The value of color doppler ultrasonography combined with computed tomography angiography and magnetic resonance angiography in the preoperative quantification and classification of carotid body tumors: a retrospective analysis.

BACKGROUND: Computed tomography angiography (CTA) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) provide accurate vascular imaging information, but their use may be contraindicated. Color Doppler ultrasonography (CDU) provides simple, safe, noninvasive, and reproducible imaging. We therefore investigated the role of preoperative CDU combined with CTA and MRA in the quantification, typing, and diagnosis of carotid body tumors (CBTs). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed patients with CBTs categorized into group A (type I [n = 1] and type II [n = 10]) or group B (type III [n = 56]) per the intraoperative Shamblin classification. CDU, CTA, and MRA characteristics of CBTs were observed, surgical results were correlated, and the diagnostic threshold of the CBT classification was calculated. RESULTS: CBTs were usually located at the common carotid artery bifurcation, encircling the carotid artery. An increased angle was found between the internal and external carotid arteries. On CDU, CBTs primarily presented as homogeneous hypoechoic masses with clear boundaries, rich flow signals, and a high-speed, low-resistance artery-like flow spectrum. CTA showed uniform or heterogeneous marked enhancement. MRA showed mixed T1 and slightly longer T2 signals and uniform or uneven obvious enhancement. With increases in the lesion size, amount of blood transfused, and operation time, the intraoperative classification level and possibility of skull-base invasion increased. When the maximum diameter of the lesion, the volume of the tumor, the distance between the upper margin of the tumor to the mastoid and the mandibular angle were 3.10 cm, 10.15 cm3, - 3.26 cm, and 0.57 cm, respectively, the largest Youden index was the best diagnostic boundary value for Shamblin type III tumors. CONCLUSIONS: CDU combined with CTA and MRA can accurately evaluate the size and classification of CBTs.

The diagnostic value of hydrogen sulfide breath test for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth / 中华内科杂志

Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic value of hydrogen sulfide breath test(SBT) for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).Methods:College students were enrolled to complete gastrointestinal symptom scale, food frequency questionnaire, lactulose hydrogen- methane breath test (LHMBT) and SBT. Based on the correlation between hydrogen sulfide(H 2S) and hydrogen or methane gas,the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of H 2S was drawn and diagnostic criteria of SBT was defined. Results:A total of 300 subjects including 84 males and 216 females with age 17-32 (21.6±2.4) years were enrolled from April 2019 to December 2019 and divided into two groups.Two hundred and three patients reported SIBO discomforts with 99 (48.8%) LHMBT positive, while 38 (39.2%) were LHMBT positive in 97 health controls. Rise of H 2S at 90 min was positively related with that of hydrogen ( r=0.516, P<0.01), and H 2S levels at 90 min were positively correlated with methane ( r=0.632, P<0.01). A rise in H 2S of ≥25.0 ppb or H 2S levels ≥62.5 ppb at 90 min during lactulose breath test was considered positive for SIBO, that sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 66.4%,79.1% and 73.3% respectively. H 2S levels were significantly related to the amount of Vitamin B 12 intake ( P=0.011). H 2S-positive subjects exhibited a constipation-predominant pattern. Conclusion:SBT is consistent with LHMBT, especially in constipation-predominant patients, which may provide a reference to the diagnosis of SIBO.

Adapting the Right Measures for Pattern Discovery: A Unified View.

This paper presents a unified view of interestingness measures for interesting pattern discovery. Specifically, we first provide three necessary conditions for interestingness measures being used for association pattern discovery. Then, we reveal one desirable property for interestingness measures: the support-ascending conditional antimonotone property (SA-CAMP). Along this line, we prove that the measures possessing SA-CAMP are suitable for pattern discovery if the itemset-traversal structure is defined by a support-ascending set enumeration tree. In addition, we provide a thorough study on the family of the generalized mean (GM) measure and show their appealing properties, which are exploited for developing the GMiner algorithm for finding interesting association patterns. Finally, experimental results show that GMiner can efficiently identify interesting patterns based on SA-CAMP of the GM measure, even at an extremely low level of support.