We report a rare case of a gastric duplication cyst in the tail of the pancreas in a child presenting with chronic abdominal pain which was cured by excision of the cyst and adjacent pancreas. This case report highlights the role of sonography as an excellent imaging tool for depiction of the bowel wall and, hence, in aiding diagnosis even when clinical picture and findings of other modalities are nonspecific.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical utility of urinary bladder and prostate characteristics measured by ultrasound scan in predicting acute urinary retention (AUR) for men with bladder outlet obstruction with an underlying benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH).
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consecutive men aged ≥50 years presenting with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) or AUR were prospectively recruited in this cross-sectional study. International prostatic symptom score (IPSS) and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) were recorded. High-resolution ultrasound was used to measure bladder detrusor thickness (DT, mm), prostatic volume (PV, cm3), intravesical prostatic protrusion (IPP, mm), bladder wall thickness (BWT,mm), intravesical volume and bladder radius. The latter two parameters were used to estimate bladder weight (UEBW, g), assuming a spherical bladder.
RESULTS: Among selected patients, thirty had AUR while 32 men presented with LUTS only. There were significant differences between those with and without AUR in their age (70.5 vs 66.0, p=0.017), IPSS (24.0 vs 18.5, p=0.009), serum PSA (6.18 vs 1.77, p=0.002), PV (56.7 vs 32.4, p=0.006), BWT (5.0 vs 4.4, p=0.034) and UEBW (39.1 vs 25.0, p=0.0003). Multivariate analysis revealed high IPSS and UEBW to be predictors for AUR. UEBW was the strongest predictor of AUR: area under ROC curve was 0.767, with sensitivity and specificity of 63.3% and 87.5%, respectively, at cut-off point of 35 g. The likelihood ratio for AUR was also best with UEBW≥35 g.
CONCLUSIONS: Combined with IPSS, ultrasound determined bladder characteristic, particularly UEBW, is a useful tool in predicting AUR in men with BPH.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate power doppler ultrasonography (PDU)-directed prostate biopsy in patients with elevated serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Men with serum total PSA levels of more than 4 ng/ml undergoing biopsy for the first time were included. Grey-scale transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) and PDU were performed. PDU signal on vascularity accumulation and perfusion characteristics were recorded and graded as normal or abnormal in the peripheral zone of the prostate. Abnormalities were defined on transverse image as radial or arc hypervascularities. A biopsy regime based on Vienna-normogram was performed in all patients.
RESULTS: Overall, prostate adenocarcinoma detection rate was 21.4% and abnormal accumulation on PDU signal was identified in 96.7% of those patients (p = 0.01). PDU directed prostate biopsies were positive in 66.7% of the patients with prostate cancer. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of PDU signal alone for prostate cancer detection was 96.7%, 24.5% and 96.4% respectively, and PDU guided biopsies were 66.7%, 24.5%, 19.4% and 73% respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: The high sensitivity and negative predictive value of PDU makes it useful as an aid for TRUS biopsy in selected patient with previous negative biopsies at risk of harbouring prostate cancer.
AIM: To determine the (i) sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound (USG) in the detection of urinary tract calculi, (ii) size of renal calculi detected on USG, and (iii) size of renal calculi not seen on USG but detected on computed tomography urogram (CTU).
METHODS: A total of 201 patients' USG and CTU were compared retrospectively for the presence of calculi. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of USG were calculated with CTU as the gold standard.
RESULTS: From the 201 sets of data collected, 59 calculi were detected on both USG and CTU. The sensitivity and specificity of renal calculi detection on USG were 53% and 85% respectively. The mean size of the renal calculus detected on USG was 7.6 mm ± 4.1 mm and the mean size of the renal calculus not visualised on USG but detected on CTU was 4 mm ± 2.4 mm. The sensitivity and specificity of ureteric calculi detection on USG were 12% and 97% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of urinary bladder calculi detection on USG were 20% and 100% respectively.
CONCLUSION: This study showed that the accuracy of US in detecting renal, ureteric and urinary bladder calculi were 67%, 80% and 98% respectively.
