In 89 breast cancer lesions found during clinical breast cancer screening with combined usage of mammography (MMG) and Ultrasonography (US) between February 1995 and August 2002, we found 20 cases were negative for MMG and 13 were negative for US detection. In this study we reexamined those cases of breast cancer undetectable either by MMG or breast US. The 11 of the 20 MMG negative cases, lesions were still undetectable by secondary extended examination using MMG, however, we found 9 lesions were positive for MMG by refined technique of delineation. In the 12 US negative lesions, a secondary extended examination performed using US showed 7 lesions were positive for detection; the remaining 5 lesions were still negative for US examination.In summary, of the 89 breast cancer lesions it failed to detect 14 lesions (15.7%) by MMG, and 10 lesions (11.5%) by US in a course of clinical breast cancer screening.

For the assessment of the clinical significance of IMT measurement, we studied the relationship of IMT and several clinical parameters of atherosclerosis, we studied the intima-media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid artery of 896 males and 632 females using a diagnostic ultrasound system with automatic IMT measurement software. The correlation coefficient between the IMT value and age was 0.497 for men and 0.579 for women. Next, we studied the correlation between the IMT values and other examination results. We found significant correlations of IMT with systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, HbAlc and fasting plasma glucose levels in descending order in males. For females IMT correlated with systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglyceride, diastolic blood pressure, HbAlc, body mass index, HDL-cholesterol, uric acid and fasting plasma glucose levels in descending order. Thus, the increases of IMT value in the middle-aged subjects are related to the abnormalities of the most of the life-style related parameters for atherosclerosis. In summary, IMT measurements are useful means to motivate lifestyle improvement and to promote the health evaluation.

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