ObjectivesTo systematically review the safety and effectiveness of uterine artery embolization (UAE), surgery and high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in the treatment of uterine fibroids.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, WanFang Data and CNKI databases were electronically searched to collect relevant studies on comparing the safety and effectiveness of UAE, surgery and HIFU in the treatment of uterine fibroids from January 2000 to August 2019. Two reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted the data and evaluated the risk of bias of included studies, network meta-analysis was performed by ADDIS 1.16.8 software and Stata 14.0 software.ResultsA total of 11 trials (22 references) involving 3469 patients were included. Compared with surgery, UAE and HIFU patients had higher quality of life (1-year follow-up) improvement, and UAE was higher than HIFU. Network meta-analysis showed that patients treated with HIFU had the lowest incidence of major complications within 1 year, followed by UAE, and surgery. Patients treated with HIFU and UAE had shorter hospitalization and quicker recovery time than surgery. The rate of further intervention after surgery treatment might be lower than that of UAE and HIFU.ConclusionsUAE has the highest quality of life improvement (1-year follow-up) for uterine fibroids. HIFU and UAE are safer with shorter hospital stays and quicker recovery time compared with surgery. However, both UAE and HIFU have the risk of re-treatment. However, limited by the number and quality of included studies, the above conclusions are needed to be verified by more high-quality studies.
ObjectiveTo explore the application value of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.MethodThe domestic and foreign literatures about studies of HIFU treating advanced pancreatic cancer in recent years were retrieved and summarized.ResultsHIFU could prolong the survival time, control pain, and enhance the body’s immune function in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. There were no obvious serious complications during the treatment process. The combined treatment with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and traditional Chinese medicine could obviously prolong the survival time and improve the quality of life for the patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.ConclusionsHIFU is an important component in the comprehensive treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. However, because there is no uniform standard for the dosage of HIFU treatment, the sample size of many related studies is small, so the research results have certain limitations, so more studies are needed to improve their understanding of advanced pancreatic cancer in order to better serve clinical workin future.
Focused low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (FLIPUS), as a non-invasive physical therapy, is widely used in orthopedics, neurosurgery, urology, rehabilitation medicine and other clinical specialties. More and more studies have found that FLIPUS can treat knee osteoarthritis (KOA) by promoting tissue regeneration, relieving pain and inhibiting inflammation, improve the common clinical symptoms of KOA, such as joint pain or stiffness, limited joint activity and decreased walking function, and improve the quality of life of patients to a certain extent. This article mainly reviews the effect and biophysical mechanism of FLIPUS in the treatment of KOA, as well as related clinical research, in order to provide a reference for clinical workers who carry out research in this field.
Numerical simulation is one of the most significant methods to predict the temperature distribution in high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy. In this study, the adopted numerical simulation was used based on a transcranial ultrasound therapy model taking a human skull as a reference. The approximation of the Westervelt formula and the Pennes bio-heat conduction equation were applied to the simulation of the transcranial temperature distribution. According to the temperature distribution and the Time Reversal theory, the position of the treatable focal region was corrected and the hot spot existing in the skull was eliminated. Furthermore, the influence of the exposure time, input power and the distance between transducer and skull on the temperature distribution was analyzed. The results showed that the position of the focal region could be corrected and the hot spot was eliminated using the Time Reversal theory without affecting the focus. The focal region above 60℃ could be formed at the superficial tissue located from the skull of 20 mm using the hot spot elimination method and the volume of the focal region increases with the exposure time and the input power in a nonlinear form. When the same volume of the focal region was obtained, the more power was inputted, the less the exposure time was needed. Moreover, the volume of the focal region was influenced by the distance between the transducer and the skull.
ObjectiveTo explore the safety and effectiveness of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in treatment of hepatic echinococcosis. MethodsThe clinical data of 8 patients with hepatic echinococcosis from 2008 to 2010 in the HIFU treatment center of The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were analyzed retrospectively, the effect of HIFU treatment, postoperative liver area pain, fever, skin burn and other complications were evaluated, the prognosis and recurrence were followed-up. ResultsAll the clinical manifestations and imaging manifes-tations of these 8 patients were improved after HIFU treatment. The liver functions of all the patients were injuried, which all were returned to normal within 5 days. Three patients suffered from fever and recovered within 6 days. Six patients appeared pain of liver area and relieved within 7 days. Operation area skin was basically normal, except 3 cases of mild swelling, no special complications happened. ConclusionFrom the limited data initially shows that it is a safe and effec-tive method of HIFU in treatment of hepatic echinococcosis, which is little invasion and less postoperative complications.
