ObjectiveTo systematically review the value of ultrasound contrast agents injected subcutaneously for diagnosing sentinel lymph nodes of breast cancer. MethodsWe electronically searched databases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, CBM, WanFang Data, and Medalink from their inception to July 2014, to collect diagnostic accuracy studies of ultrasound contrast agents injected subcutaneously for diagnosing sentinel lymph nodes of breast cancer. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed by using Meta-Disc 1.4 software. ResultsEight studies involving 311 sentinel lymph nodes were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and the area under curve (AUC) of SROC were 0.89 (95%CI 0.84 to 0.93), 0.81 (95%CI 0.72 to 0.87), 4.14 (95%CI 2.20 to 7.79), 0.15 (95%CI 0.10 to 0.25), 33.23 (95%CI 11.17 to 98.83), and 0.96 respectively. ConclusionContrast-enhanced ultrasound has a high value in diagnosis of sentinel lymph nodes of breast cancer. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality and large-scale studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.
Objective To explore the diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in axillary and internal mammary lymph node metastasis of invasive breast cancer. Methods A total of 100 patients with invasive breast cancer treated from September 2020 to September 2022 were selected. Preoperative CEUS examination was completed, and the perfusion sequence, enhancement mode and enhancement sequence of lymph nodes were dynamically observed. The CEUS characteristics of metastatic and benign lymph nodes were compared. Using postoperative pathological results as the gold standard, the diagnostic efficacy of CEUS in evaluating lymph node status was analyzed. Results Among the 100 patients, 28 patients were diagnosed with metastatic axillary lymph nodes (ALN) by pathological biopsy. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive prediction rate and negative prediction rate of CEUS in evaluating ALN status were 71.4%, 87.5%, 83.0%, 69.0% and 88.7%, respectively. In 9 patients, CEUS showed internal mammary lymph node metastasis, and postoperative pathological examination confirmed that 5 patients had internal mammary lymph node metastasis, so the positive predictive rate of CEUS was 55.6%. Conclusion CEUS can evaluate the metastatic status of axillary and internal mammary lymph nodes.
Vascular perfusion distribution in fibroids contrast-enhanced ultrasound images provides useful pathological and physiological information, because the extraction of the vascular perfusion area can be helpful to quantitative evaluation of uterine fibroids blood supply. The pixel gray scale in vascular perfusion area of fibroids contrast-enhanced ultrasound image sequences is different from that in other regions, and, based on this, we proposed a method of extracting vascular perfusion area of fibroids. Firstly, we denoised the image sequence, and then we used Brox optical flow method to estimate motion of two adjacent frames, based on the results of the displacement field for motion correction. Finally, we extracted vascular perfusion region from the surrounding background based on the differences in gray scale for the magnitude of the rich blood supply area and lack of blood supply area in ultrasound images sequence. The experimental results showed that the algorithm could accurately extract the vascular perfusion area, reach the precision of identification of clinical perfusion area, and only small amount of calculation was needed and the process was fairly simple.
ObjectiveTo explore the value liver resection combined with intraoperative radiofrequency ablation during the same period in the treatment of multiple liver cancer. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 33 patients with multiple liver cancer treated between January 2005 and April 2013. All the patients were treated by liver resection combined with intraoperative radiofrequency ablation in the same period. There were 91 tumor foci in 33 patients, among which 39 tumor foci were surgically removed, and 52 tumor foci were radiofrequency ablated. Ultrasonography and enhanced CT/MRI were performed for the patients 1 year, 2 years and 3 years after surgery. ResultsNo bleeding or death occurred during the operation. It was observed that the transient liver function was damaged after surgery, but it quickly returned to A level after treatment. All the patients had no perioperative death or other serious complications. Tumor recurrence rate was 16.1% in the first year, 48.4% in the second year and 93.5% in the third year after surgery. ConclusionLiver resection combined with intraoperative radiofrequency ablation for multiple liver cancer in the same period is feasible and safe, without increasing the average length of hospital stay, operative mortality rate and postoperative tumor recurrence rate.
Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a chronic nonspecific inflammation that commonly occurs in the aorta and its main branches. Most patients with TA are lack of clinical manifestations, leading to misdiagnosis. When the TA is correctly diagnosed, the patients may already have stenosis or occlusion in the involved arteries, resulting in arterial ischemia and hypoxia symptoms, and in severe cases it will be life-threatening. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) is an emerging method for assessing TA, but the assessment relies heavily on experiences of radiologists performing manual and qualitative analyses, so the diagnostic results are often not accurate. To overcome this limitation, this paper presents a computer-assisted quantitative analysis of TA carotid artery lesions based on CEUS. First, the TA lesion was outlined on the carotid wall, and one homogeneous rectangle and one polygon were selected as two reference regions in the carotid lumen. The temporal and spatial features of the lesion region and the reference regions were then calculated. Furthermore, the difference and ratio of the features between the lesion and the reference regions were computed as new features (to eliminate interference factors). Finally, the correlation was analyzed between the CEUS features and inflammation biomarkers consisting of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). The data in this paper were collected from 34 TA patients in Zhongshan Hospital undergoing CEUS examination with a total of thirty-seven carotid lesions, where two patients were with two lesions before and after treatment and one patient was with left and right bilateral lesions. Among these patients, 13 were untreated primary patients with a total of 14 lesions, where one patient was with bilateral lesions. The results showed that for all patients, the neovascularization area ratio in the 1/3 inner region of a lesion (ARi1/3) achieved a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.56 (P=0.001) with CRP, and for the primary patients, the neovascularization area ratio in the 1/2 inner region of a lesion (ARi1/2) had an r-value of 0.76 (P=0.001) with CRP. This study indicates that the proposed computer-assisted method can objectively and semi-automatically extract quantitative features from CEUS images, so as to reduce the effect on diagnosis due to subjective experiences of the radiologists, and thus it is expected to be used for clinical diagnosis and severity evaluation of TA carotid lesions.
