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OBJECTIVE: Breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer among women. This multi-center study assessed the ability of 3D contrast-enhanced ultrasound to characterize suspicious breast lesions using clinical assessments and quantitative parameters. METHODS: Women with suspicious breast lesions scheduled for biopsy were enrolled in this prospective, study. Following 2D grayscale ultrasound and power Doppler imaging (PDI), a contrast agent (Definity; Lantheus) was administrated. Contrast-enhanced 3D harmonic imaging (HI; transmitting/receiving at 5.0/10.0 MHz), as well as 3D subharmonic imaging (SHI; transmitting/receiving at 5.8/2.9 MHz), were performed using a modified Logiq 9 scanner (GE Healthcare). Five radiologists independently scored the imaging modes (including standard-of-care imaging) using a 7-point BIRADS scale as well as lesion vascularity and diagnostic confidence. Parametric volumes were constructed from time-intensity curves for vascular heterogeneity, perfusion, and area under the curve. Diagnostic accuracy was determined relative to pathology using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and reverse, step-wise logistical regression analyses. The κ-statistic was calculated for inter-reader agreement. RESULTS: Data were successfully acquired in 219 cases and biopsies indicated 164 (75%) benign and 55 (25%) malignant lesions. SHI depicted more anastomoses and vascularity than HI (P  .27). Ultrasound achieved accuracies of 82 to 85%, which was significantly better than standard-of-care imaging (72%; P

Peripheral neurons that sense glucose relay signals of glucose availability to integrative clusters of neurons in the brain. However, the roles of such signalling pathways in the maintenance of glucose homoeostasis and their contribution to disease are unknown. Here we show that the selective activation of the nerve plexus of the hepatic portal system via peripheral focused ultrasound stimulation (pFUS) improves glucose homoeostasis in mice and rats with insulin-resistant diabetes and in swine subject to hyperinsulinemic-euglycaemic clamps. pFUS modulated the activity of sensory projections to the hypothalamus, altered the concentrations of metabolism-regulating neurotransmitters, and enhanced glucose tolerance and utilization in the three species, whereas physical transection or chemical blocking of the liver-brain nerve pathway abolished the effect of pFUS on glucose tolerance. Longitudinal multi-omic profiling of metabolic tissues from the treated animals confirmed pFUS-induced modifications of key metabolic functions in liver, pancreas, muscle, adipose, kidney and intestinal tissues. Non-invasive ultrasound activation of afferent autonomic nerves may represent a non-pharmacologic therapy for the restoration of glucose homoeostasis in type-2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

Rationale and objectivesBreast cancer is the leading type of cancer among women. Visualization and characterization of breast lesions based on vascularity kinetics was evaluated using three-dimensional (3D) contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging in a clinical study.Materials and methodsBreast lesions (n = 219) were imaged using power Doppler imaging (PDI), 3D contrast-enhanced harmonic imaging (HI), and 3D contrast-enhanced subharmonic imaging (SHI) with a modified Logiq 9 ultrasound scanner using a 4D10L transducer. Quantitative metrics of vascularity derived from 3D parametric volumes (based on contrast perfusion; PER and area under the curve; AUC) were generated by off-line processing of contrast wash-in and wash-out. Diagnostic accuracy of these quantitative vascular parameters was assessed with biopsy results as the reference standard.ResultsVascularity was observed with PDI in 93 lesions (69 benign and 24 malignant), 3D HI in 8 lesions (5 benign and 3 malignant), and 3D SHI in 83 lesions (58 benign and 25 malignant). Diagnostic accuracy for vascular heterogeneity, PER, and AUC ranged from 0.52 to 0.75, while the best logistical regression model (vascular heterogeneity ratio, central PER, and central AUC) reached 0.90.Conclusion3D SHI successfully detects contrast agent flow in breast lesions and characterization of these lesions based on quantitative measures of vascular heterogeneity and 3D parametric volumes is promising.

Objectives: Hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) is considered the standard in quantifying portal hypertension, but can be unreliable in dialysis patients. A noninvasive ultrasound technique, subharmonic‐aided pressure estimation (SHAPE), may be a valuable surrogate of these pressure estimates. This study compared SHAPE and HVPG with pathology findings for fibrosis in dialysis patients. Methods: This was a subgroup study from an IRB‐approved trial that included 20 patients on dialysis undergoing SHAPE examinations of portal and hepatic veins using a modified Logiq 9 scanner (GE, Waukesha, WI), during infusion of Sonazoid (GE Healthcare, Oslo, Norway). SHAPE was compared to HVPG and pathology findings using the Ludwig‐Batts scoring system for fibrosis. Logistic regression, ROC analysis, and t‐tests were used to compare HVPG and SHAPE with pathological findings of fibrosis. Results: Of 20 cases, 5 had HVPG values corresponding to subclinical and clinical portal hypertension (≥6 and ≥10 mmHg, respectively) while 15 had normal HVPG values (≤5 mmHg). SHAPE and HVPG correlated moderately (r = 0.45; P =.047). SHAPE showed a trend toward correlating with fibrosis (r = 0.42; P =.068), while HVPG did not (r = 0.18; P =.45). SHAPE could differentiate between mild (stage 0–1) and moderate to severe (stage 2–4) fibrosis (−10.4 ± 4.9 dB versus −5.4 ± 3.2 dB; P =.035), HVPG could not (3.0 ± 0.6 mmHg versus 4.8 ± 0.7 mmHg; P =.30). ROC curves showed a diagnostic accuracy for SHAPE of 80%, while HVPG reached 76%. Conclusion: Liver fibrosis staging in dialysis patients evaluated for portal hypertension appears to be more accurately predicted by SHAPE than by HVPG; albeit in a small sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability of energy and entropy metrics of radio-frequency ultrasonic backscatter is validated and quantified for differentiation among normal, dystrophic and steroid-treated muscle in the mdx model. Results suggest the delineation of both treated and untreated-mdx biceps from normal controls.

Study is conducted to show the effects of increased protein cross linking on myocardial attenuation by ultrasound. The results show that ultrasonic attenuation may provide an approach for monitoring myocardial disease associated with changes in protein cross linking.

The effect of changing the transmit apodization on the spatial coherence of backscatter for the nonlinearly generated second harmonic was determined in this study. It was observed that certain transmit apodization results in a greater spatial coherence of backscatter at the second harmonic than at the fundamental.

It is shown that the spatial coherence of backscatter for the nonlinearly generated second harmonic differs from the spatial coherence of backscatter for the fundamental. The application of the pulse-echo version of the Van Cittert-Zernike theorem is extended to the nonlinearly generated second harmonic.