【Abstract】ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) on the immunity of patients with advanced primary liver cancer (PLC). MethodsForty cases of PLC admitted to our institution from Mar. 2003 to Dec. 2003 were included in this study. Patients were divided into 2 groups and received either HIFU or radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment randomly. CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8, NK, IL-2, TNF were chosen to assess the immune status before and after treatment. The results were compared statistically. ResultsThe survival rate after HIFU was 80.0%, 61.1%, 42.9%, 33.3% at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 year respectively, which was similar to that after RFA treatment. The changes of immunity parameters of CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8, NK, IL-2 and TNF were not significant after HIFU treatment. In addition, the differences of those parameters between HIFU group and RFA group were insignificant. ConclusionThere are no detrimental effects on immunity in the early period after HIFU treatment.
In order to better incorporate patient input in clinical trials, the US Food and Drug Administration has included "patient-focused drug development" in the selection and development of clinical outcome assessments, and formulated a series of guidelines. Based on the third guiding principle, "Selecting, Developing, or Modifying Fit-for-Purpose Clinical Outcome Assessments", this article summarizes the clinical outcome assessments from five aspects: concept, development process, scoring mechanism, interference factors and sensitivity, and introduces four different types of clinical outcome assessments, providing new ideas for "patient-focused drug development" efficacy evaluation in clinical trials.
Objective To assess the survival of patients receiving high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and investigate the prognostic factors for primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHCC) victims with HIFU application. Methods One hundred and eighty-seven patients with PHCC undergoing HIFU treatment in our department were enrolled into this study from June 2004 to June 2007. Among them, 101 patients were males and 86 were females (mean age: 47.7 years old, range: 19-79 years old). The average tumor size was 5.7 cm (range: 0.5-18.0 cm). Of these 187 patients, numbers according to Child-Pugh grade of A, B and C were 104, 52 and 31, respectively. According to TNM system, 45, 111 and 31 patients were in stage Ⅱb, Ⅲa and Ⅲb respectively. Kaplan-Meier model and log-rank test were used in univariate analysis and Cox regression model was used in multivariate analysis to identify prognostic factors for survival. Results Survival period was (17.3±2.5) months after HIFU treatment of PHCC. The overall survival rate of 3-month, 6-month, 1-year and 2-year were 79.1%, 60.1%, 35.7%, and 29.3%， respectively. It was significant that tumor number (P=0.02), size (P=0.04)， AFP (P=0.04)， Child-Pugh grade (P=0.00)， TNM stage (P=0.01)， tumor metastasis (P=0.03) before HIFU， and tumor recurrence after HIFU (P=0.02) and standard treatment (P=0.02) were prognostic factors by single factor analysis. The following factors were identified as independent prognostic factors for overall survival by multivariate model: standard treatment protocol (P=0.000), and TNM stage (P=0.004) and Child-Pugh grade (P=0.009) before HIFU. Conclusion It is used for improving overall survival rate to found PHCC early, protect liver function, examine comprehensively before HIFU treatment, focus on standard treatment and auxiliary treatment.
The patient, as the person who experiences the disease first-hand, has the most direct and accurate experience of the pain of the disease and the most accurate need for health products. Although there is a vast array of technological means to combat disease and maintain health, the human burden of disease has not been reduced and the health needs of patients have not been fully met. Therefore, "patient-focused drug development" is imperative. Gathering comprehensive information from patients through multiple channels and incorporating this information into the entire drug development process can help ensure that patients’ experiences, perspectives, needs and priorities are taken into account and valued. This article will introduce the concept, development process and the specific problems it faces in patient-focused drug development.
Objective To investigate the clinical effect of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and uterine artery embolization (UAE) in the treatment of cesarean scar pregnancy (CSP). Methods A total of 152 patients with CSP diagnosed by B-type ultrasonography were enrolled prospectively in this study from June 2014 to May 2016 in Chengdu Women and Children’s Central Hospital and Suining Central Hospital. Six patients from Chengdu Women and Children’s Central Hospital and 84 from Suining Central Hospital for Volunteered HIFU treatment were regarded as observation group. The other 62 patients from Chengdu Women and Children’s Central Hospital were selected to accept UAE treatment voluntarily were designated as control group. The clinical efficacy and therapeutic safety of the two groups were compared after the treatment. Results Eighty-two patients (91.1%) in the observation group and 32 (51.6%) in the control group had a bleeding volume equal to 100 mL or lower during complete curettage of uterine cavity (P<0.05). The hospitalization expenses of the above two groups were respectively (25 126.51±1 473.49) and (32 928.42 ±1 579.35) yuan (P<0.05). The hospitalization time was (11.03±1.52) and (10.65±1.87) days respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the normal rate of human chorionic gonadotropin recovery between the observation group and the control group at 14 days after treatment (P>0.05). Eighty-seven patients (96.7%) in the observation group and 51 (82.3%) in the control group had their menstrual recovery to normal level at 2 months after treatment, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The incidence of postoperative complications was 1.1% and 6.4% in the observation group and the control group, respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusions HIFU in the treatment of CSP is safe and effective. Compared with UAE, HIFU requires less cost with fewer complications, which is worth promoting.