Dynamics of respiratory infectious diseases under rapid urbanization and COVID-19 pandemic in the subcenter of Beijing during 2014-2022.

Objective: The study analyzed the impact of urbanization on epidemiological characteristics of respiratory infectious disease in Tongzhou District, Beijing during 2014-2022 to provide reference for prevention and control priorities of respiratory infectious diseases during the innovative urbanization process in China. Methods: The incidence data of notifiable respiratory infectious diseases (NRIDs) in Tongzhou Beijing during 2014-2022 were summarized. The trend of incidence rate was analyzed by Joinpoint regression model, and entropy method was performed to construct the comprehensive index of urbanization (CIU) and generalized linear model was used to analyze the influence of CIU on the incidence rate of respiratory infectious diseases. Results: Totally 72616 NRIDs cases were reported in Tongzhou District during 2014-2022, and the incidence rate of NRIDs was higher during 2017-2019 (153/100 000) than during 2014-2016 (930/100 000) and during 2020-2022 (371/100 000), respectively (both P < 0.001). The CIU constantly increased with slight fluctuation in 2016 and 2018, respectively. The incidence rate of NRIDs showed an increase along with the CIU during 2014-2019 (r = 0.95, P = 0.004), while the incidence rate's tendency was interrupted by COVID-19 during 2020 with slight decrease in 2020-2021 and rebounded in 2022. For the patients aged <15 years, the incidence rate of NRIDs revealed a very sharp rise at the urbanization period without COVID-19 pandemic compared with that under pre-urbanization period (RR = 7.93, 95 % CI 7.63-8.24), and dropped off to the similar level as of pre-urbanization period when COVID-19 pandemic spread. Conclusions: Urbanization process may increase the incidence of NRIDs but constrained by COVID-19. Certain measures should be taken to prevent and control the effects by urbanization process, such as good natural environment with less population density, ecological environment with good air quality, promoted hand hygiene, mask wearing, keeping interpersonal distance, vaccination, media publicity for NRIDs' prevention and control.

Role of quantitative intravoxel incoherent motion parameters in the preoperative diagnosis of nodal metastasis in patients with rectal carcinoma.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of intravoxel incoherent motion imaging (IVIM) in differentiating metastatic and nonmetastatic lymph nodes in patients with rectal carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all, 68 patients with histologically proven rectal carcinoma underwent an IVIM sequence (b = 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, and 2000 s/mm(2) ) on a 3.0T MRI scanner. The IVIM parameters (D, D*, f, and apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC] values) in metastatic and nonmetastatic lymph nodes were measured and calculated. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted to determine the optimal thresholds, the sensitivities, and specificities for differentiation. RESULTS: Mean D, f, and ADC values of metastatic lymph nodes were significantly greater than those of the normal lymph nodes (P < 0.01), whereas the mean D* value of metastatic lymph node was statistically lower (P = 0.03). The AUC, sensitivity, specificity, and the cutoff value, respectively, for differentiating metastatic from nonmetastatic lymph nodes for D, D*, f, and ADC were as follows: D, 0.9460, 89.25%, 91.04%, and 1.14 × 10(-3) mm(2) /s; D*, 0.6930, 64.18%, 82.80%, and 7.02 × 10(-3) mm(2) /s; f, 0.7810, 92.47%, 55.22%, and 0.27%; ADC, 0.8970, 87.10%, 88.06%, and 0.80 × 10(-3) mm(2) /s. The ROC curves demonstrated that the area under the ROC (AUC) of the D, ADC, f, and D* values successively decreased, and D had the highest AUC, with D* values being lowest. CONCLUSION: An IVIM sequence may be helpful in diagnosing metastatic lymph nodes of rectal carcinoma. Average D and ADC values are more sensitive than f and D* values in this differentiation. J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2016;44:1031-1039.

Radiofrequency ablation as a treatment for hilar cholangiocarcinoma.

AIM: To explore the role of radio-frequency ablation (RFA) as a treatment for hilar cholangiocarcinoma. METHODS: Eleven patients with obstructive cholestasis underwent Computed Tomography (CT) examination, occupying lesions were observed in the hepatic hilar region in each patient. All lesions were confirmed as cholangioadenocarcinoma by biopsy and were classified as type III or IV by percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography. Patients were treated with multiple electrodes RFA combined with other adjuvant therapy. The survival rate, change of CT attenuation coefficient of the tumor and tumor size were studied in these patients after RFA. RESULTS: In a follow-up CT scan one month after RFA, a size reduction of about 30% was observed in six masses, and two masses were reduced by about 20% in size, three of the eleven masses remained unchanged. In a follow-up CT scan 6 mo after RFA, all the masses were reduced in size (overall 35%), in which the most significant size reduction was 60%. The survival follow-up among these eleven cases was 18 mo in average. Ongoing follow-up showed that the longest survival case was 30 mo and the shortest case was 10 mo. CONCLUSION: RFA is a microinvasive and effective treatment for hilar cholangiocarcinoma.