Diagnostic accuracy of a novel ultrasound imaging index for knee osteoarthritis: Evaluation of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values.

PURPOSE: We aimed to develop and validate a new ultrasonography (US) index for the diagnosis of primary medial-type knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: In total, 156 patients (203 limbs) underwent standing knee radiography and the US for suspected knee OA. Total osteophyte height (TOH) and distance between bones (DBB) aided diagnosis. Logistic regression identified optimal cutoff values. Thresholds from logistic regression informed recipient operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, balancing sensitivity and specificity. These thresholds were then applied in the differential thermal analysis (DTA) to construct a 2 × 2 table. RESULTS: The TOH-DBB index showed that a DBB of 5.6 mm or less was required to diagnose primary medial-type knee arthropathy. The results in the 2 × 2 table were 41 true-positive (TP), 10 false negative (FN), 22 true-negative (TN), and 7 false positive (FP). A DBB of 5.6 mm or less and TOH of 4.7 mm or more were necessary to diagnose severe deformity. The results in the 2 × 2 table were 10 TP, 4 FN, 23 TN, and 4 FP. CONCLUSION: The TOH-DBB index was confirmed to capture changes in primary medial-type knee OA across various stages.

Long-term changes of choroidal blood flow velocity in Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease.

PURPOSE: To evaluate changes in choroidal blood flow in patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease after initiation of corticosteroid treatment. METHODS: Fourteen patients (10 men and 4 women) with acute VKH disease followed for 2 years were retrospectively reviewed; only right eyes were included in the analysis. Mean blur rate (MBR) in the macula was measured by laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) and central choroidal thickness (CCT) was measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT), both prior to treatment and over 2 years after initiation of corticosteroid treatment. RESULTS: Of 14 patients included in this study, 13 received initial treatment consisting of intravenous corticosteroid pulse therapy and one patient was treated using bilateral sub-Tenon injections of triamcinolone acetonide. Mean percentage change in MBR was significantly increased after initiation of treatment compared to pretreatment values (P < 0.001). Mean CCTs were significantly decreased after initiation of treatment, compared to pretreatment thicknesses (P < 0.001). There was no significant change in either MBR change or CCT at 1 month after initiation of treatment through 2 years of follow-up. The mean MBR percentage change was significantly higher in eyes with sunset glow fundus (SGF) compared to eyes without SGF at 1 year. CONCLUSION: With initiation of corticosteroid treatment in VKH disease patients, choroidal blood flow improved and was maintained for 2 years. However, the presence of SGF should be taken into consideration when interpreting MBR results in VKH disease patients.

[Segmentation of Mass in Mammogram Using Gaze Search Patterns].

PURPOSE: It is very difficult for a radiologist to correctly detect small lesions and lesions hidden on dense breast tissue on a mammogram. Therefore, recently, computer-aided detection (CAD) systems have been widely used to assist radiologists in interpreting images. Thus, in this study, we aimed to segment mass on the mammogram with high accuracy by using focus images obtained from an eye-tracking device. METHODS: We obtained focus images for two mammography expert radiologists and 19 mammography technologists on 8 abnormal and 8 normal mammograms published by the DDSM. Next, the auto-encoder, Pix2Pix, and UNIT learned the relationship between the actual mammogram and the focus image, and generated the focus image for the unknown mammogram. Finally, we segmented regions of mass on mammogram using the U-Net for each focus image generated by the auto-encoder, Pix2Pix, and UNIT. RESULTS: The dice coefficient in the UNIT was 0.64±0.14. The dice coefficient in the UNIT was higher than that in the auto-encoder and Pix2Pix, and there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). The dice coefficient of the proposed method, which combines the focus images generated by the UNIT and the original mammogram, was 0.66±0.15, which is equivalent to the method using the original mammogram. CONCLUSION: In the future, it will be necessary to increase the number of cases and further improve the segmentation.