Paragonimiasis misdiagnosed as liver abscess: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Paragonimiasis is a typical food-borne zoonotic disease. Hosts acquire Paragonimus infection through the ingestion of raw or undercooked crayfish and crab. The clinical manifestations of the disease are varied, and it is often misdiagnosed or missed. The diagnosis of paragonimiasis should be considered comprehensively. Praziquantel is the first choice for treatment, and albendazole can be used in combination with repeated courses in severe cases. CASE SUMMARY: We report a case of liver paragonimiasis that was misdiagnosed as an abscess. The patient presented with fatigue and poor appetite for 2 months, and was diagnosed with liver abscess in the local hospital. After 6 months, the patient visited our hospital because of recurrent abdominal pain and was diagnosed with liver paragonimiasis based on epidemiological history, clinical presentations, and laboratory findings. He was treated with praziquantel (25 mg/kg) three times a day for 3 days; however, the symptoms still presented after treatment. He was treated with oral praziquantel and albendazole for one further course. Follow-up suggested that the treatment was effective and the symptoms improved. CONCLUSION: The combination of albendazole and praziquantel may improve the therapeutic efficacy of paragonimiasis.

Feasibility and reproducibility of semi-automated longitudinal strain analysis: a comparative study with conventional manual strain analysis.

BACKGROUND: Conventional approach to myocardial strain analysis relies on a software designed for the left ventricle (LV) which is complex and time-consuming and is not specific for right ventricular (RV) and left atrial (LA) assessment. This study compared this conventional manual approach to strain evaluation with a novel semi-automatic analysis of myocardial strain, which is also chamber-specific. METHODS: Two experienced observers used the AutoStrain software and manual QLab analysis to measure the LV, RV and LA strains in 152 healthy volunteers. Fifty cases were randomly selected for timing evaluation. RESULTS: No significant differences in LV global longitudinal strain (LVGLS) were observed between the two methods (-21.0% ± 2.5% vs. -20.8% ± 2.4%, p = 0.230). Conversely, RV longitudinal free wall strain (RVFWS) and LA longitudinal strain during the reservoir phase (LASr) measured by the semi-automatic software differed from the manual analysis (RVFWS: -26.4% ± 4.8% vs. -31.3% ± 5.8%, p < 0.001; LAS: 48.0% ± 10.0% vs. 37.6% ± 9.9%, p < 0.001). Bland-Altman analysis showed a mean error of 0.1%, 4.9%, and 10.5% for LVGLS, RVFWS, and LASr, respectively, with limits of agreement of -2.9,2.6%, -8.1,17.9%, and -12.3,33.3%, respectively. The semi-automatic method had a significantly shorter strain analysis time compared with the manual method. CONCLUSIONS: The novel semi-automatic strain analysis has the potential to improve efficiency in measurement of longitudinal myocardial strain. It shows good agreement with manual analysis for LV strain measurement.

Left atrial reservoir and pump function after catheter ablation with persistent atrial fibrillation: a two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging study.

OBJECTIVE: By using ultrasound strain rate (SR) imaging to evaluate the left atrial (LA) reservoir and pump function after catheter ablation (CA) with persistent atrial fibrillation (PAF). METHODS: A total of 45 patients with PAF underwent echocardiography examination before and after ablation as well as during 6 months of follow-up. Peak SR was measured at each LA segment (septal, lateral, anterior, inferior and posterior) during systole (LAs) and late diastole (LAa). RESULTS: During 6 months after CA, 30 patients were free of atrial fibrillation recurrence (AFR). left atrial area index (LAAI), left atrial maximum volume index (LAVImax), and E/Ea were obviously higher in patients with before CA, left atrial ejection fraction (LAEF), SR-LAs were lower than in normal cases, the SR-LAa was disappeared. Shortly after ablation, SR-LAa was recovered, and SR-LAs was reduced compared to those at baseline. At midterm follow-up, LAEF and SR-LAs were still lower than the control group, and LAAI and LAVImax were higher. SR-LAa was recovered slowly over time, but still lower. CONCLUSION: LA reservoir function was seriously damaged and LA pump function disappeared in patients with PAF. LA reservoir function impairment appeared shortly after ablation, it showed improvement at midterm follow-up, but some degree of damage to the LA reservoir and pump function was still present. Speckle tracking imaging is a feasible technique for the assessment of LA function in patients with PAF, which is a potentially valuable clinical tool to assist in the early detection of atrial remodelling and reverse remodelling.

Global calibration method for non-overlapping cameras based on rigidly connected stereo targets.

In complex field of view (FOV) environments, a single camera's FOV measurement range is limited and cannot cover the entire object under test for global calibration. Multiple cameras are used mostly for large FOV environment measurements, but the traditional one- and two-dimensional targets used for global calibration in large FOV environments are prone to overlapping FOV. Furthermore, other large-sized targets are difficult to produce and process, and the laser projection method and plane mirror calibration methods are easily affected by the outdoor environment. To solve this problem, a non-common FOV binocular calibration method based on rigidly connected stereo targets is proposed. The calibration process is as follows: First, the rigidly connected target, which is composed of two plane targets with a checkerboard, is placed in front of the two cameras, and the vision sensor captures the corresponding sub-target image; then, the target is moved multiple times, and the transformation relationship between multiple vision sensors is obtained according to the spatial constraint characteristics of the rigidly connected target. Hence, the method overcomes the limitation of the non-overlapping FOV calibration method that relies on large measuring instruments. The experimental results show that the RMS error of the 13 mm distance is 0.16 mm. The proposed method is effective, simpler to operate than other methods, and does not rely on the constraint of complex targets. More importantly, this measurement method solves the difficult problem of measurement in non-public FOV, meeting the requirements of large FOV measurement ranges.