrasound were the most common signs of mastitis.On enhanced MR images,82.8 ％ (48/58) patients showed non-mass-like enhanced lesions.Multiple,regional enhancement (66.7％,32/48) and separated or contiguous,clumped,rim-like enhancement (63.1％,31/48) were the most common manifestations in non-mass-like enhanced lesions.Of the 58 patients,type Ⅰ and type Ⅱ timesignal intensity curve were detected in 48.3％ and 50.0％ of the patients,respectively.BI-RADS 0 had the highest frequency in reports on mammography (33.3％,10/30),while category 4a was most frequent on sonography (36.7％,18/49) and also on MRI (56.9％,33/58).Conclusion The imaging findings from mammography and US are non-specific for mastitis,therefore,MR can be helpful in the diagnosis,especially in the presence of non-mass-like enhancement that are multiple,regional,separated,or contiguous,clumped,and tim-like.

ObjectiveTo study the MR Imaging features of breast phyllodes tumor (PT),and to correlate it with pathological results.MethodClinical and MRI findings were retrospectively reviewed in twenty-seven women with 28 PTs lesions confirmed by surgical pathology.Statistical analyses were one-way ANOVA for size analysis,Fisher exact test for analysis of MR appearances and Spearman correlation to study the relationship between MRI findings and BI-RADS categories.Results( 1 ) The histologic findings were benign,borderline and malignant PTs in 14.3％ (4/28),53.6％ (15/28) and 32.1％ (9/28) of lesions,respectively.(2) The mean maximum-diameter were (6.4 ± 3.9) cm,(5.7 ± 2.2) cm in borderline type and (4.8 ± 1.8)cm in benign type respectively.The results showed differences in lesion's size among the three type (F = 287.541,P =0.000),especially between malignant and benign type (P = 0.033 ).(3)Internal non-enhanced septations and silt-like changes on enhanced images,as well as time-signal curve on MRI correlated significantly with the histological grade ( P ＜ 0.05 ).( 4 ) If the category BI-RADS ≥ 4a was considered to be a suspicious sign for malignant lesion,the diagnostic accuracy of MRI would be 96.4％ (27/28),and the BI-RADS category of the MRI could reflect the PT's histological grade with a low correlation coefficient ( r = 0.382,P = 0.045 ).Conclusion The findings of PT on MRI have some characteristics,with tumor size and several MRI features correlating with the histological grade of breast PT.

Objective Evaluate the efficiency of scientific research output of the 54 departments in a hospital,to put forward improvement suggestions based on the evaluation results.Methods Select appropriate indicators of scientific input and output,use the Data Envelopment Analysis method to evaluate and analyze the efficiency.Results According to the analysis of DEA,calculate the values of overall efficiency,technical efficiency,scale efficiency and scale income.Then compare and analyze the relative efficiency of different units scientific output,to identify the relatively superior department a mong the various categories.Conclusions According to the evaluation results,to find out the input surplus and insufficient output of each decision units.Then we will put forward suggestions on hospital resource allocation to optimize the scientific input and output,to improve the competitiveness of the hospital,and to activate the potential of each department's scientific research.

Background and purpose:Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. The new technology of mammography is helpful in breast cancer diagnosis. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) with conventional imaging methods in the diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions.Methods:During the period from Mar. 2015 to Dec. 2015, 227 patients with suspected lesions (by palpation or sonography) underwent further imaging exam in our hospital. The sonography, full-field digital mammography (FFDM), DBT and breast MRI were performed on all the patients. A double-blind assessment was carried out according to BI-RADS (version 2013) by experienced radiologists. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of all methods, referring to the pathological data as the golden standard; the difference in the efficiency of DBT from the other methods was determined byZ-test.Results:Thirty patients were excluded for the unsatisfactory images, and 205 lesions (132 malignant and 73 benign lesions) were detected in the remaining 197 patients. Area under the curve (AUC) of sonography, FFDM, DBT, DBT+FFDM and MRI based on the BI-RADS were 0.8308, 0.8592, 0.9167, 0.9198, and 0.9354, respectively. The AUC of DBT was significantly higher than those of sonography (Z=7.36,P=0.0067) and FFDM (Z=4.89,P=0.0271), while there was no significantly difference between DBT and MRI (Z=0.02,P=0.9002) or FFDM+DBT (Z=0.69,P=0.4048).Conclusion:DBT could significantly improve the diagnostic performance for breast lesions compared with sonography and FFDM, providing a comparable efficiency to MRI. As a new mammography technology, DBT has good clinical application prospect.

