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To evaluate the additive diagnostic performance of ultrasound elastography (UE) to ultrasound (US) with the 2003 or 2013 Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS)-US classification systems for the differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions.From June 2010 to December 2012, 738 women with 770 breast lesions were recruited into this retrospective study. Breast lesions were evaluated separately by US, UE, and both. US assessment was based on the 2003 or 2013 BI-RADS-US, and UE assessment was based on a previously reported 5-point scale. Diagnostic performance of US, UE, and both was compared.Before category 4 lesions were subdivided, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for US, UE, and both were, respectively, 0.735, 0.877, 0.878 (P .01). When subcategories of 4 lesions were considered, the AUC for US, UE, and both were, respectively, 0.865, 0.877, and 0.883 (P.05). Adding UE to analysis of 4A lesions can decrease the percentages of malignancy to 2.56%.When the 2003 BI-RADS was considered, UE could give US some help in differentiating breast lesions. However, when the 2013 BI-RADS was considered, UE gave little help to US, although it reduced unnecessary biopsies of benign category 4A lesions.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) technology is a powerful tool in biomedical research and holds great potential for RNA interference-based therapies for HIV, hepatitis and cancer. However, the absence of a safe and efficient method for the delivery of siRNA has become a bottleneck for their development. Nanocrystallized hydroxyapatite (nHAP) appears to be an optimal candidate non-viral gene vector for several reasons, including its good biocompatibility and ease of production, however, nHAP microemulsions cannot remain monodispersed for long periods of time. Due to their high surface energy, nHAP particles gradually aggregate into large ones that are difficult for the cell to take up. To overcome this we modified nHAP with polyethylenimine (PEI) to generate a compound (MnHAP) with a tight size-distribution of