A nomogram for predicting 5-year incidence of type 2 diabetes in a Chinese population.

PURPOSE: To develop a nomogram for predicting 5-year incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Chinese adults. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study from a prospectively collected database. We included a total 32,766 adults free of T2D at baseline with a median follow-up of 3 years. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were applied to identify independent predictors. A nomogram was constructed to predict 5-year incident rate of T2D based on the multivariate analysis results. Harrell's C-indexes and calibration plots were used to evaluate the accuracy of the nomogram in both internal and external validations. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of T2D was 2.1%. Participants were randomly divided into a training set (n = 21,844) and a validation set (n = 10,922). After multivariate analysis in the training set, age, sex, BMI, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking status, and family history were found as risk predictors and integrated into the nomogram. Harrell's C-indexes were 0.815 (95% CI: 0.797-0.834) and 0.779 (95% CI: 0.747-0.811) in the training and validation sets, respectively. The calibration plots demonstrated good agreement between the estimated probability and the actual observation. CONCLUSION: Our nomogram could be a simple and reliable tool for predicting 5-year risk of developing T2D in high-risk Chinese. Through the model, early identifying high-risk individuals is helpful for timely intervention to reduce the incidence of T2D.

Noninvasive Evaluation of Benign and Malignant Superficial Lymph Nodes by Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of Virtual Touch tissue quantification (Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany) for differentiation of benign and malignant superficial lymph node lesions. METHODS: Shear wave velocity (SWV) values were analyzed in 113 patients, who also had diagnoses by pathologic examination. The diagnostic performance of the SWV was evaluated by sensitivity and specificity at the optimum cutoff value and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). RESULTS: A total of 60 benign lesions (32 reactive hyperplasia and 28 tuberculosis) and 53 malignant lesions (27 lymphomas and 26 metastatic carcinomas) were studied. The SWV was significantly different between benign (mean ± SD, 3.137 ± 0.857 m/s) and malignant (7.042 ± 1.427 m/s) lesions (P< .001) and yielded sensitivity of 92.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 81.8%-97.9%) and specificity of 96.7% (95% CI, 88.5%-99.6%) at an optimum cutoff value of 4.645 m/s. The AUROC was 0.973 (95% CI, 0.924-0.994). To separate reactive hyperplasia from tuberculosis within benign lesions, a cutoff value of 2.978 m/s provided sensitivity of 92.9% (95% CI, 76.5%-99.1%) and a specificity of 100% (95% CI, 89.1%-100%), with an AUROC of 0.989 (95% CI, 0.920-1.000). To separate lymphoma from metastatic carcinoma within malignant lesions, a cutoff value of 7.302 m/s provided sensitivity of 88.5% (95% CI, 69.8%-97.6%) and specificity of 81.5% (95% CI, 61.9%-93.7%), with an AUROC of 0.906 (95% CI, 0.764-0.969). CONCLUSIONS: Virtual Touch tissue quantification provides a promising noninvasive strategy for differentiation of benign and malignant superficial lymph node lesions.

Diagnostic usefulness of quantitative tissue velocity imaging and anatomic M-mode echocardiography for coronary artery diseases: A pilot study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To explore the potential clinical usefulness and determine optimal diagnostic criteria of quantitative tissue velocity imaging and anatomic M-mode echocardiography in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: We used quantitative tissue velocity imaging for the measurement of systolic myocardial velocity, and anatomic M-mode echocardiography for the measurement of ventricular wall-thickening fraction in 44 subjects with suspected CAD. Subjects were classified as patients if coronary angiography demonstrated a stenosis ≥ 50%, and as controls if it was strictly normal. The diagnostic criteria, sensitivity, and specificity were assessed by receiver-operator curves. RESULTS: Controls had greater mean systolic myocardial velocity and ventricular wall-thickening fraction in the basal (6.59 ± 1.25 cm/s and 0.44 ± 0.05) and mid segment (5.23 ± 0.93 cm/s and 0.43 ± 0.04) than patients (5.02 ± 1.17 cm/s and 0.29 ± 0.04, 3.27 ± 1.29 cm/s and 0.29 ± 0.04, respectively, p < 0.001). Mid-segment ventricular wall-thickening fraction offered 95% sensitivity (95% CI 88.7% to 98.4%), and 98.3% specificity (95% CI 90.9% to 1.0) with an optimal cut-off point of 0.349, yielding better results than systolic myocardial velocity, which provided 83% sensitivity (95% CI 74.2% to 89.8%), 90% specificity (95% CI 79.5% to 96.2%), and optimal cut-off point 4.47. The combination of systolic myocardial velocity and ventricular wall-thickening fraction offered 97% sensitivity (95% CI 91.5% to 99.4%) CONCLUSIONS: Mid-segment ventricular wall-thickening fraction might be suitable for the evaluation of patients with CAD.