Consistency of the preoperative and intraoperative diagnosis of benign vocal fold lesions

The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare the preoperative and intraoperative diagnosis of benign vocal fold lesions for consistency. The diagnosis was made in 221 consecutive patients with benign vocal fold lesions for which a microlaryngoscopy was carried out in a general ENT-clinic. The preoperative diagnosis was obtained by both white halogen and stroboscopic light. The intraoperative diagnosis was obtained by direct microscopic visualization and palpation of the vocal folds. In 36% of the patients, the preoperative diagnosis was changed intraoperatively. In 31% of the patients, a lesion was missed at the preoperative examination and a lesion was diagnosed only during microlaryngoscopy. Bilateral lesions were found in 53% of the patients preoperatively, and in 82% of the patients intraoperatively. Specially intracordal lesions constituted a diagnostic pitfall. Because the preoperative and intraoperative diagnosis often differed, both the patients and the ENT-surgeon must keep an open mind about what may need to be done at surgery.     

The potential role of ultrasound in differentiating solid and cystic swellings of the true vocal fold

This study was designed to investigate the potential role of ultrasound in the diagnosis of cysts of the true vocal fold. Materials and Methods: Grayscale ultrasound of the larynx was carried out in 29 patients with a swelling of the true vocal fold and dysphonia. The findings were then compared with those at subsequent microlaryngoscopy, in the majority of cases. Results and Conclusions: Whereas preoperative laryngeal ultrasound correctly predicted the surgical findings of a cystic lesion in only 5 of 11 cases, it correctly identified that no cyst was present in 15 of 16 instances when this had been queried. This study suggests that ultrasound may have some role in investigation of unilateral vocal fold pathology, but that further fine-tuning of the technique may be necessary.     

The intermediate layer: A morphologic study of the elastin and hyaluronic acid constituents of normal human vocal folds

The lamina propria of vocal folds are important in voice production. We evaluated the morphologic features of elastin and hyaluronic acid, two important constituents of the lamina propria. Thirty normal human vocal folds were obtained from patients dying of traumatic causes without vocal fold injury. These tissues were immediately prepared for histologic and ultrastructural examination by standard methods. For specific study of the ultrastructure of the layers of the lamina propria, six vocal folds were divided horizontally through the midplane of the lamina propria. We found that the elastin composition of the vocal folds is variable, the largest amount being seen in the midportion on elastin-van Gieson (EVG) staining and ultrastructural evaluation. The superficial layer of the lamina propria contains fewer large elastin fibers. In this region, we found that elastin was predominantly composed of elaunin and oxytalan, which stain poorly with EVG. Using computer-assisted image analysis, we quantified the differences in elastin composition between the layers. The amount of elastin varied between men and women, and these differences could not be accurately measured by the methods employed. Hyaluronic acid was abundant especially in the midportion of the lamina propria and was significantly more abundant in men than women on quantification. The significance of these observations in normal vocal folds is discussed.     

Texture analysis of bone marrow in knee MRI for classification of subjects with bone marrow lesion — Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Visualization of bone marrow lesion (BML) can improve the diagnosis of many bone disorders that are associated with it. A quantitative approach in detecting BML could increase the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosing those bone disorders. In this paper, we investigated the feasibility of using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based texture to (a) identify slices and (b) classify subjects with and without BML. A total of 58 subjects were studied; 29 of them were affected by BML. The ages of subjects ranged from 45 to 74 years with a mean age of 59. Texture parameters were calculated for the weight-bearing region of distal femur. The parameters were then analyzed using Mann–Whitney U test and individual feature selection methods to identify potentially discriminantive parameters. Forward feature selection was applied to select features subset for classification. Classification results from eight classifiers were studied. Results show that 98 of the 147 parameters studied are statistically significantly different between the normal and affected marrows: parameters based on co-occurrence matrix are ranked highest in their separability. The classification of subjects achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.914, and the classification of slices achieved an AUC of 0.780. The results show that MRI-texture-based classification can effectively classify subjects/slices with and without BML.     

红外光谱结合判别分析对三七道地性及产地的鉴别研究

利用傅里叶变换红外光谱结合判别分析对三七的道地性及产地进行鉴别研究。测试了11个县13个种植点的136株三七主根样品的红外光谱, 利用Omnic8.0软件计算了每个样品红外光谱的二阶导数光谱。分别采用1 800～700 cm-1光谱范围的红外光谱数据和二阶导数光谱数据, 运用逐步判别分析法建立模型对三七的道地性进行判别研究, 二阶导数光谱数据建立的模型对三七道地性的识别效果更好, 回判正确率为100%, 预测正确率为93.4%。采用交叉验证法检验了模型的稳定性, 并对此方法进行了外推性验证。用二阶导数光谱数据结合相同的判别方法对三七的产地进行识别, 比较了不同光谱范围和不同训练样本数建立的模型判别效果, 每个种植点选择8个样本作为训练样本, 采用1 500～1 200 cm-1光谱范围的数据建立的模型判别效果较好, 回判正确率为99.0%, 预测正确率为76.5%。结果表明, 红外光谱结合判别分析对三七道地性的识别效果好, 有望成为实际中鉴别三七道地性的新方法;对三七产地的识别有一定的效果, 可作为三七产地鉴别的一种新思路。     

红外光谱结合判别分析对三七道地性及产地的鉴别研究

利用傅里叶变换红外光谱结合判别分析对三七的道地性及产地进行鉴别研究。测试了11个县13个种植点的136株三七主根样品的红外光谱,利用Omnic8.0软件计算了每个样品红外光谱的二阶导数光谱。分别采用1 800~700cm-1光谱范围的红外光谱数据和二阶导数光谱数据,运用逐步判别分析法建立模型对三七的道地性进行判别研究,二阶导数光谱数据建立的模型对三七道地性的识别效果更好,回判正确率为100%,预测正确率为93.4%。采用交叉验证法检验了模型的稳定性,并对此方法进行了外推性验证。用二阶导数光谱数据结合相同的判别方法对三七的产地进行识别,比较了不同光谱范围和不同训练样本数建立的模型判别效果,每个种植点选择8个样本作为训练样本,采用1 500~1 200cm-1光谱范围的数据建立的模型判别效果较好,回判正确率为99.0%,预测正确率为76.5%。结果表明,红外光谱结合判别分析对三七道地性的识别效果好,有望成为实际中鉴别三七道地性的新方法;对三七产地的识别有一定的效果,可作为三七产地鉴别的一种新思路。