目的 探讨超声造影对门静脉癌栓和血栓的鉴别诊断价值。方法 应用超声造影剂（SonoVue）对16例门静脉癌栓及8例门静脉血栓行实时低机械指数超声造影，观察并分析其造影增强特征。 结果 16例癌栓超声造影动脉相10例呈整体均匀性增强，2例呈整体不均匀性增强，2例呈整体轻度增强，2例栓子一部分增强，另一部分无增强； 门脉相特别是门脉相晚期和延迟相14例栓子呈充盈缺损状态，2例栓子仍呈轻微强化。4例常规彩超检查未能检出动脉血流信号而不能确诊的癌栓，超声造影均显示其动脉相增强。8例血栓行超声造影后整个造影过程栓子均未见增强。结论 超声造影可敏感地反映门静脉栓子的血流灌注，门静脉癌栓和血栓在超声造影后有显著的特征，有助于两者的鉴别诊断。
【摘要】 目的 讨论胃充盈超声造影在胃溃疡患者术后的应用价值。 方法 2002年6月-2009年6月对因胃溃疡行手术的72例患者采用饮水法充盈胃进行术后超声检查随访，观察术后胃的容量变化、术后近期并发症及远期并发症。 结果 所有胃术后的患者，近期胃容量较前减少60%～70%，随着时间的延长，容量逐渐恢复，最大恢复至术前的50%。吻合处胃壁僵直，蠕动波消失。十二指肠残端漏2例，近期吻合口狭窄5例，胃瘫综合症3例，吻合口反流40例，有临床症状的患者10例，无临床症状的患者30例，复发性溃疡1例，未发现残胃癌及远期吻合口梗阻。 结论 胃充盈超声造影是胃溃疡术后简单易行的随访方法，具有重要的临床应用价值。【Abstract】 Objective To evaluate the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography of gastric filling in gastric ulcer patients after the operation. Methods A total of 72 patients who underwent the operation due to gastric ulcer between June 2002 and June 2009 were selected. We used water-drinking method for filling stomach to perform the ultrasonic examination and the patients were followed up. The post-operation changes in the capacity of the stomach, postoperation complication and long-term complication were observed. Results The reduction of recent stomach capacity was 60%-70% in of the patients after the operation. As time goes on, the capacity gradually recovered, and the largest recovery was 50%. Anastomosis gastric wall was stiff, and peristaltic wave disappeared. Drain off residual duodenum was found in 2 patients, anastomotic stricture near was in 5, delayed gastric emptying was in 3, anastomotic reflux was in 40, clinical symptoms was in 10, no clinical symptoms was in 30, and recurrent ulcer was in 1. No gastric remnant cancer or long-term anastomtic obstruction was observed. Conclusion Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography of gastric filling is a simple and practicable ultrasound follow-up method after gastric ulcer.
Objective To approach the enhancing patterns of hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) under contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and improve the recognition on diagnosis for FNH by contrast-enhanced ultrasound. Methods The clinical data of 12 patients with histologically proved FNHs having accepted contrast-enhanced ultrasound examination from May 2007 to February 2009 in West China Hospital of Sichuan University were retroptectively analyzed, and related literatures were reviewed. Results All FNHs were rapidly enhanced in arterial phase and spoke-wheel-like sign was detected in 9/12 lesions. Slightly hyper-enhancement or iso-enhancement were showed in 11/12 lesions, while 1/12 lesions showed hypo-enhancement in late phase. Conclusion Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can display the dynamic blood perfusion of FNH, especially spoke-wheel-like arterial flow in early arterial phase, which is of great value for the diagnosis of FNH.
Gallbladder polypoid lesion (GPL) is a common gallbladder disease, mainly including tumor lesions such as gallbladder cancer and gallbladder adenoma and non-tumor lesions such as cholesterol polyps and gallbladder adenomyomatosis. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) can improve the diagnostic accuracy of GPL. This paper reviews the application progress of CEUS in the diagnosis of gallbladder cancer, gallbladder adenoma, gallbladder cholesterol polyps and gallbladder adenomyosis, and the limitations of CEUS in the diagnosis of GPL.