Objective · To explore whether stiffness parameter β could help carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) to predict ischemic stroke.Methods · Ninety-nine patients with acute ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attacks were retrospectively evaluated by routine ultrasound and divided into increased IMT group and normal IMT group. The normal IMT group cases were further divided into 30~ 39 years, 40 ~ 49 years, 50 ~ 59 years and ≥ 60 years groups, and were compared with healthy crowd respectively. Results · ① The common carotid artery wall β of both increased IMT group and normal IMT group were significantly higher than healthy crowd (each P=0.000). ② Further analysis showed that β of ≥ 60 years group were significantly higher than healthy crowd (left side P=0.047, right side P=0.007); while the difference was not found across younger age groups (30 ~ 39 years,40 ~ 49 years and 50 ~ 59 years). Conclusion · Stiffness parameter β may help carotid intima-media IMT to predict ischemic stroke in high risk subjects≥ 60 years old without morphology changes.

Objective To evaluate the value of ultrasonic quantitative method in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Methods Ultrasonography was performed in 186 CHB patients who underwent liver biopsies. Fifteen indices including liver capsule thickness and fourteen texture parameters of gray level co-occurrence matrix were extracted from standard sonograms and compared with fibrosis stages by histopathology. The status of liver fibrosis was divided into five stages from S0 to S4 by histopathology based on the disease severity. ANOVA and Spearman correlation analysis were applied to analyze the differences and relationships between these indices and pathological stage, respectively. Then discriminant analysis models were established based on the indices for quantitative diagnosis of liver fibrosis. Results Among the fifteen indices, including liver capsule thickness, only the variance (F=0. 55, r=0. 06; both P＞0. 05), sum average (F=0.61, both r=0.05 ; P＞0.05), sum entropy (F=1.68, r=0.09; both P≥0.05) and entropy (F=1.39,r=0.12; both P＞0.05) were not significantly associated with the stages and not manifested linear correlation. Using biopsy results as gold standard, the correct rank rate of discriminant analysis model analysis in the patients staged from S0 to S4 were 80. 0%, 64. 9%, 61.3%, 74. 1% and 80.6 %, respectively. There were 73.1% of cross-validated cases who were accurately classified by the model analysis. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in patients with stage ≥ 1 were 97. 6%,80.0% and 91.9%, respectively; those in patients with stage≥2 were 92.1%, 89.7% and 90.9%,respectively; those in patients with stage≥3 were 94.8%, 96.1% and 95.7%; and those in patients with stage 4 were 80. 6%, 97.4 % and 94.6%, respectively. When considered S0 as no fibrosis, S1 as mild fibrosis, S2 and S3 as moderate to severe fibrosis and S4 as early cirrhosis, the consistence rates between discriminant analysis model and biopsy result were 81.7%, 78. 4%, 56. 9% and 90.3%,respectively. There were 74.7% of cross-validated cases who were correctly classified. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the models for determining the fibrosis severity in patients≥mild fibrosis were 97.6%, 81.7% and 92.5%, respectively; those in patients ≥ moderate to severe fibrosis were 83. 1%, 94.8% and 89.2%, respectively; those in patients with early cirrhosis were 90.3%, 93.5% and 93.0%, respectively. Conclusion As a novel and noninvasive method, ultrasonic texture analysis could quantitatively determine liver fibrosis in CHB patients and is worthy of further investigation.

Objective Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is a common muscle function disturbance.This study was to investigate the clinical value of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging in assessing the therapeutic effect of acupuncture for patients with trapezius MPS.Methods A total of 116 patients diagnosed with trapezius MPS received acupuncture therapy once a day for 10 days in Pudong Hospital from August 2015 to June 2016.Using ARFI imaging, we recorded the shear wave velocity (SWV) of the trapezius and obtained the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) scores of the patients before, at the end of, and at 7, 15 and 30 days after treatment.Then, we analyzed the interaction and correlation between the SWV values and SF-MPQ scores of the patients at different time points.Results Both the SF-MPQ scores and SWV values were first decreased, falling to lowest values (5.19 points and 1.43 m/s) at 7 days after treatment, and then increased again.The interaction between the SF-MPQ scores and SWV values were significantly different at different time points (Finteraction=2.553, Pinteraction=0.038), and there was a strong linear correlation between the two indexes (r=0.755, P=0.000).Conclusion ARFI imaging combined with SF-MPQ has a certain clinical value in assessing the effect of acupuncture on trapezius MPS.

Objective To compare the diagnostic efficacy and complications of transperineal prostate biopsy for<10 cores biopsy vs≥10 cores biopsy. Methods Nine hundred transrectal ul-trasound-guided transperineal prostate biopsies were performed. Patients were divided into 2 groups, <10 cores group and ≥10 cores group. Patient numbers of the 2 groups were 759 and 141, respec-tively. Cancer positive rate and complications were compared between the 2 groups retrospectively. Results Cancer positive rates were 41.6%(316/759) and 51.8%(73/141) in 2 groups (P<0.05). In patients of PSA≤10.0 ng/ml, cancer positive rates were 6.8% (16/235) and 17.8% (8/45) in 2 groups (P<0.05). Gross hematuria was the most common complication associated with biopsy. There was no statistical difference between the 2 groups in post-biopsy gross hematuria rate. Conclu-sions The diagnostic efficacy is higher in≥10 cores prostate biopsy than that in <10 cores prostate biopsy, There is no difference in biopsy related complications regarding biopsy core numbers.