Objective To assess the value of contrast enhanced mammography (CESM) in the detection of breast cancer. Methods A total of 145 patients who were suspected of breast abnormalities by clinical examination or ultrasound were prospectively collected. All patients underwent bilateral breast CESM and MRI examinations. Breast CESM and MRI examination were completed in the same week. The pathological specimens were analyzed and the maximum diameters of pathological lesions were measured. The lesions were observed on low energy(LE), CESM and MRI images, and then the maximum diameters of lesions on the above images were measured. Using pathology results as the gold standard, the diagnostic efficacy of LE, CESM and MRI were analyzed by ROC curve, and Z test was used to compare the areas under the ROC curves among different imaging methods. Bland-Altman method was used to analyze the consistency of the maximum diameters of the lesions obtained with different imaging methods. Results One hundred and fifty three lesions were found in 145 patients, in which 36 were benign and 117 were malignant. The LE, CESM and MRI showed 140, 151 and 149 lesions respectively, and the qualitative diagnostic errors were 25, 8 and 11, respectively. The areas under ROC curves of LE, CESM and MRI were 0.87, 0.96 and 0.97 respectively. There was significant difference of the area under ROC curve between CESM and LE, so did the MRI and LE (P<0.05), but there was not significant difference between CESM and MRI (P=0.51). The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in the diagnosis of malignant breast lesions were 88.98%, 65.71% and 83.66% for LE, while they were 95.80%, 91.18% and 94.77% for CESM, 94.17%, 87.88%and 92.81%for MRI. The average difference of diameters between LE, CESM, MRI and pathologic size was-1.7, 1.1 and 0.3 mm, respectively, with 95%consistency interval range of-18.6 to 15.1,-9.8 to 12.1,-10.6 to 11.2 mm, respectively. There was best consistency between the pathological size and the size on MRI. Conclusion CESM can significantly improve the diagnostic efficacy of breast lesions, which is comparable with MRI.

Objective To evaluate the value of quantitative 3T dynamic contrast enhanced MRI in the diagnosis of breast lesions. Methods One-hundred and eighteen patients suspected of breast lesions underwent MRI examination. A 3.0 T MR scanner was used to obtain the quantitative MR pharmacokinetic parameters: Ktrans( volume transfer constant), Kep (exchange rate constant) and Ve (extravascular extracellular volume fraction). The mean Ktrans, Kep and Ve of malignant, benign and normal glandular tissues were calculated and compared each other using LSD method. Independent sample t test was used between invasive ductal carcinoma and ductal carcinoma in situ (microinvasion included). Finally, the areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of Ktrans, Kep and Ve between malignant and benign lesions were compared. Results The mean Ktrans, Kep and Ve of malignant lesions (n=87) were (1.010±0.580) min-1, (1.634 ± 1.481) min-1 and (0.735 ±0.273); the mean Ktrans, Kep and Ve of benign lesions (n=23) were (0.331±0.192) min - 1, (0.417±0.324) min - 1 and (0.847±0.291); and the mean Ktrans, Kep and Ve of normal glandular tissues (n =83) were (0.051 ±0.028) min-1, (0.133±0.125) min-1 and (0.597±0.354), respectively. There were significant differences between normal glandular tissues and benign lesions, normal glandular tissues and malignant lesions, benign and malignant lesions in Ktrans (t=9.681, 11.189, 5. 590, respectively, P ＜ 0. 01 ), normal glandular tissues and malignant lesions, benign and malignant lesions in Kep(t =5. 287, 3. 874, P＜0. 05). There were a statistic differences between normal glandular tissues and benign lesions, normal glandular tissues and malignant lesions in Ve(t =2. 932, 2. 562 ,P ＜0. 05). There were no significant differences between normal glandular tissues and benign lesions in Kep, benign and malignant lesions in Ve ( t = 0. 760, 0. 832, P ＞ 0.05 ),invasive ductal carcinoma and ductal carcinoma in situ (microinvasion included) in Ktrans, Kep and Ve(t =0.834,0.075,0.454,P＞0.05). The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of Ktrans, Kep and Ve between malignant and benign lesions were 0. 934, 0. 941 and 0. 659. The sensitivity of Ktrans, Kep and Ve were 77.01% ,91.95% ,56. 32% and the specificity of Ktrans, Kep and Ve were 95. 65%, 86. 96%, 78.26% for the differential diagnosis of breast lesions if taken the maximum Youden's index as cut-off. Conclusion The differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions by Ktrans, Kep is applicable.

