Clinical value of acoustic radiation force impulse elastography in differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical value of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography in the differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>ARFI elastography was performed for 169 lesions from 163 patients with focal liver lesions and 15 healthy volunteers, and the virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) findings and measured value of shear wave velocity (SWV) of liver lesions were obtained and compared between groups. The t-test was applied for comparison of means between two groups; the one-way analysis of variance was applied for comparison of means between multiple groups, and the Student-Newman-Keuls test was applied for further comparison between any two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Benign focal liver lesions were stiffer or softer than or had the same stiffness as the surrounding liver parenchyma. These lesions had a uniform texture, and the ratio between their diameters on elastographic images and two-dimensional images was close to 1. The typical VTI finding of hemangioma lesions was"honeycomb"pattern. Most malignant focal liver lesions were stiffer than the surrounding liver parenchyma, and the ratio between their diameters on elastographic images and two-dimensional images was greater than 1. The typical VTI finding of metastatic lesions was"bull's eye"sign. With a measured SWV of 2.08 m/s as the diagnostic threshold for malignant liver lesions, its sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 90.3%, 76.9%, and 84.2%, respectively. Poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) showed a significant increase in stiffness compared with moderately differentiated HCC (t = 5.319, P = 0.025) and well-differentiated HCC (t = 6.372, P = 0.011).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ARFI elastography can reflect changes in the stiffness of focal liver lesions accurately, and is useful for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant focal liver lesions.</p>

Evaluation of normal fetal hard palate by three-dimensional ultrasonography / 中华超声影像学杂志

Objective To investigate the method for the normal three‐dimensional ultrasound imaging and the characteristics of the fetal hard palate .Methods 210 single fetus free of deformity were examined using three‐dimensional ultrasound(3DUS) .Offline analysis was made after reconstruction ,the hard palate was observed and the width was measured .Results With reconstruction ,the fetal palate was clearly displayed 1.97 cases in 210 cases were successfully displayed (93 8.% ) .The front palate and both frontalis processus of maxillary bone composed similar triangular structure in the coronal plane .The retral part showed sustained linear hyperechoic and the radian increased along with the gestational age .Early palate showed flaky hyperechoic in the cross section and it became horse‐shoe shaped in the second or third trimester pregnancy surrounded by alveolar bone .Linear regression yielded the following formula for the hard palate width (PW) according to gestational age (GA):PW= -0 5.47+0 0.13 × GA( r =0 9.82 ,P <0 0.01) .Conclusions 3DUS acquired palate images fast and easily .The hard palate in the coronal ,sagittal and cross plane showed obvious characteristic images in different gestational stages .With increasing gestational age ,the curvature ,width ,trend and the contrast with the surrounding tissue had the corresponding changes . The successful three‐dimensional image reconstruction of the postnasal triangle and the retral part of fetal hard palate would have an important significance in terms of assessing its continuity and integrity .