Background: To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) in breast cancer by percutaneous contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) through pooled analysis of relevant studies published before June 2021. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant studies by searching the electronic databases of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang and VIP and the studies were screened according to their inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive likelihood ratio (+LR), negative likelihood ratio (ÀLR) and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were calculated by Meta-disc 1.4 software and the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve and area under the curve of ROC (AUC) were constructed.Results: Twenty-two publications evaluating the diagnostic efficacy of SLN in breast cancer under percutaneous CEUS were included in the meta-analysis. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity were 0.86 (95% CI: 0.83-0.88) and 0.89 (95% CI: 0.87-0.91) for SLN in breast cancer detected by percutaneous CEUS respectively using a random effect model. The +LR and -LR were combined in a random effect model due to significant statistical heterogeneity (p < 0.05). The pooled +LR, ÀLR were 7.06 (95% CI: 4.34-11.50), and 0.17 (95% CI: 0.12-0.24), respectively. The combined DOR was 53.32 (95% CI: 29.74-95.61) for SLN diagnosis in breast cancer by percutaneous CEUS under a random effect model. The AUC was 0.94 which indicated that CEUS had high diagnostic efficacy of SLN in patients with breast cancer. Conclusions: CEUS is a noninvasive method for the detection SLN in patients of breast cancer with relative high prediction efficacy.

The present study aimed to investigate the role of relaxin (RLX) on high glucose (HG)-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis, as well as the possible molecular mechanism. H9c2 cells were exposed to 33 mmol/l HG with or without RLX (100 nmol/ml). Cell viability, apoptosis, oxidative stress, cell hypertrophy and the levels of Notch1, hairy and enhancer of split 1 (hes1), atrial natriuretic polypeptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), cytochrome C and caspase-3 were assessed in cardiomyocytes. Compared with the HG group, the viability of H9c2 cells was increased by RLX in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and was accompanied with a significant reduction in apoptosis. Furthermore, RLX significantly suppressed the formation of reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde, and enhanced the activity of SOD. In addition, the levels of ANP, BNP, cytochrome C and caspase-3 were increased and Notch1, hes1 and MnSOD were inhibited in the HG group compared with those in the normal group. However, the Notch inhibitor DAPT almost abolished the protective effects of RLX. These results suggested that RLX protected cardiomyocytes from HG-induced hypertrophy and apoptosis partly through a Notch1-dependent pathway, which may be associated with reducing oxidative stress.

To evaluate the prognostic value of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) signal intensity of postoperative cavity on progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with high-grade gliomas (HGG). This study retrospectively enrolled 45 consecutive HGG patients. These patients had chemoradiotherapy after gross-total resection of tumors. Quantitative analysis of the FLAIR signal intensity in postoperative cavity and background was made. We evaluated the threshold value, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and survival state with this technique. The patients who progressed and patients who did not progress were 33 and 12 cases separately. The ratio of postoperative cavity and background (C-B) on FLAIR sequence in patients who progressed was higher than that of patients who did not progress (P = 0.014). The PFS of the patients who progressed was shorter than that of patients who did not progress (P = 0.008). The area under ROC curve, threshold, sensitivity, specificity of C-B ratio for predicting tumor progression were 0.875, 62.3, 69.7, 0.84, and 0.50% respectively. The PFS of lower signal group was much longer than that of higher signal group (P = 0.004). The OS of the patients with higher signal was shorter than that of patients with lower signal (P = 0.034). The increase of gray value of FLAIR in postoperative cavity may be used as an imaging marker for predicting tumor progression.

The unmeasurable enhancement patterns in HGG patients within 1 month after gross-total resection, which might be better than the grade of tumor, holds a potential marker in survival state.

Background: This meta-analysis is aimed at determining the diagnostic value of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). Materials and Methods: A comprehensive literature search of Pubmed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library was performed to identify published studies. The methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated. Data from eligible studies were used to estimate the pooled sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), positive and negative likelihood ratio (LR) and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve. Meta-Disc and STATA softwares were utilized for all statistical analyses. Results: Fifty-three eligible studies (publication years ranged from 1998 to 2016) were selected according to inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis showed that the pooled sensitivity and specificity of CEUS to detect HCC were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.84-0.86) and 0.91 (95% CI: 0.90-0.92), respectively. The pooled positive and negative LRs were 6.28 (95% CI: 4.49-8.77) and 0.16 (95% CI: 0.12-0.22), respectively. The pooled DOR was 55.01 (95% CI: 35.25-83.47). The area under the SCOR curve was 0.9432. Meta-regression and funnel plot indicated that sample size, type of contrast agents and publication bias might be the major sources of heterogeneity. Conclusions: CEUS is a valuable diagnostic tool for identifying HCC in clinic with highly sensitive and specific.