AIM Peyronie's disease (PD) or plastic induration of the penis, require complete evaluation of plaques in order to decide the best therapeutic option for patient. The purpose of this study is to compare the findings of three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) and two-dimensional ultrasound (2D US) in patients with PD. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty patients with PD aged 30 to 72 years were included in study. The examination was performed with a 12 MHz linear probe, using 2D US and 3D US. Localization and size of plaques were determined and time needed for imagine acquisition was determined in every case. RESULTS 3D ultrasound permits the visualization of the entire plaque in the coronal plane of plaque with its precise measurements. No statistical difference in plaque dimensions and its surface area assessment using 3D US and 2D US was found (127.72 mm² vs. 128.74 mm², p>0.05). The possibility to perform detailed analysis of the acquired images using generated digital cube reduced the average duration of the acquisition to 69.8 seconds (median 64 seconds) for 3D US vs. 151.25 seconds (median 145.5 seconds) for 2D US (p less then 0.05). A supplementary plaque was detected using 3D US. CONCLUSIONS 3D US seems to be a valuable complement of 2D US for patients with PD. The acquisition time is significantly reduced using 3D US comparing to 2D US and thus it is more comfortable for the patient.AIMS To examine the diagnostic accuracy of plain radiography, abdominal ultrasonography (US), and their combination in pediatric patients with suspected gastrointestinal (GI) tract obstruction. MATERIAL AND METHODS A cohort of 48 patients (age, 0-14 years, 27 boys) with clinical manifestations of GI tract obstruction underwent plain radiography and abdominal US examination. The final diagnoses were based on intraoperative findings, rectal biopsies (in Hirschsprung's disease), or adequate follow-ups. RESULTS The GI tract obstruction was diagnosed in 40 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of plain radiography in diagnosing GI tract obstruction were 87.5%, 75.0%, 94.6%, and 54.6%, respectively. The corresponding values were 95%, 100%, 100%, and 80%, respectively when US was used alone; and 97.5%, 100%, 100% and 88.9%, respectively when radiography and US were used together. Except for two patients (one with Hirschsprung's disease and the other with massive peritonitis), US detected the underlying causes of obstruction correctly in all patients. CONCLUSIONS US is a highly sensitive and specific modality in diagnosing pediatric GI tract obstructions, as well as their causes. The combination of plain radiography and US further increase the diagnostic sensitivity and negative predictive value.AIM Τo examine the inter- and intra-muscular differences in the anatomical cross-sectional area (CSA) of the quadricep muscles, using extended - field of view (EFOV) ultrasonography (US). MATERIAL AND METHODS Panoramic transverse US images of the thigh were acquired from 10 young participants at five different locations across the thigh, in two sessions, spaced a week apart. The CSA of the vastus medialis (VM), rectus femoris (RF), vastus intermedius (VI), vastus lateralis (VL) and tensor vastus intermedius (TVI) was quantified. RESULTS The intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.75 to 0.97 and the standard error of measurement ranged from 0.78% to 6.61%, indicating high test-retest reliability. Analysis of the variance indicated that among the 5 quadriceps muscles the VL and the RF displayed the greater CSA proximally, the VI medially and the VM distally across the thigh (p 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The EFOV US technique provides transverse scans of the quadriceps muscle in vivo and allowed a reliable and non-invasive determination of CSA at a low cost. Evaluation of CSA along the thigh largely depends on the measurement site. Future studies that examine the quadriceps CSA using EFOV after any form of intervention should consider changes of at least 6.5% as meaningful.The human brain develops dynamically and regionally heterogeneously during the first two postnatal years. Cortical developmental regionalization, i.e., the landscape of cortical heterogeneity in development, reflects the organization of underlying microstructures, which are closely related to the functional principles of the cortex.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/capsazepine.html  Therefore, prospecting early cortical developmental regionalization can provide neurobiologically meaningful units for precise region localization, which will advance our understanding on brain development in this critical period. However, due to the absence of dedicated computational tools and large-scale datasets, our knowledge on early cortical developmental regionalization still remains intact. To fill both the methodological and knowledge gaps, we propose to explore the cortical developmental regionalization using a novel method based on nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), due to its ability in analyzing complex high-dimensional data by representing data using several bases in a data-driven way. Specifically, a novel multi-view NMF (MV-NMF) method is proposed, in which multiple distinct and complementary cortical properties (i.e., multiple views) are jointly considered to provide comprehensive observation of cortical regionalization process. To ensure the sparsity of the discovered regions, an orthogonal constraint defined in Stiefel manifold is imposed in our MV-NMF method. Meanwhile, a graph-induced constraint is also included to improve the compactness of the discovered regions. Capitalizing on an unprecedentedly large dataset with 1,560 longitudinal MRI scans from 887 infants, we delineate the first neurobiologically meaningful representation of early cortical regionalization, providing a valuable reference for brain development studies.Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive form of malignant glioma in adults with a median overall survival (OS) time of 16-18 months and a median age of diagnosis at 64 years old. Recent work has suggested that depression and psychosocial distress are associated with worse outcomes in patients with GBM. We therefore hypothesized that the targeted neutralization of psychosocial distress with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant treatment would be associated with a longer OS among patients with GBM. To address this hypothesis, we retrospectively studied the association between adjuvant SSRI usage and OS in GBM patients treated by Northwestern Medicine-affiliated providers. The medical records of 497 GBM patients were analyzed after extraction from the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse. Data were retrospectively studied using a multivariable Cox model with SSRI use defined as a time-dependent variable for estimating the association with OS. Of the 497 patients, 315 individuals died, while 182 were censored due to the loss of follow-up or were alive at the end of our study.