Study site: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur
The aim of the study was: to obtain the profile of patients (with regards to age and family history of breast cancer) with a palpable breast mass. To determine the validity of ultrasound in the assessment of the palpable breast mass by determining the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of ultrasound in distinguishing a malignant mass. To determine the most discriminating ultrasound characteristics for differentiating benign and malignant masses. Seventy patients who had fine needle aspiration cytology of a palpable breast mass were subjected to an ultrasound assessment of the mass. The ultrasound findings were classified as benign, indeterminate or malignant. These findings were then compared with either the cytology or histology results in cases that eventually had surgical excision. The age of the patients ranged from 15 to 66 years old The majority was in the third and fourth decades with an average age of 25 years. The 8 patients with a proven malignant breast mass were aged between 39 and 66 years old. They did not have any family history of breast cancer. Only 4 patients had a family history of breast carcinoma and all proved to have a benign breast lesion. Ultrasound had a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 85.7%, positive predictive value of 50%, negative predictive value of 100% and accuracy of 87.5% for distinguishing a malignant mass. For benign masses: 93.7% had well-defined margins, 81.3% had homogenous internal echoes, 91.7% had depth-width ratio of less than 1.0 and 89% were compressible. For malignant masses: 87.5% had either ill-defined or irregular margins, 87.5% had inhomogenous internal echoes and mixed posterior echoes, and 100% were incompressible. The majority of patients with a palpable breast mass were aged below 40 years old. Most of the patients with a malignant breast mass were aged 40 years and older. Neither a positive nor a negative family history of breast cancer had any significance on outcome. Ultrasound had high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in distinguishing a malignant mass. The most discriminating benign ultrasound characteristic was compressibility. The most discriminating malignant ultrasound characteristic was ill-defined and irregular margins.
Matched MeSH terms: Breast Neoplasms/ultrasonography*
The determination of goiter prevalence in children by thyroid ultrasound is an important tool for assessing iodine deficiency disorders. The current World Health Organization/International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (WHO/ICCIDD) normative values, based on thyroid volume in iodine-sufficient European children, have recently been questioned, as thyroid volumes in iodine-sufficient children from the USA and Malaysia are smaller than the WHO/ICCIDD reference data. Our objective was to describe ultrasonographic thyroid volumes in a representative national sample of iodine-sufficient Swiss school children, and to compare these with the current reference data for thyroid volume.
We compared the result of radiofrequency (RF)-assisted valvotomy and balloon dilation with closed surgical valvotomy and Blalock Taussig (BT) shunt as primary treatment in selected patients with pulmonary atresia and intact ventricular septum (PA-IVS).
Continuous wave Doppler recordings of the turbulent jet through the restrictive orifice of a left atrial partition in a patient with corrected transposition of the great arteries and cor triatriatum showed alternate bands of high intensity diastolic and low intensity systolic signals with preservation of the normal configuration of the diastolic E and A peaks. It is thought that Doppler studies in cor triatriatum will provide useful complementary haemodynamic information in the echocardiographic diagnosis of this anomaly.
Matched MeSH terms: Cor Triatriatum/ultrasonography*; Transposition of Great Vessels/ultrasonography
Interventional radiology procedures are becoming more challenging over time; thus, there is a need for excellent and reliable training methods. Training on live patients is neither safe nor an ethical solution. Alternatives are many and varied, but the most popular is ultrasound guided simulators. This report shows how a simple, homemade, low-cost phantom material, and construction modules can provide several advantages over ordinary gelatin phantoms. A new layering technique and target synthesis are described for the biopsy phantom, including tips on decreasing the needle pass artifact as well as controlling the mixture echogenicity.
Realtime ultrasonography with general purpose sector transducer was used to guide 87 percutaneous biopsies on 82 patients with lesions suspected to be mediastinal masses on plain chest radiographs. In seven patients who had dyspnea the biopsies were done in erect or semi-erect sitting positions. Definitive diagnosis was obtained from 66 lesions (80.5%) where 46 (70.0%) were mediastinal and the remaining 20 lesions (30.0%) arising from the lung. Of the 46 mediastinal lesions where specific diagnosis were made, 42 (91.0%) were anterior and four (0.9%) posterior mediastinal lesions. The majority of these anterior mediastinal masses were lymphomatous nodes followed by germ cell tumours whereas all four posterior mediastinal masses were neurogenic. Of the lung lesions, 19 were primary malignancies. The remaining lung lesion which was located posteriorly was cryptococcus infection. One patient developed massive hemothorax, but subsequently recovered. No significant complications were encountered in the remaining patients. Surgery was carried on 11 patients. There is correlation between definitive diagnosis from percutaneous biopsy and final diagnosis after surgery in 80% of patients. It is proposed that all percutaneous biopsies for thoracic masses which abut the chest wall and cause mediastinal widening on a plain chest radiograph be guided by ultrasound. It can be effectively accomplished with ease and safety even without the use of dedicated biopsy ultrasound probes or biopsy attachments, and on patients in erect or semi-erect positions.
