Analysis of the impact of ultrasographer′s experience in diagnosing porcine striped muscle injury from thermal and chemical factors / 中华医学超声杂志（电子版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the ultrasonic and pathological features of porcine striped muscle injury from thermal and chemical factors respectively, and to analyze the limitation of ultrasound diagnosis given by doctors with different skill levels. Methods An experimental study using fresh porcine striped muscle in vitro was designed, where the injury were caused by microwave ablation (2 450 MHz) and Anhydrous acetic acid (99.8%) injection separately. Blind to pathologic results, the two-dimensiona sonograms taken from each model were analyzed by sonographers with different skill levels independently. Finally, the diagnoses were evaluated and compared among them. Results Two-dimensional sonograms showed distinct changes of the textures in both injury models, which was characterized as the disappearance of regular tissue structure. However, the corresponding histopathology revealed obvious differences between the two interventions on ultrasonograms. There was no statistical difference between chief physician and attending doctor (both of them had over 5-year experiences on skeletal muscle ultrasound ) in identifying the ultrasonic features of boundary, shape and muscle texture (Kappa=0.933, 0.845, 0.789;Kappa=0.790, 0.935, 0.865, all P<0.05). Compared with residents′diagnosis, there were signiifcant differences in identifying the ultrasonic features of echo level and muscle texture in both injury models:Echo level in thermal injury group:chief physician vs residents, Kappa=0.323;attending doctor vs residents, Kappa=0.297. Texture feature in thermal injury group:chief physician vs residents, Kappa=0.259;attending doctor vs residents, Kappa=0.112. Texture feature in chemical injury group:chief physician vsresidents, Kappa=0.253;attending doctor vs residents, Kappa=0.070. Conclusions Microwave ablation and Anhydrous acetic acid can cause different histopathologic changes in correspondence with various features on two-dimensional sonograms. But ultrasonographers with different skill levels leads to signiifcant variations in identiifcation and qualitative diagnosis, which is impossible to be quantitatively analyzed. Chief physician and attending doctor can draw a consistent conclusion and demonstrate the ultrasounic characteristics in porcine striped muscle injury model from thermal or chemical factors.