MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study on NAFLD patients who had a liver biopsy and LSM on the same day. The diagnostic performance of the Hepamet fibrosis score was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC).

RESULTS: The data for 196 patients were analyzed (mean age 50 ± 11 years old, 50% men, 56.6% Malay, 27.6% Chinese, 15.8% Indian, 67.9% NASH, 15.8% advanced liver fibrosis). The AUROC of Hepamet fibrosis score for the diagnosis of advanced liver fibrosis was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.80 - 0.91). Using the <0.12 and ≥0.47 cut-offs from the original study, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, the proportion of indeterminate results and misclassification rate were 81.8%, 91.8%, 47.4%, 98.2%, 32.1% and 6.1%, respectively. Using LSM <10 kPa and ≥15 kPa for the diagnosis of absence and presence of advanced liver fibrosis, respectively, in patients with Hepamet fibrosis score ≥0.47 (i.e., the two-step approach) reduced indeterminate results and misclassification to 16.1% and 3.6%, respectively.

METHODS: A total of 1924 patients with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease from 10 centers in Asia, Australia, and Europe were included. The blood test MACK-3 was calculated for all patients. FibroScan-aspartate aminotransferase score (FAST), an elastography-based test for fibrotic NASH, also was available in a subset of 655 patients. Fibrotic NASH was defined as the presence of NASH on liver biopsy with a Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Activity Score of 4 or higher and fibrosis stage of F2 or higher according to the NASH Clinical Research Network scoring system.

RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic of MACK-3 for fibrotic NASH was 0.791 (95% CI 0.768-0.814). Sensitivity at the previously published MACK-3 threshold of less than 0.135 was 91% and specificity at a greater than 0.549 threshold was 85%. The MACK-3 area under the receiver operating characteristic was not affected by age, sex, diabetes, or body mass index. MACK-3 and FAST results were well correlated (Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.781; P < .001). Except for an 8% higher rate of patients included in the grey zone, MACK-3 provided similar accuracy to that of FAST. Both tests included 27% of patients in their rule-in zone, with 85% specificity and 35% false positives (screen failure rate).

METHODS: Shear wave elastography assessments were performed in 75 CKD patients who underwent renal biopsy. The SWE-derived estimates of the tissue Young's modulus (YM), given as kilopascals (kPa), were measured. YM was correlated to patients' renal histological scores, broadly categorized into glomerular, tubulointerstitial and vascular scores.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled patients who underwent the procedure from January 2018 to April 2022. Under real time ultrasound (Hitachi Medical ProSound F37), thoracic lesions adjacent to the chest wall were sampled with a full-core biopsy needle (CT Core Single Action Biopsy Device, 18G × 15 cm, Vigeo, Italy). Chest x-ray was performed 30 minutes post procedure ruling out pneumothorax. Patients were discharged home 1-2 hours post biopsy. Data was analysed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 26.

RESULTS: A total of 18 patients (14 males, 4 females) underwent USLB for lung tumours. Biopsies were histologically deemed adequate with an overall diagnostic yield of 77.8% (14/18). A total of 57% were positive for thoracic malignancy (21% squamous cell carcinoma, 21% adenocarcinoma, 15% small cell carcinoma) and another 43% were positive for extra thoracic malignancy (1 hepatocellular carcinoma, 2 DLBCL, 1 Hodgkin's lymphoma, 1 seminoma, 1 thymoma). Four patients had inconclusive results but managed to get positive results from surgical or lymph node biopsy (thymoma and adenocarcinoma). Statistical analysis showed more than two passes are needed to achieve a positive HPE yield (p value<0.05). There were nil complications to all the cases done.

METHODS: Study subjects included men with initial PSA between 4.0 and 10.0 ng/ml that have undergone 12-core TRUS-guided prostate biopsy between 2009 and 2016. The prostate cancer detection rate was calculated, while potential factors associated with detection were investigated via univariable and multivariable analysis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analysed the histopathological material and data from 82 breast cancer patients diagnosed over a period of four years who underwent intraoperative frozen section evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes.

RESULTS: Frozen section analysis detected metastasis in 13 out of 82 cases and definitive pathological examination on the paraffin section confirmed these positive findings. There was no false positive case (specificity of 100%). The true positive cases comprised seven macrometastases, five micrometastases and one isolated tumour cells. Sampling error was noted in two cases in which the malignant cells were only present in the deeper final paraffin sections (false negative rate of 13.3%). The test sensitivity was 86.7% and the accuracy rate was 97.5%. These findings are comparable to other published data.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study, enrolling patients with superficial gastric neoplasms that underwent EFB followed by ESD. We divided cases to concordant or discordant group according to the histopathologic diagnosis of EFB and ESD specimens. We also analyzed the features that may have influenced the occurrence of histopathologic discordance and the association between discordant samples of adenocarcinoma and neoplastic invasion to deeper layers.

RESULTS: A total of 115 gastric ESD procedures were performed with 84 patients meeting the inclusion criteria. Histopathologic discordance between EFB and ESD specimens were observed in 35.8% of cases (30/84 lesions). The univariant-bivariant analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that histologic discordance was closely related to the size of the lesions ( P =0.028).