Kidney tumor is one of the diseases threatening human health. Ultrasound is widely applied in kidney tumor diagnosis due to its high popularization, low price and no radiation. Accurate segmentation of kidney tumor is the basis of precise treatment. Kidney tumors often grow in the middle of cortex, so that segmentation is easy disturbed by nearby organs. Besides, ultrasound images own low contrast and large speckle, leading to difficult segmentation. This paper proposed a novel kidney tumor segmentation method in ultrasound images using adaptive sub-regional evolution level set models (ASLSM). Regions of interest are firstly divided into subareas. Secondly, object function is designed by integrating inside and outside energy and gradient, in which the ratio of these two parts are adjusted adaptively. Thirdly, ASLSM adapts convolution radius and curvature according to centroid principle and similarity inside and outside zero level set. Hausdorff distance (HD) of (8.75 ± 4.21) mm, mean absolute distance (MAD) of (3.26 ± 1.69) mm, dice-coefficient (DICE) of 0.93 ± 0.03 were obtained in the experiment. Compared with traditional ultrasound segmentation method, ASLSM is more accurate in kidney tumor segmentation. ASLSM may offer convenience for doctor to locate and diagnose kidney tumor in the future.
ObjectiveTo analyze the safety and effectiveness of ultrasound-guided endovascular treatment for femoropopliteal arteriosclerosis obliteran (ASO). MethodsThe clinical data of patients with femoropopliteal ASO were collected and analyzed. The patients were treated by ultrasound-guided endovascular intervention in the Xijing Hospital of Air Force Military Medical University, from March 2015 to June 2021. The endovascular intervention methods included the arterial balloon dilation (ABD) alone, stent implantation (SI), Rotarex mechanical thrombus removal (Abbreviationas: Rotarex), and thrombolytic catheter implantation (CDT), etc. ResultsAll 112 patients (121 affected extremities) who met the research criteria were collected. Among them, there were 13, 68, and 40 affected extremities by the Rutherford classification of 2, 3, and 4, respectively, while 41, 39, and 41 affected extremities by the Trans-Atlantic Inter-SocietyConsensus Ⅱ classification of A, B, and C, respectively. Among 121 affected extremities, 61 underwent the ABD alone, 27 underwent ABD plus Rotarex, 12 underwent ABD plus SI, 6 underwent ABD plus SI plus Rotarex, 3 underwent ABD plus SI plus CDT, 7 underwent ABD plus CDT plus Rotarex, and 5 underwent ABD plus CDT. The ultrasound-guided endovascular treatments were completed successfully in 118 affected extremities (the success rate was 97.5%), and 3 affected extremities were not completely completed by ultrasound guidance. After operation, 5 affected extremities had pseudoaneurysm and 7 affected extremities had hematoma at the puncture site, which were cured after conservative management. The ankle-brachial index (ABI) of the affected extremities immediately after surgery was statistically higher than that before surgery [0.89±0.13 vs. 0.53±0.09, mean difference (95% confidence interval)=0.36 (0.34, 0.38), paired t-test (t=–25.17), P<0.001]. After a follow-up of 12 months, one patient had a metatarsal amputation and one patient died (acute myocardial infarction). The restenosis rate and reintervention rate of the target lesions were 25.0% (30/120) and 15.0% (18/120) at 12 months postoperatively, and the late loss of diameter was (0.88±0.25) mm. The ABI was still higher than before surgery [0.78±0.13 vs. 0.53±0.09, mean difference (95% confidence interval)=0.25 (0.22, 0.27), paired t-test, t=–17.61, P<0.001]. ConclusionFrom analysis results of this data, it can be seen that, ultrasound-guided endovascular intervention is a safe and effective treatment for selective femoropopliteal ASO.