PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate whether the presence of patchy echogenicity in the liver of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is predictive of liver stiffness. METHODS: A total of 200 CHB patients with and without patchy echogenicity of the liver were assigned to two groups, with 100 patients in each group, and 32 of them underwent liver biopsy. Additionally, 80 healthy subjects, 100 inactive HBV carriers, and 100 patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis were assigned to the control groups. Laboratory tests and clinical data were collected, and shear wave velocity (SWV) of the liver was measured for all 480 subjects. RESULTS: The median SWV in patients with a normal liver, inactive hepatitis B virus carriers, CHB patients with and without patchy echogenicity, and decompensated hepatic cirrhosis were 1.07 m/sec, 1.08 m/sec, 1.16 m/sec, 1.16 m/sec, and 2.02 m/sec, respectively; there was no significant difference in SWV values between CHB patients with patchy echogenicity and those without patchy echogenicity. Furthermore, among CHB patients with and without patchy echogenicity, no significant difference in SWV was found according to fibrosis stage. CONCLUSION: The presence of patchy echogenicity of the liver does not indicate a higher degree of liver stiffness.
Biopsy ; Elasticity ; Fibrosis ; Healthy Volunteers ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Hepatitis, Chronic ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Liver ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to measure the elasticity of normal placentas using the Virtual Touch quantification (VTQ) technique. METHODS: This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee. Fifty randomly selected, healthy pregnant women in their second trimester and 50 randomly selected, healthy pregnant women in their third trimester with a single fetus were included, and their placentas underwent VTQ through shear wave velocity (SWV) measurements. The measurements were performed at different locations to sample different areas of the placenta. Measurements were performed 3-4 times in each location, the mean shear wave velocities were calculated without the highest and lowest values of measurements in each region, and the results were compared. RESULTS: The SWV of the placenta was 0.983±0.260 m/sec, and the minimal and maximal speed was 0.63 m/sec and 1.84 m/sec, respectively. There was no significant difference between the second and third trimester of VTQ of the placenta in terms of SWV (0.978±0.255 m/sec vs. 0.987±0.266 m/sec, P=0.711). The maternal age between second and third trimester was 27.9±4.3 years and 29.2±4.4 years, respectively; there was no significant difference between them (P=0.159). CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that the SWV of normal placenta tissue is 0.983±0.260 m/sec, it has little variation between the second and third trimesters, and the VTQ technique may potentially play an additional role in placenta evaluation.
Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; Elasticity* ; Ethics Committees ; Female ; Fetus ; Humans ; Maternal Age ; Placenta* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second ; Pregnancy Trimester, Third ; Pregnant Women ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of variations in fatty liver on the ultrasonographic detection of focal liver lesions. METHODS: A total of 229 patients with varying degrees of fatty liver and focal liver lesions and 200 patients with focal liver lesions but no fatty liver were randomly selected for inclusion in groups I and II, respectively. Findings of focal liver lesions identified on computed tomography were taken as the reference, and findings on ultrasonography were compared with them. RESULTS: The number of focal liver lesions in groups I and II were 501 and 413, respectively. The ultrasonographic detection rates of focal liver lesions in groups I and II were 86.8% (435/501) and 94.2% (389/413), respectively. Comparison of the detection of the focal lesions between patients with and without fatty liver or different grades of fatty liver were as follows: mild fatty liver (162/177) vs. liver without fat infiltration (389/413) (P=0.277); mild fatty liver (162/177) vs. moderate fatty liver (190/212) (P=0.604); mild fatty liver (162/177) vs. severe fatty liver (83/112) (P<0.001); moderate fatty liver (190/212) vs. liver without fat infiltration (389/413) (P=0.051); moderate fatty liver (190/212) vs. severe fatty liver (83/112) (P<0.001); severe fatty liver (83/112) vs. liver without fat infiltration (389/413) (P<0.001); and fatty liver (435/501) vs. liver without fat infiltration (389/413) (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Mild and moderate fatty liver are not significantly associated with the visualization of the lesion, while severe fatty liver usually impairs the detection of focal lesions in the liver. If a patient with severe fatty liver is suspected to have a liver tumor, ultrasonography should only be chosen cautiously in case of a missed diagnosis.
Diagnosis ; Fatty Liver* ; Humans ; Liver ; Liver Neoplasms ; Ultrasonography*

Objective:To validate the Chinese version of Thyroid Imaging Report and Data System (C-TIRADS) for the malignancy risk stratification assessment of thyroid nodules, and compare with the American College of Radiology TIRADS(ACR-TIRADS) for diagnostic performance.Methods:A total of 1 306 patients with 1 389 thyroid nodules in the First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University from January 2015 to March 2021 were reviewed and assessed for diagnostic performance according to the C-TIRADS and the ACR-TIRADS, respectively, and the histopathological results were taken as golden standard.Results:The 1 389 thyroid nodules consisted of 973 benign nodules and 416 malignant nodules. The C-TIRADS 4C and ACR-TIRADS 5 had the highest accuracies and were taken respectively as the optimized cut-off values for diagnosis.The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and AUC by C-TIRADS 4C and ACR-TIRADS 5 for thyroid nodule evaluation were 87.39%, 89.92%, 75.00%, 95.38%, 0.89, and 85.58%, 91.88%, 81.84%, 93.71%, 0.89, respectively(all P>0.05). Conclusions:The C-TIRADS and ACR-TIRADS have good diagnostic performance for the malignancy risk stratification of thyroid nodules, and C-TIRADS 4C has comparable diagnostic performance to ACR-TIRADS 5.

Objective:To investigate the ultrasonic characteristics of eccrine spiradenoma (ES) and to analyze the diagnostic value.Methods:Nineteen ES patients with 24 lesions confirmed by pathology in 3 grade-A tertiary hospitals from October 2011 to October 2021 were enrolled as study group, and in the same time, 46 patients with 46 masses in the skin and muscular tissues with clinical features of automatic pain and/or tenderness were selected as control group. The ultrasonographic characteristics of the two groups were analyzed retrospectively, including anatomical location, shape, boundary, internal echogenicity, echogenic distribution, calcification, posterior acoustic effect, and vascularity. The ultrasonographic characteristics of the two groups were compared, and the risk sonographic characteristics of ES were obtained by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound characteristics for the diagnosis of ES were calculated.Results:The ultrasonic characteristics of the two groups had significant differences in lobulated shape, boundary, internal echogenicity and posterior acoustic effect (χ 2=32.65, 15.65, 5.77, 13.63; all P<0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that lobulated shape and posterior acoustic enhancement were the risk ultrasonic characteristics of ES. The sensitivity and specificity of lobulated shape and posterior acoustic enhancement characteristics in the diagnosis of ES were 79.17%, 89.13%, 95.83% and 47.83%, respectively; and the sensitivity and specificity of the combination of lobulated shape and posterior acoustic enhancement characteristics in the diagnosis of ES were 79.17% and 97.83%, respectively. Conclusions:The lobulated shape and posterior acoustic enhancement characteristics are important for the identification of ES, which have higher diagnostic efficacy for ES.

Positron emission tomography (PET) now plays an important role in the research and development (R&D) of central nervous system (CNS) drugs. PET could characterize the biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, and receptor binding of CNS drugs quantitatively. The present review summarized the quantitative methods of PET used in the pharmacokinetics and receptor occupancy analysis of CNS drugs. Moreover, the present review listed various applications of PET supporting R&D of CNS drugs, which could provide a new direction for the R&D of CNS drugs.