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Archives
Vol. 1, No. 1 Published: 30 March 2017

Original Research

  • Gender Difference in Ventricular-vascular Coupling in Response to Exercises in Medical Graduate Students
  • Zhaojun Li, MD, Qian Zhang, MD, Qing Yan, MD, Jufang Wang, MD, Lianfang Du, MD, Xianghong Luo, MD
  • 2017, 1 (1): 1-9. DOI:10.37015/AUDT.2017.170001
  • Abstract ( 309 ) HTML ( 15 ) PDF ( 454 )   
  • Objective: The cardiovascular interaction responses to exercise testing have been widely investigated in patients with cardio-cerebrovascular disease. However, little is known regarding cardiovascular stiffness in response to exercise in healthy adults. We therefore sought to study alterations in cardiovascular coupling and investigate gender-influences in young healthy adults after exercise testing.
    Methods: Eighty young healthy medical graduate students were studied. The left ventricular function, structure and blood flow were measured by echocardiograph at rest and exercise, and the following variables were calculated: left ventricular end-systolic and diastolic elastance (Ees and Ed), arterial elastance (Ea), ventricular - vascular coupling index (VVI) and total stiffness index (TSI).
    Results: During exercise, the Ed, Ees, Ea and TSI were all shown significant increase, but VVI was no difference compared at rest. Both at rest and exercise, Ed, VVI and TSI had significantly higher in women than in men. Furthermore, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed the difference Ed, Ees, Ea, STI and VVI between rest and exercise and VVI was the smallest. Ed, Ees and Ea were correlated with TSI, RPP, E/e and EF only in women.
    Conclusions: Exercise led to synchronously increasing in ventricular and arterial stiffness, and ventriculoarterial coupling was maintained. The exercise intolerance was lower in women than in men.

  • Clinical Value of Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound in Differential Diagnosis of Early Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Dysplastic Nodules
  • Jianmin Ding, MD, Yan Zhou, MD, Yandong Wang, MD, Hongyu Zhou, MD, Xiang Jing, MD
  • 2017, 1 (1): 10-14. DOI:10.37015/AUDT.2018.180009
  • Abstract ( 281 ) HTML ( 8 ) PDF ( 310 )   
  • Objective: To evaluate the clinical significance of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the diagnosis of early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with liver cirrhosis and analyze the enhancement patterns of nodules.
    Methods: One hundred seventy-six patients with a solitary tumor with size between 1.0 and 3.0cm were included in this study. The final diagnosis was confirmed by the histological results obtained from ultrasound-guided biopsy. According to the size, tumors were classified into the (1.0-2.0cm) group and the (2.0-3.0cm) group. The ROC curve was used to evaluate the clinical significance of CEUS in the diagnosis of early HCC with different size.
    Results: A total of 176 nodules, including 127 HCC and 49 non-HCC were enrolled in this study. 85.8% (109/127) of HCC were hypervascular during arterial phase of CEUS. The proportions of hypervascular tumors of the1.0-2.0cm group and the 2.0-3.0cm group were 81.0% and 90.0%, respectively. 72.4% of HCC in the 1.0-2.0cm group showed hypervascularity in arterial phase and contrast wash-out in portal of delayed phase, while 88.4% of HCC in the 2.0-3.0cm group presented the aforementioned enhancement pattern (P = 0.022). 16 of 58 HCC with size of 1.0-2.0cm did not meet the image diagnosis criteria recommend by guideline.
    Conclusion: CEUS are useful for the differential diagnosis of early HCC and dysplastic nodules in liver cirrhosis. Compared with the tumors with size of 2.0-3.0cm, fewer tumors with size of 1.0-2.0cm show enhancement patterns meeting the image diagnosis criteria. Thus, early HCC may be described by hypervascularity in arterial phase without wash-out in later phase.

Case Reports

  • Diagnosis with Echocardiography for Rare Cases of Anomalous Left Main Coronary Artery: Two Case Reports and Important Lessons Learned
  • Xianghong Luo, MD, Qian Zhang, MD, Qing Yan, MD, Jufang Wang, MD, Qingqing Dong, MD, Zhaojun Li, MD
  • 2017, 1 (1): 15-18. DOI:10.37015/AUDT.2017.170003
  • Abstract ( 248 ) HTML ( 3 ) PDF ( 347 )   
  • Objective: To evaluate the clinical significance of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the diagnosis of early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with liver cirrhosis and analyze the enhancement patterns of nodules.
    Methods: One hundred seventy-six patients with a solitary tumor with size between 1.0 and 3.0cm were included in this study. The final diagnosis was confirmed by the histological results obtained from ultrasound-guided biopsy. According to the size, tumors were classified into the (1.0-2.0cm) group and the (2.0-3.0cm) group. The ROC curve was used to evaluate the clinical significance of CEUS in the diagnosis of early HCC with different size.
    Results: A total of 176 nodules, including 127 HCC and 49 non-HCC were enrolled in this study. 85.8% (109/127) of HCC were hypervascular during arterial phase of CEUS. The proportions of hypervascular tumors of the1.0-2.0cm group and the 2.0-3.0cm group were 81.0% and 90.0%, respectively. 72.4% of HCC in the 1.0-2.0cm group showed hypervascularity in arterial phase and contrast wash-out in portal of delayed phase, while 88.4% of HCC in the 2.0-3.0cm group presented the aforementioned enhancement pattern (P = 0.022). 16 of 58 HCC with size of 1.0-2.0cm did not meet the image diagnosis criteria recommend by guideline.
    Conclusion: CEUS are useful for the differential diagnosis of early HCC and dysplastic nodules in liver cirrhosis. Compared with the tumors with size of 2.0-3.0cm, fewer tumors with size of 1.0-2.0cm show enhancement patterns meeting the image diagnosis criteria. Thus, early HCC may be described by hypervascularity in arterial phase without wash-out in later phase.

Open Access, Peer-reviewed

ISSN 2576-2516 (Online)

ISSN 2576-2508 (Print)

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