In the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) era, point-of-care lung ultrasound (LUS) has attracted increased attention. Prospective studies on LUS for the assessment of pneumonia in adult patients were extensively carried out for more than 10 years before this era. None of these prospective studies attempted to differentiate bacterial and viral pneumonia in adult patients using LUS. The majority of studies considered the LUS examination to be positive if sonographic consolidations or multiple B-lines were observed. Significant differences existed in the accuracy of these studies. Some studies revealed that LUS showed superior sensitivity to chest X-ray. These results indicate that point-of-care LUS has the potential to be an initial imaging modality for the diagnosis of pneumonia. The LUS diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia in intensive care units is more challenging in comparison with the diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia in emergency departments due to the limited access to the mechanically ventilated patients and the high prevalence of atelectasis. However, several studies have demonstrated that the combination of LUS findings with other clinical markers improved the diagnostic accuracy. In the COVID-19 era, many case reports and small observational studies on COVID-19 pneumonia have been published in a short period. Multiple B-lines were the most common and consistent finding in COVID-19 pneumonia. Serial LUS showed the deterioration of the disease. The knowledge and ideas on the application of LUS in the management of pneumonia that are expected to accumulate in the COVID-19 era may provide us with clues regarding more appropriate management.

The sensitivity of screening sonography was relatively high and the specificity was sufficient among our asymptomatic population. The present study suggests that the target organ for sonographic screening to detect curable cancers should be the kidneys.

Endoscopic laser treatment (ELT) has been proposed as one of the curative endoscopic therapies for early gastric cancer. We report our experience with ELT in 111 patients with early gastric cancer limited to the mucosa as diagnosed by endoscopy and/or endoscopic ultrasonography. Twelve patients subsequently underwent laparotomy after ELT and no residual tumor was found in 75% of these cases. Ninety-nine patients had no surgery for various reasons and follow-up information by endoscopy was available for 73 of them for a mean of 2.7 years (range 1 to 7 years). 81% of these patients were found to be tumor free. There was no difference in the success rate of ELT in relation to endoscopic classification, tumor location and histologic type of cancer. Recently, the indications for ELT decreased due to the development of endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) enabling histological evaluation of a resection specimen. However, the technique of EMR cannot always be performed completely depending on the location and size of the lesions. Therefore, we employed ELT as an additional treatment technique after EMR therapy to achieve complete tumor destruction. Results in 13 patients where both techniques were employed showed complete tumor removal in 11 cases. At present, this combined application may be the most important role of laser irradiation for the treatment of early stage GI tract malignancies.

Experimental acute bacterial prostatitis in rats was induced by four different routes of bacterial inoculation. The most simple and reproducible method of producing bacterial prostatitis was to instil the bacterial suspension into the prostatic urethra after the administration of an appropriate antibiotic to prevent associated pyelonephritis.

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