Focal lesion at the midline of the prostate on transrectal ultrasonography: take it or leave it?

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the detection rate of prostate cancers from targeted biopsy specimens of midline focal lesions and to investigate the ultrasonographic findings to reduce unnecessary additional targeted biopsies. METHODS: Ninety-eight men with midline focal lesions detected on transrectal ultrasonography were enrolled. Additional targeted biopsies for midline focal lesions were performed after 12-core random systematic biopsies. Correlations between the ultrasonographic characteristics of midline focal lesions and the pathologic results were analyzed. RESULTS: Twenty of 98 targeted biopsy cores (20.4%) were positive for malignancy. In a univariate analysis, midline focal lesions without bulging contours (P=0.023), with involved margins (P=0.001), without hypoechoic perilesional rims (P=0.005), and with longer diameters (P=0.005) were statistically significant for cancer detection. In a multivariate analysis, involved margin (P=0.027), having longer diameter (P=0.011) or absence of hypoechoic perilesional rim (P=0.025) made a statistically significant contribution to cancer detection. CONCLUSION: Biopsy of midline focal lesions was not always non-significant in the detection of prostate cancer. Additional targeted biopsies should be considered in cases of midline focal lesions with involved margins but without hypoechoic perilesional rims.

ManBIF: a Program for Mining and Managing Biobank Impact Factor Data

Biobank Impact Factor (BIF), which is a very effective criterion to evaluate the activity of biobanks, can be estimated by the citation information of biobanks from scientific papers. We have developed a program, ManBIF, to investigate the citation information from PDF files in the literature. The program manages a dictionary for expressions to represent biobanks and their resources, mines the citation information by converting PDF files to text files and searching with a dictionary, and produces a statistical report file. It can be used as an important tool by biobanks.