[Clinical value of suspicious calcification in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast lesions using contrast-enhanced spectral mammography].

Objective: To evaluate clinical value of suspicious calcification in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast lesions using contrast-enhanced spectral mammography. Methods: Ninty-four patients who underwent CESM with suspicious calcification on the low-energy(LE) images in Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from April 2017 to April 2019 were collected.All patients were female, with an average age of 51 years (26 to 89 years).All patients underwent biopsy or surgery to obtain pathological results. Two experienced radiologists provide BI-RADS classification for LE images and CESM. To assess pairwise agreement between BI-RADS classification on CESM and LE images among readers, kappa test were calculated. Using pathology results as the gold standard,the diagnostic efficacy of LE images and CESM were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curve, and Z test was used to compare the areas under the ROC curves (AUC) among them, calculated the sensitivity, specificity. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to analyze the consistency of the maximum image diameter and pathological diameter of malignant lesions. Two experienced radiologists provided the preferred surgical treatment (breast conservation therapy versus mastectomy) for all malignant cases according the imaging findings. McNemars test was used to compare the difference between surgical decision making and final surgical procedure. Results: One hundred and three lesions were found in 94 patients, in which 49 were benign and 54 were malignant.Overall agreement on BI-RADS classification between LE imaging and CESM among readers was substantial (0.74 vs 0.86), CESM was higher than LE images. The sensitivity of LE images and CESM were 80.4%, 96.2%, specificity was 75.0%, 94.0%, AUC were 0.810, 0.960 respectively. There was significant difference of the AUC between LE images and CESM (Z=3.66, P<0.01). The ICC of malignant lesions measured on LE images and CESM and histopathological results were 0.86 and 0.96, respectively. Based on LE images, 44.4%(24/54) of patients recommended BCT, 55.6%(30/54) of patients recommended mastectomy, the difference was statistically significant (P=0.008). Based on CESM, 27.8%(15/54) of patients recommended breast conservation therapy, 72.2%(39/54) of patients recommended mastectomy,there was no significant statistically difference with the final surgical procedure (P=0.125). Conclusion: CESM has a high diagnostic accuracy for suspicious calcification of breast. And its accuracy in assessing malignant lesion size is higher, which can provide a basis for preoperative surgical decision making.

Serum lipid and apolipoprotein distributions in Hong Kong Chinese.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The aim was to describe the distribution of lipids and apolipoproteins in the Chinese population in Hong Kong. DESIGN: This was a prospective, cross sectional, population based survey. SETTINGS: The study was conducted in a single, self referred, out patient screening centre. PARTICIPANTS: Altogether 825 Chinese adults aged > or = 20 years were screened. One hundred subjects who had previously had lipid measurement and 29 who were taking lipid modifying drugs were excluded but 289 men and 407 women remained for further analysis. MAIN RESULTS: Age standardised mean (SEM) lipids concentrations for Hong Kong Chinese were total cholesterol: men, 5.48 (0.05) mmol/l and women, 5.46 (0.06) mmol/l; triglycerides: men, 1.22 (1.03) mmol/l and women, 1.00 (1.03) mmol/l; high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol: men, 1.25 (0.02) mmol/l and women, 1.42 (0.02) mmol/l; low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol: men, 3.56 (0.05) mmol/l and women, 3.50 (0.06) mmol/l; apolipoprotein A-I (apo A-I): men, 1.34 (0.01) g/l and women, 1.46 (0.01) g/l; and apolipoprotein B (apo B): men, 1.15 (0.02) g/l and women, 1.06 (0.02) g/l. The total to HDL cholesterol ratios were men, 4.62 (0.07) and women, 4.10 (0.08); and apo B to apo A-I ratios (apo B/A) were men, 0.88 (0.02) and women, 0.75 (0.02). While levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, apo B, triglycerides, total/HDL cholesterol, and apo B/A were positively associated with age in both sexes and were higher in men before the age 50-59 years, they rose steeply thereafter in women to cross over the levels in men. In contrast, HDL cholesterol decreased with age while apo A-I remained constant, and both were consistently higher in women than in men in all age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Hong Kong Chinese have attained lipid profiles similar to those in other developed western populations. Environmental factors seem influential in this regard. Faced with the increasing coronary mortality of recent years, there should be a major effort to reduce the cholesterol concentrations in this population.