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic values of the breast imaging reporting and data system-MRI (BI-RADS-MRI)description about non-masslike enhancement by data mining. Methods Fifty-five patients with non-masslike enhancement lesions showed on breast contrast-enhanced MRI were evaluated using two data mining algorithms (Logistic regression and decision tree) and 10-fold cross-validation methods. Results There were 28 malignant and 27 benign lesions. The most frequent findings of the malignant lesions were clustered ring enhancement and clumped enhancement [ 12 and 4 lesions, respectively; 84. 2% (16/19) in decision trees, partial regression coefficients in Logistic model were 2. 128 and 1.723, respectively], whereas homogenous, stippled, reticular internal and linear ductal enhancement were the most frequent findings in benign lesions [ 4、9、1 and 7 lesions, respectively; 72. 4% (21/29) in decision tree, partial regression coefficients in Logistic model were 0.357 (homogenous), 1. 861 (stippled) and 18. 870( reticular), respectively]. 10-fold cross-validation indicated that decision tree (C5.0) achieved an accuracy of 69.3% with a sensitivity of 66.7% and a specificity of 71.7% in comparison to the Logistic regression model with an accuracy of 57. 0%, a sensitivity of 43.3% and a specificity of 71.7%. Conclusions The diagnosis efficacy of non-masslike enhancement interpretation according to BI-RADS-MRI is not high. It is very important to find more potential features of non-masslike enhancement to improve the diagnosis accuracy.

Objective To evaluate and recognize the dynamic and morphological MRI charactristics of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast and provide imaging information for the early detection and treatment planning Methods All MRI data in 71 patients with histollogically proved DCIS were analyzed retrospectively. The 71 patients were divided into two groups, NI ( pure DCIS, 44 patients) and N2 ( DCIS with microinvasion, 27 patients). According to the BI-RADS descriptors, all lesions were defined as a focus (smaller than 5 mm in diameter), mass and no-mass-like three enhancement types. The morphological features (M1 = focus, M2 = linear or linear-branched, M3 = branching-ductal, M4 = segmental, M5 = focal,M6 = regional, M7 = diffuse, M8 = mass) and the time-intensity curve (TIC) pattern [type l ( persistent enhancement curves), type Ⅱ( plateau), type Ⅲ(washout) and type Ⅳ (the same enhancement as glandular tissue)] were described. Chi-square test was used for the morphological characteristics of lesions.Results The 73 DCIS lesions were found in 71 patients, and 5.5% (n =4) were stippled lesions, 87.7%( n =64) were no-mass-like lesions, 6.8%(n=5) were mass-like lesions. In no-mass-like lesions (n=64), M3 was found in 15 cases, M4 in 34 cases, M5 in 9 cases and M6 in 6 cases, respectively, M3 and M4 were the most common distribution patterns. In N1 group(n =45) and N2 group (n =28), M3, M4,M5, M6 were found in 7 and 8, 21 and 13, 7 and 2, 3 and 3 cases, respectively. There were no statistic differences between two groups (P＞0.05). In 31 showed heterogeneous enhancement, both M3 and M4 were observed in 35.5% (11/31). In 26 clustered ring enhancement lesions, M4 was observed in 88.5% (23/26). Four lesions showed reticular enhancement,2 lesions showed a clumped enhancement and 1 lesion showed homogeneous enhancement. In 5 mass-like lesions, N1 group had 3 cases, N2 group had 2 cases.Four lesions showed lobulated margin, 4 lesions showed speculated margin, 1 mass showed smooth margin.Five mass showed heterogeneous enhancement. Type Ⅰ , type Ⅱ , type Ⅲ and type Ⅳ TIC ( n = 25) were demonstrated in 8, 11, 3 and 3 lesions, respectively. Conclusions M3, M4, especially segmental clustered ring enhancement, are the most common morphological characteristics of DCIS. Type Ⅰ and type Ⅱ TIC are the most common types.