Urinary calculi is a familiar disease. A well-known complication of endourological treatment for impacted ureteral stones is the formation of ureteral strictures, which has been reported to occur in 14.2% to 24% of cases.
The incidence of varicose veins and the need for treatment has shown a tremendous increase over the years. Debilitating venous ulcers and dragging edemas of the lower limb with overall improvement in cosmetic results and availability of endovenous procedures has brought many patients forward for treatment. Continuous-wave handheld Doppler usage is limited by its diagnostic capabilities, thus the need to determine its real effectiveness. Benefits of using hand-held dopplers lies in its rapidity in assessment of patients, it's low running cost and short learning curve. This is important as duplex ultrasounds are not readily available in district hospitals. This study aims to determine the clinical effectiveness of hand-held continuous wave dopplers in the local setting especially in primary uncomplicated varicose articles veins. All electively referred patients with primary uncomplicated varicose veins who were referred to the Varicose Vein Clinic were evaluated with continuous-wave handheld Doppler (CWD) and duplex ultrasound (DUS) examination. The study duration was from the 1st of July to 31st of August 2013 (2 months). All patients in the study were independently evaluated with CWD and DUS in the clinic on the same day after adequate rest time. DUS was taken as the gold standard for evaluation of CWD specificity and sensitivity. The Chi-square and T-test was used to test for statistical significance. A total of 41 patients were evaluated in this study. The specificity of CWD when compared to DUS for diagnosing Sapheno-femoral junction (SFJ) was 100% and at the Sapheno-popliteal junction (SPJ) was 87%. Meanwhile sensitivity of CWD for SFJ was 75% and SPJ was 60%. The examination time with CWD was significantly faster than when compared with DUS examination with significant faster tracing times that can be achieved with CWD. CWD also significantly shorter reflux times when compared to DUS. Continuous-wave handheld doppler proves to be an indispensable clinical tool in the evaluation of SFJ and SPJ reflux in varicose veins. CWD assessment in this study was shown to be equal if not better for evaluating reflux when compared to DUS assessment for SFJ reflux. Main advantages for CWD also lie in its low running cost, rapidity in assessment and short learning curve when compared to duplex ultrasound examinations.
Eyelid reconstruction is complex and challenging since it is not only for structural and functional restoration, but also for an acceptable aesthetic result. In full thickness eyelid injuries, it will involve both anterior and posterior lamella. Therefore, when reconstructing the defect, it requires at least two layers; one will be a flap with blood supply, and the other can be a free graft. In this case, a rotational advancement cheek flap and composite graft were used to reconstruct the lower eyelid.
Tamper localization and recovery watermarking scheme can be used to detect manipulation and recover tampered images. In this paper, a tamper localization and lossless recovery scheme that used region of interest (ROI) segmentation and multilevel authentication was proposed. The watermarked images had a high average peak signal-to-noise ratio of 48.7 dB and the results showed that tampering was successfully localized and tampered area was exactly recovered. The usage of ROI segmentation and multilevel authentication had significantly reduced the time taken by approximately 50 % for the tamper localization and recovery processing.
Tampering on medical image will lead to wrong diagnosis and treatment, which is life-threatening; therefore, digital watermarking on medical image was introduced to protect medical image from tampering. Medical images are divided into region of interest (ROI) and region of non-interest (RONI). ROI is an area that has a significant impact on diagnosis, whereas RONI has less or no significance in diagnosis. This paper has proposed ROI-based tamper detection and recovery watermarking scheme (ROI-DR) that embeds ROI bit information into RONI least significant bits, which will be extracted later for authentication and recovery process. The experiment result has shown that the ROI-DR has achieved a good result in imperceptibility with peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) values approximately 48 dB, it is robust against various kinds of tampering, and the tampered ROI was able to recover to its original form. Lastly, a comparative table with the previous research (TALLOR and TALLOR-RS watermarking schemes) has been derived, where these three watermarking schemes were tested under the same testing conditions and environment. The experiment result has shown that ROI-DR has achieved speed-up factors of 22.55 and 26.65 in relative to TALLOR and TALLOR-RS watermarking schemes, respectively.
