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Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the performance of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging to differentiate benign from malignant thyroid nodules. Methods: 182 patients who needed thyroid surgery were examined. All patients and 50 healthy volunteers underwent ARFI sonoelastography, which quantitatively analysed the elasticity and hardness of the nodule's centre and periphery.Results: ARFI values showed a statistical significance between malignant nodules and benign nodules and common thyroid parenchyma, in both the centre and periphery of nodules (p , 0.01). There was no significant difference between benign nodules and common thyroid parenchyma in either the nodule's centre or periphery (p . 0.05). There was no significant difference between the nodule's centre and periphery of the elastic parameters in both the benign and malignant nodules. There was a statistically significant difference among the two areas (the central group and the peripheral group) under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and the optimal model was the peripheral group. For differentiation of malignant from benign nodules, the sensitivity and specificity were 96.3% and 96.2%, respectively, when 2.545 m s 21 was chosen as a cut-off value in the peripheral group. Conclusion: ARFI imaging may be helpful to differentiate benign nodules from malignant thyroid nodules. The selecting measurement position is important in ARFI imaging, and it has good diagnostic value in clinical applications. Advances in knowledge: This study shows the diagnostic contribution of ARFI imaging in thyroid lesions.Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, and its incidence has increased in recent years. 1 It comprises different clinical and histological features in respect to different treatments. 2 The diagnostic method for thyroid cancer has very quickly progressed in recent years, but the pre-operative misdiagnosis rate is 40-70%.A newer ultrasound elastography technique called acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI), which is performed under direct visual guidance, has recently been verified to measure the stiffness of many tissues in vivo, for example in the liver. 3,4 In our study, we investigated the mechanical properties of focal thyroid disease with ARFI. The purposes of this study were to assess the effectiveness of ARFI quantification in the diagnosis of focal thyroid nodules and differentiation of benign from malignant thyroid lesions by quantification of their stiffness. METHODS AND MATERIALS PatientsOur study was approved by the ethics review board of our institution. Patients provided signed informed consent.Between August 2009 and February 2011, 182 patients (88 male patients and 94 female patients) with thyroid nodules referred to the Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China, were enrolled in our study. A detailed medical history was obtained from all patients. Mean age of the patients was 53.67 years (range, 27-83 years). Mean diameter of the nodules was 3.97 cm (range, 3.0-5.5 cm). There were 69...

Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD). Therapeutic strategies targeting mitochondrial dysfunction hold considerable promise for the treatment of PD. Recent reports have...

The study showed that among the distinct types of vasculature (CD31 + and CD34 +) in Lewis lung carcinoma, the former correlated with the CEUS parameters. Therefore, CEUS using a second-generation US contrast agent may be useful for the evaluation of tumor angiogenesis of LLC of mice.

In the present study, we evaluated the effects of recombinant human (rh-)endostatin treatment on differentiated and undifferentiated tumor vasculature in Lewis lung cancer for the first time. Lewis lung carcinoma models were established. The animals were treated daily with varying doses of rh-endostatin or physiological saline for 14 days. Intravital microscopy was performed following treatment. The expression of CD31 and CD34 was determined by immunohistochemical staining, and microvessel density (MVD) was determined. Rh-endostatin treatment significantly decreased the tumor volume compared with the control group. Rh-endostatin treatment normalized the architecture of the vascular network. CD31+ cells decreased following rh-endostatin treatment, whereas CD34+ cells were unaffected by the treatment. Accordingly, the MVD value of CD31+ cells in rh-endostatin treatment groups significantly decreased (P<0.01), and the MVD value of CD34+ cells in the rh-endostatin treatment groups did not decrease. Undifferentiated tumor blood vessels were significantly inhibited by rh-endostatin treatment. In conclusion, the normalization of the tumor vasculature by endostatin may be related to the differential effects of endostatin on differentiated and undifferentiated blood vessels.