[Study on present status of ICU in county-level general hospitals of Henan Province].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the present status of intensive care unit (ICU) in the county-level general hospitals of Henan Province and provide basis for improving the construction level and rational allocation of medical resources of ICU. METHODS: According to The guidelines for the construction and management of critical care medicine (trial implementation) issued by National Health Commission (NHC) (hereinafter referred as the guidelines), a cross-sectional survey was conducted on the present status of ICU in 93 county-level general hospitals in Henan Province in 2018 by using a self-designed questionnaire concerning this topic. The survey included the basic information of ICU (establishment time, organization and management mode, development of special departments in ICU, construction of key disciplines), scale and staffing allocation and training, and the equipment and technology development situation in ICU. RESULTS: The basic aspects of ICU situation were as follows: firstly, the establishment time: the ICU of county-level general hospitals in Henan Province started relatively late. The survey showed that all the 93 hospitals had set up ICU, of which the earliest was the ICU of Xunxian People's Hospital in 1989, only 4 county-level general hospitals established their ICUs before 2000, and 34 before 2009. Secondly, the management mode: the proportion of ICU closely managed was accounting for 68.82% (64/93), while semi-open management was 18.28% (17/93), and 12.90% (12/93) hospitals still adopted the open management mode. Thirdly, development of specialized ICU and construction of key disciplines: comprehensive ICUs were founded in 86 hospitals, and the proportions of specialized ICUs such as neonatal ICU, emergency ICU and coronary heart disease care unit (CCU) were higher than other kinds of special department; the ICUs of 8 hospitals were the key discipline of Henan Provincial Health Commission, and the ICUs of 9 hospitals were the discipline of Municipal Health Commission. Scale and staffing of ICU: a total of 2 189 ICU beds were opened in 93 county-level general hospitals. The utilization rate reaching the targets of ICU beds and the compliance rate of ICU bed area per bed were relatively high, 76.34% and 80.64%, while the compliance rates of ICU doctors/ICU beds, ICU nurses/ICU beds were low, which were 8.60% and 7.52% respectively, indicating that the clinicians and nursing facilities were insufficient. There were 1 tertiary hospital, 76 secondary-A hospitals and 16 secondary-B hospitals in this survey. Compared with secondary-B hospitals in the total number of beds (sheets: 922.22±285.99 vs. 636.75±258.84) and ICU beds (sheets: 25.28±21.15 vs. 14.63±6.89), the secondary-A hospitals were significantly higher (all P < 0.01), and the rate of bed use compliance of secondary-A hospitals was significantly higher than that in secondary-B hospitals [81.6% (62/76) vs. 50.0% (8/16), P < 0.01]. In terms of staffing, the proportion of clinicians and nurses with elementary titles was the highest, the proportion of full-time senior professional titles was relatively low, the proportion of doctors with bachelor's degree was the highest, and that of nurses with junior college degree was the highest. In personnel training, the hospitals surveyed had sent the doctors and nurses mostly to participate in the continuing education and training of critical care medicine at or above the provincial level for 745 person-times and 1 156 person-times, and there were in the mean for 8 and 12 person-times in each hospital, respectively. In terms of equipment configuration and technology development of ICU, mostly the equipment in ICU of county-level general hospitals consisted of microinjection pump, monitor, infusion pump, invasive ventilator, expectorant machine, etc. but the overall equipment was insufficient. Although an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) equipment was introduced in one hospital, it had not been carried out clinically. All county-level general hospitals in Henan Province had set up ICUs, but there were gaps between the compliance rates of many indicators and the requirements of the guidelines, and the medical personnel and equipment were relatively insufficient. CONCLUSIONS: The ICUs of county-level general hospitals in Henan Province have developed rapidly in recent years, but there is still much room for improvement.

Improved display of cervical intervertebral discs on water (iodine) images: incidental findings from single-source dual-energy CT angiography of head and neck arteries.

OBJECTIVE: To (a) assess the diagnostic performance of material decomposition (MD) water (iodine) images for the evaluation of cervical intervertebral discs (IVDs) in patients who underwent dual-energy head and neck CT angiography (HNCTA) compared with 70-keV images and (b) to explore the correlation of water concentration with the T2 relaxation time of IVDs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four consecutive patients who underwent dual-energy HNCTA and cervical spine MRI were studied. The diagnostic performance of water (iodine), 70-keV and MR images for IVD bulge and herniation was assessed. A subjective image score for each image set was recorded. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of IVDs to the cervical spinal cord were compared between water (iodine) and 70-keV images. Disc water concentration as measured on water (iodine) images was correlated with T2 relaxation time. RESULTS: IVD evaluations for bulge and herniation did not differ significantly among the three image sets (pairwise comparisons; all p > 0.05). SNR and CNR were significantly improved on water (iodine) images compared with those on 70-keV images (p < 0.001). Although water (iodine) images showed higher image quality scores when evaluating IVDs compared with 70-keV images, the difference is not significant (all adjusted p > 0.05). IVD water concentration exhibited no correlation with relative T2 relaxation time (all p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Water (iodine) images facilitated analysis of cervical IVDs by providing higher SNR and CNR compared with 70-keV images. The disc water concentration measured on water (iodine) images exhibited no correlation with relative T2 relaxation time. KEY POINTS: • There was no significant difference in cervical IVD evaluations for bulge and herniation among water (iodine) images, 70-keV images and MR images. • Water (iodine) images provided higher objective and subjective image quality than 70-keV images, though the difference of subjective evaluation was not statistically significant. • The disc water concentration exhibited no correlation with relative T2 relaxation time, which reflects the inferiority of the water (iodine) images in evaluating disc water content compared with T2 maps.

Radiomics Analysis of Multiparametric MRI Evaluates the Pathological Features of Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Robust parameters to evaluate pathological aggressiveness are needed to provide individualized therapy for cervical cancer patients. PURPOSE: To investigate the radiomics analysis of multiparametric MRI to evaluate tumor grade, lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI), and lymph node (LN) metastasis of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC). STUDY TYPE: Retrospective. SUBJECTS: Fifty-six patients with histopathologically confirmed CSCC. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3T, axial T2 and T2 with fat suppression (FS), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) (multi-b values), axial dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI (8 sec temporal resolution). ASSESSMENT: Regions of interest were drawn around the tumor on each axial slice and fused to generate the whole tumor volume. Sixty-six radiomics features were derived from each image sequence, including axial T2 and T2 FS, ADC maps, and Ktrans , Ve , and Vp maps from DCE MRI. STATISTICAL TESTS: A univariate analysis was performed to assess each parameter's association with tumor grade and the presence of lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) and lymph node (LN) metastasis. A principal component analysis was employed for dimension reduction and to generate new discriminative valuables. Using logistic regression, a discriminative model of each parameter was built and a receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was generated. RESULTS: The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of anatomical, diffusion, and permeability parameters in discriminating the presence of LVSI ranged from 0.659 to 0.814, with Ve showing the best discriminative value. The AUC in discriminating the presence of LN metastasis and distinguishing tumor grade ranged from 0.747 to 0.850, 0.668 to 0.757, with ADC and Ve showing the best discriminative value, respectively. DATA CONCLUSION: Functional maps exhibit better discriminative values than anatomical images for discriminating the pathological features of CSCC, with ADC maps showing the best discrimination performance for LN metastasis and Ve maps showing the best discriminative value for LVSI and tumor grade. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019;49:1141-1148.