Background Hydatid disease (HD) is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by the larvae of Echinococcus, It is mainly prevalent in pastoral areas. Bone echinococcosis is rare, accounting for 0.5 to 4.0% of all echinococcosis. It is likely to miss the diagnosis and misdiagnose due to non-specific early symptoms and the clinical manifestations and imaging features. The clinical data of 15 patients with pelvic cystic echinococcosis were analyzed retrospectively, and the X-ray, CT, and MRI imaging features of the disease were discussed, which are reported below. Methods All 15 patients underwent CT scan evaluation. A total of 8 patients underwent coronal, sagittal, and three-dimensional reconstruction with 3-mm-slice thickness, and 4 patients underwent X-ray plain film examination. Five cases underwent MRI scan. Eight cases underwent MRI or CT enhanced scan. Results X-ray plain film is characterized by continuous cystic bone destruction, irregular low-density shadow when invading soft tissue, and sometimes calcification which can be seen on the wall or inside the cyst. The involved sacroiliac joint or hip joint may narrow or disappear. The involvement of pelvic cystic echinococcosis is relatively wide, and 80% of patients with pelvic cysts in this group had multiple lesions in the same period. Cystic expansive bone destruction was the most common. Pelvic CT revealed a lobulated hypodense lesion of varying size with internal septae, causing cortical thinning and destruction. Most of them had no periosteal reaction. The iliopsoas muscle is most easily invaded. Single cystic echinococcosis of pelvis showed intermediate or low signal intensity on T1-weighted images and hyperintensity on T2-weighted images in the involved bone and surrounding soft tissue on MRI, and the cyst wall showed linear low signal in T1WI, T2WI, and STIR sequences. The polycystic type is characterized by multiple cysts of varying signal intensity (daughter cysts) within a larger cyst is the typical MRI finding, forming “small vesicles” high signal daughter cysts. Osteosclerosis or calcification showed low signal in T1WI and T2WI. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the lesions of pelvic cystic echinococcosis are mostly cystic expansive and osteolytic bone destruction, which is easy to invade the surrounding soft tissue, often accompanied with calcification; among them, multiple cystic lesions are characteristic.

Pulmonary embolism due to hydatid disease has been rare clinically. Here we present a patient case who suffered from multiple cystic hydatidosis within bilateral lung parenchyma and complicated bilateral pulmonary embolisms. The case was a 70-year-old man who complained of an increasingly severe cough and hemoptysis post-operation of hepatic hydatid cyst. Chest radiographs showed that the patient had multiple nodules in the bilateral chest. Computed tomography (CT) depicted that some lesions were multivesicular cysts and some consisting of sophisticated complications. CT pulmonary angiography revealed bilateral pulmonary arterial embolisms. T2-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) clearly demonstrated the daughter cysts inside the lesions with high intensive signal. Echinococcosis serologic testing was positive. Thus, the pulmonary embolism was caused by hydatid cyst based on the imaging findings and serologic test.

Propagation-based phase-contrast computed tomography (PPCT) utilizes highly sensitive phase-contrast technology applied to X-ray micro-tomography, especially with the extensive use of synchrotron radiation (SR). Performing phase retrieval (PR) on the acquired angular projections can enhance image contrast and enable quantitative imaging. We employed the combination of SR-PPCT and PR for the histopathological evaluation of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (HAE) disease and demonstrated the validity and superiority of PR-based SR-PPCT. A high-resolution angular projection data set of a human postoperative specimen of HAE disease was acquired, which was processed by graded ethanol concentration fixation (GECF). The reconstructed images from both approaches, with the projection data directly used and preprocessed by PR for tomographic reconstruction, were compared in terms of the tissue contrast-to-noise ratio and density spatial resolution. The PR-based SR-PPCT was selected for microscale measurement and the 3D visualization of HAE disease. Our experimental results demonstrated that the PR-based SR-PPCT technique is greatly suitable for the discrimination of pathological tissues and the characterization of HAE. In addition, this new technique is superior to conventional hospital CT and microscopy for the three-dimensional, non-destructive microscale measurement of HAE. This PR-based SR-PPCT technique has great potential for in situmicroscale histopathological analysis and diagnosis, especially for applications involving soft tissues and organs.

Background: Primary insomnia is a worldwide problem and it has a considerable negative impact on one's physical and mental health. Studies have shown that nonsynonymous Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin or 5-HT) are related to primary insomnia. Previous studies have shown that 5-HT polymorphism (rs140700) is related to depression, and insomnia is often accompanied by depression and anxiety. The relationship between this site and primary insomnia is unknown. We speculated that this site may be related to primary insomnia, so we investigated the relationship between rs140700 and primary insomnia.Aims: To explore the relationship between the 5-HT gene polymorphism rs140700 and primary insomnia.Methods: In this study, we included 57 patients with primary insomnia and 54 ageand gender-matched normal controls. The subjects who belonged to the Chinese population were subjected to polysomnography for three consecutive nights. Their sleep quality was assessed, and the genotypes of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) gene polymorphism rs140700 were determined by the flight mass spectrometry. Results:The genotype distributions of the 5-HT gene polymorphism rs140700 were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in both patients and controls (P > 0.05). The allele and genotype distributions of this variant were comparable between the patients and controls in all subjects and between genders (all P > 0.05). The influence of rs140700 on percentage of stage 1 (P = 0.015) change and arousal index (P = 0.028) of primary insomnia was statistically significant. The logistic multi-factor regression analysis results revealed that 5-HT gene polymorphism rs140700 was not a risk factor for primary insomnia in the Chinese population (P = 0.589). Conclusions:The 5-HT gene polymorphism rs140700 may not be a susceptibility locus for primary insomnia in the Chinese population. †These authors contributed equally to this study.

ObjectiveUsing a pulsating coronary artery phantom at high heart rate settings, we investigated the efficacy of a motion correction algorithm (MCA) to improve the image quality in dual-energy spectral coronary CT angiography (CCTA).Materials and MethodsCoronary flow phantoms were scanned at heart rates of 60–100 beats/min at 10-beats/min increments, using dual-energy spectral CT mode. Virtual monochromatic images were reconstructed from 50 to 90 keV at 10-keV increments. Two blinded observers assessed image quality using a 4-point Likert Scale (1 = non-diagnostic, 4 = excellent) and the fraction of interpretable segments using MCA versus conventional algorithm (CA). Comparison of variables was performed with the Wilcoxon rank sum test and McNemar test.ResultsAt heart rates of 70, 80, 90, and 100 beats/min, images with MCA were rated as higher image scores compared to those with CA on monochromatic levels of 50, 60, and 70 keV (each p < 0.05). Meanwhile, at a heart rate of 90 beats/min, image interpretability was improved by MCA at a monochromatic level of 60 keV (p < 0.05) and 70 keV (p < 0.05). At a heart rate of 100 beats/min, image interpretability was improved by MCA at monochromatic levels of 50 keV (from 69.4% to 86.1%, p < 0.05), 60 keV (from 55.6% to 83.3%, p < 0.05) and 70 keV (from 33.3% to 69.3%, p < 0.05).ConclusionLow-keV monochromatic images combined with MCA improves image quality and image interpretability in CCTAs at high heart rates.