Value of controlled synechiae technique on maintaining stability of middle turbinate in endoscopy surgery / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the method of the controlled synechiae technique to maintain the stability of middle turbinate (MT), reduce the incidence of middle meatus synechia formation and improve the treatment effect of endoscopy surgery.@*METHOD@#Eighty-six patients with chronic sinusitis were randomly divided into control group and treatment group in this study. In control group, the patients received extended nasal packing in middle meatus until 1 week after surgery. In treatment group, the patients received the controlled synechiae technique.@*RESULT@#The MT position was described as stable, slight drifting laterally and synechia formation. And the incidence of synechia between MT and the nasal lateral wall was 29.4% and 14.9% in control group and treatment group,respectively. The differences were significant (P < 0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#For those patients with anatomic variation, destruction or weak supporting structures resulted from previous surgery, the controlled synechiae technique is very useful in preventing lateralization of the middle turbinate after endoscopy surgery.

Automatic segmentation of coronary angiograms based on fuzzy inferring and probabilistic tracking.

BACKGROUND: Segmentation of the coronary angiogram is important in computer-assisted artery motion analysis or reconstruction of 3D vascular structures from a single-plan or biplane angiographic system. Developing fully automated and accurate vessel segmentation algorithms is highly challenging, especially when extracting vascular structures with large variations in image intensities and noise, as well as with variable cross-sections or vascular lesions. METHODS: This paper presents a novel tracking method for automatic segmentation of the coronary artery tree in X-ray angiographic images, based on probabilistic vessel tracking and fuzzy structure pattern inferring. The method is composed of two main steps: preprocessing and tracking. In preprocessing, multiscale Gabor filtering and Hessian matrix analysis were used to enhance and extract vessel features from the original angiographic image, leading to a vessel feature map as well as a vessel direction map. In tracking, a seed point was first automatically detected by analyzing the vessel feature map. Subsequently, two operators [e.g., a probabilistic tracking operator (PTO) and a vessel structure pattern detector (SPD)] worked together based on the detected seed point to extract vessel segments or branches one at a time. The local structure pattern was inferred by a multi-feature based fuzzy inferring function employed in the SPD. The identified structure pattern, such as crossing or bifurcation, was used to control the tracking process, for example, to keep tracking the current segment or start tracking a new one, depending on the detected pattern. RESULTS: By appropriate integration of these advanced preprocessing and tracking steps, our tracking algorithm is able to extract both vessel axis lines and edge points, as well as measure the arterial diameters in various complicated cases. For example, it can walk across gaps along the longitudinal vessel direction, manage varying vessel curvatures, and adapt to varying vessel widths in situations with arterial stenoses and aneurysms. CONCLUSIONS: Our algorithm performs well in terms of robustness, automation, adaptability, and applicability. In particular, the successful development of two novel operators, namely, PTO and SPD, ensures the performance of our algorithm in vessel tracking.

Compare the value of video laryngoscope in localization diagnosis of upper airway stricture in obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome between awake and drug-induced sleep / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To compare the value of video laryngoscope in localization diagnosis of upper airway stricture in obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) between awake and drug-induced sleep.@*METHOD@#Ninety-eight patients of OSAHS were examined with video laryngoscope to locate the upper airway stricture under awake and Midazolam-induced sleep.@*RESULT@#The several stricture levels under awake was 58.2% and it was 77.5% under drug induced sleep.@*CONCLUSION@#Several stricture levels of upper airway were founded in most of the patients of OSAHS. The upper airway stricture levels was more in the sleep than in the wake.

The value of video laryngoscope in localization diagnosis of upper airway stricture in obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome during drug-induced sleep / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the value of video laryngoscope in localization diagnosis of upper airway stricture in obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) during drug-induced sleep.@*METHOD@#One hundred and thirty two patients with OSAHS were randomly divided into group A and B in this study. In group A, the patients were examined with video laryngoscope to locate the upper airway stricture under midazolam-induced sleep. In group B, the patients had conventional physical examination and video laryngoscope when awake. And the operation plans of both groups were made based on the localization diagnosis results.@*RESULT@#In group A, 72.1% patients have several stricture levels and in group B only 33.8%. The patients was followed up time more than 6 months, and the cure rate, the excellent effective rate, and the total effective rate of group A were significantly higher than those in group B respectively (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#Most patients of OSAHS have several stricture levels of upper airway under Midazolam- induced sleep. Localization diagnosis of upper airway stricture in patients with OSAHS with video laryngoscope before operation can improve the cure efficiency significantly.