ABSTRACT
Background@#Glomus tumors are benign vascular tumors derived from the glomus body, a neuromuscular vascular tissue responsible for regulating the temperature and blood flow of the skin. Ultrasonography (USG) is a useful tool for diagnosing glomus tumors; nevertheless, data on Korean patients with glomus tumors are limited. @*Objective@#This study aimed to describe USG findings of subungual glomus tumors in Korean patients. @*Methods@#We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and USG readings of 20 cases of glomus tumors in the nail apparatus diagnosed from January 2015 to December 2021. @*Results@#Twenty patients were included in this study. Four patients (20.0%) were male and 16 (80.0%) were female. The age of onset ranged from 18∼86 years, with a mean of 45.2 years. USG findings showed hypoechoic echogenicity in all cases. Tumor size ranged from 2.3∼10 mm (mean±standard deviation, 5.5±1.9 mm). The tumor shape observed on USG was oval in 16 cases (80.0%), lobulated in three cases (15.0%), and round in one case (5.0%). Tumor boundaries were well-defined in 18 cases (90.0%) and ill-defined in two cases. Posterior acoustic enhancement and cortical erosion were observed in 19 (95.0%) and 17 cases (85.0%), respectively. Increased vascularity was observed in 19 cases (95.0%). @*Conclusion@#This study revealed characteristic USG features of glomus tumors. USG is a helpful tool for the diagnosis and management of glomus tumors.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the usefulness of computed tomography (CT) texture analysis (CTTA) in estimating histologic tumor grade and in predicting disease-free survival (DFS) after surgical resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-one patients with a single HCC who had undergone quadriphasic liver CT followed by surgical resection were enrolled. Texture analysis of tumors on preoperative CT images was performed using commercially available software. The mean, mean of positive pixels (MPP), entropy, kurtosis, skewness, and standard deviation (SD) of the pixel distribution histogram were derived with and without filtration. The texture features were then compared between groups classified according to histologic grade. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards analyses were performed to determine the relationship between texture features and DFS. RESULTS: SD and MPP quantified from fine to coarse textures on arterial-phase CT images showed significant positive associations with the histologic grade of HCC (p < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis identified most CT texture features across the different filters from fine to coarse texture scales as significant univariate markers of DFS. Cox proportional hazards analysis identified skewness on arterial-phase images (fine texture scale, spatial scaling factor [SSF] 2.0, p <001; medium texture scale, SSF 3.0, p <001), tumor size (p = 0.001), microscopic vascular invasion (p = 0.034), rim arterial enhancement (p = 0.024), and peritumoral parenchymal enhancement (p = 0.010) as independent predictors of DFS. CONCLUSION: CTTA was demonstrated to provide texture features significantly correlated with higher tumor grade as well as predictive markers of DFS after surgical resection of HCCs in addition to other valuable imaging and clinico-pathologic parameters.