Persistent urogenital sinus (PUGS) is a rare anomaly whereby the urinary and genital tracts fail to separate during embryonic development. We report a three-year-old female child who was referred to the Sabah Women & Children Hospital, Sabah, Malaysia, in 2016 with a pelvic mass. She had been born prematurely at 36 gestational weeks via spontaneous vaginal delivery in 2013 and initially misdiagnosed with neurogenic bladder dysfunction. The external genitalia appeared normal and an initial sonogram and repeat micturating cystourethrograms did not indicate any urogenital anomalies. She therefore underwent clean intermittent catheterisation. Three years later, the diagnosis was corrected following the investigation of a persistent cystic mass posterior to the bladder. At this time, a clinical examination of the perineum showed a single opening into the introitus. Magnetic resonance imaging of the pelvis revealed gross hydrocolpos and a genitogram confirmed a diagnosis of PUGS, for which the patient underwent surgical separation of the urinary and genital tracts.
Details of a young logger who sustained a clean prevertebral transection of the pancreas to the left of the superior mesenteric vessels and a crush injury in segments 2 and 3 of the liver are presented. CT scan was not done but ultrasound scan revealed free intraperitoneal fluid and no comment was made about the pancreas. The pancreatic injury was discovered at laparotomy carried out 24 hours after admission and treated by resection.
The sonographic and CT appearances of 9 large cavernous hemangiomas of the liver were studied. On sonography, 6 masses (67%) exhibit heterogenous echo pattern; where in 2 patients the echotexture was a mixture of hypoechoic and isoechoic areas and in 4 patients there are varying amounts of bright hyperreflective areas similar to the texture typical of small hemangiomas. The masses were predominantly hypoechoic in the remaining 3 patients (33%). Incremental bolus or bolus-infusion dynamic CT showed peripheral contrast enhancement of varying intensities and thickness in all patients. The lesions were incorrectly diagnosed as hepatomas in 4 patients, suspected as hemangiomas with a differential diagnosis of hepatomas in 4 patients and an early liver abscess in 1 patient. It is concluded that large cavernous hemangiomas of the liver do not exhibit the typical homogenous hyperreflective echotexture as exhibited by small lesions and they mimic primary and secondary hepatic neoplasms. However, the diagnosis of hemangioma should be entertained when such a mass contains bright hyperechoic areas within its heterogenous echo pattern and exhibit peripheral enhancement on contrast enhanced CT. In addition to correlation with appropriate clinical information, confirmation of diagnosis include delayed scanning during a routine incremental bolus dynamic CT, single-slice dynamic contrast enhanced CT, angiography or isotope scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging depending on the availability of facility.
A prospective study was carried out on 50 patients who had their fetal weight estimated by 3 clinicians of different seniority and compared to the ultrasound estimated fetal weights using 3 different formulas. All the patients delivered within 24 hours of their clinical and ultrasound estimates. A wide range of birth-weights (1,800-4,500 g) was estimated among the 3 different races (Malay, Chinese and Indians). The results showed that there was no significant difference in birth-weight estimation amongst the 3 clinicians as well as between the 3 ultrasound formulas used. There was however significant difference between these 2 groups when compared with the actual birthweight with clinical estimation being superior to ultrasound estimation in our population. This level of significance did not extend beyond 4,000 g fetal weight (actual) thus making both clinical and ultrasound estimation of fetal weight equally accurate after 4,000 g. This has important implications for developing countries where there is a lack of technologically advanced ultrasound machines capable of doing sophisticated functions like fetal weight estimations but has experienced clinicians who could perform this function equally well if not better.
Pancreatic injury in paediatrics is a rare condition and can be difficult to diagnose. The diagnostic challenge is due to its symptom of vague abdominal pain which usually results in late presentation. Elevated biochemical markers such as amylase and lipase can aid in the evaluation of pancreatic injury, however, it is not specific and is only evident after several hours of trauma. Ultrasound is commonly used as a primary modality to evaluate abdominal organ injuries, but its role in detecting pancreatic injury is limited due to low sensitivity. High index of suspicion is needed to avoid undiagnosed pancreatic injury which could be lethal to children. We herein report a case of delayed presentation of isolated pancreatic tail injury in a child who was sufficiently diagnosed with ultrasound and treated conservatively. Proper initial assessment and diagnosis will allow appropriate management of pancreatic injury. Conservative management should include serial imaging to look at the evolution of pancreatic injury and detect complications such as pseudocyst or abscess formation.