The purpose of this study was to apply a novel method of multiscale echo texture analysis for distinguishing benign (hemangiomas) from malignant (hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and metastases) focal liver lesions in B-mode ultrasound images. In this method, regions of interest (ROIs) extracted from within the lesions were decomposed into subimages by wavelet packets. Multiscale texture features that quantify homogeneity of the echogenicity were calculated from these subimages and were combined by an artificial neural network (ANN). A subset of the multiscale features was selected that yielded the highest performance in the classification of lesions measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (Az). In an analysis of 193 ROIs consisting of 50 hemangiomas, 87 hepatocellular carcinomas and 56 metastases, the multiscale features yielded a high A: value of 0.92 in distinguishing benign from malignant lesions, 0.93 in distinguishing hemangiomas from HCCs and 0.94 in distinguishing hemangiomas from metastases. Our new multiscale texture analysis method can effectively differentiate malignant from benign lesions, and thus has the potential to increase the accuracy of diagnosis of focal liver lesions in ultrasound images.
This study shows that the carotid arteries' IMT is increased in patients with severe OSAS. This increase may predispose the patients to cerebrovascular disease. Additionally, the findings support the hypothesis that patients with OSAS are at risk of developing cerebrovascular disease regardless of the presence or absence of other vascular risk factors (eg, hypercholesterolemia, diabetus mellitus, and hypertension).
It may be very difficult to diagnose the pathology in patients with anterior knee pain. Patients with chronic anterior knee pain have been reviewed for the study. Our aim was to delineate the presence of subtle trochlear dysplasia by measuring lateral trochlear inclination (LTI) in axial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. While there were 109 knees in the study group with anterior knee pain (AKP), control group consisted of 74 knees without AKP. The LTI measurements were performed at the level of proximal cartilaginous area of trochlear groove in axial scans. The condition was termed to be trochlear dysplasia when LTI was below 11 masculine. Parameters in both groups were statistically analyzed and compared for their association with LTI. There was no significant difference between LTI values of male and female subjects in each group. The mean LTI values in anterior knee pain and control groups were 17.32 masculine and 21.5 masculine, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The ratio of knees with trochlear dysplasia was 16.5% in AKP group, which was only 2.7% in control. In the AKP group, the ratio of trochlear dysplasia was significantly high (P < 0.05). Although trochlear dysplasia has been generally detected in cases with patellar instability, this study revealed that the frequency of this finding in patients with other causes of anterior knee pain was also considerably high. Measurement of lateral trochlear inclination in axial MRI scans with radiologic assessment seems to be a valuable diagnostic criterion, especially in patients in whom etiology of anterior knee pain could not be identified.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.