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Objective: To determine the reliability of knee joint sonography in the evaluation of gouty arthritis. Methodology: A search of Google Scholar, PubMed, NCBI, MEDLINE, and Medscape databases, from 1988 up to 2020. The key search terms used were knee joint; knee joint ultrasound; gout; gouty arthritis, knee joint pain; sensitivity; specificity. The reviewer independently screened the titles and abstracts of the relevant articles and full-text downloads to determine whether the inclusion or exclusion criteria were met. Results: In total, 103 articles were identified through the database search. In addition, 11 articles were identified through other sources. Then, screening was performed, and 9 articles were removed due to duplication. Further screening was done for 105 articles, and 27 articles were excluded due to insufficient information. Seventy-eight full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. A total of 13 full-text articles were excluded due to research performed on animals, as the study had been designed as a review of only human studies. Sixty-three studies were included that had a qualitative synthesis. Conclusion: The knee is a weight-bearing joint and may be affected by a myriad of different pathological conditions, therefore a proper diagnosis is of prime importance for a proper management plan. Ultrasound is a non-invasive, radiation-free, and readily available modality that has high sensitivity and specificity in the evaluation of gouty arthritis.

Aim: In this study, we sought to examine the optimal cutoff values for predicting different stages of liver fibrosis, and to determine the level of agreement between shear wave elastography and aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) scores in patients with chronic liver disease. Methodology: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed at the Radiology Department of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital Lahore from 1 Jun 2019 until 1 June 2020. FIB-4 and APRI scores were determined by the following formula: FIB-4 = (age × AST) ÷ (platelet count × (√ (ALT)) and APRI = (AST÷AST upper limit of normal) ÷ platelet × 100. Data was analyzed with the help of SPSS version 24.0 and Microsoft Excel 2013. Results: Eighty individuals were conveniently selected, of which 62.5% were men and 37.5% were women. The mean age of the subjects was 43.47 SD ± 13.85 years. APRI and FIB-4 scores predicted F4 patients using the cutoff values of 0.47 (Sn. 72%, Sp. 70%) and 1.27 (Sn. 78%, Sp. 73%), respectively. The cutoff values of 0.46 for APRI and 1.27 for FIB-4 predicted F3–F4 patients (Sn. 74% and 77%; Sp. 76% and 76%), respectively. To predict F1–F4 compared to F0, the cutoff value was 0.34 (Sn. 68%, Sp. 75%) for APRI, while the cutoff value for FIB was 0.87 (Sn. 72%, Sp. 75%). The findings suggest that FIB-4 shows better diagnostic accuracy than APRI. Conclusion: This study provides optimal cutoff values for different groups of fibrosis patients for both serum markers. Also, the diagnostic accuracy of FIB-4 for predicting liver fibrosis was found to be superior to APRI in all disease stages.

Introduction: Preeclampsia is a medical condition characterized by hypertension and proteinuria during pregnancy, with the symptoms generally manifesting in the 3rd trimester. Hypertension brings hemodynamic changes; it is therefore expected that arterial blood flow velocity waveforms will be different in the uterine and ophthalmic arteries in preeclampsia. Vascular changes do occur in preeclampsia, which in turn induces hemodynamic changes. Aim: To compare mean values of the resistive index of the ophthalmic and uterine arteries in patients with preeclampsia and normotensive individuals in Doppler US. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, ultrasound of the uterine and ophthalmic arteries was performed in 60 pregnant women in the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy to compare the resistive index of these arteries in preeclamptic and normotensive individuals. All the patients, i.e. 30 preeclamptic and 30 normotensive pregnant women, took part in this study voluntarily. The study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) of the University of Lahore. Results: The mean resistive index of the uterine artery was 0.50 ± 0.08 in normotensive participants and 0.64 ± 0.09 in preeclamptic women, with the p-value

Objective: To determine the association between spectral Doppler cardiac activity in the lower limb veins and echocardiographic findings in patients with tricuspid regurgitation. Material and methods: A cross-sectional analysis was performed in the Gilani Ultrasound Center over a period of 13 months. The total study sample comprised 400 subjects. All individuals referred for abdominal ultrasound having cardiac activities in external iliac vein, popliteal and posterior tibial vein, individuals having normal venous Doppler ultrasound, both genders and all ages, were included, and unwilling and non-cooperative patients were excluded from the study. Results: Out of 400 individuals, 200 showed cardiac activity in the lower limb veins on Doppler vascular ultrasound, while 200 did not show cardiac activity. On echocardiography, 204 individuals were diagnosed with tricuspid regurgitation, and 196 individuals had a competent tricuspid valve. According to the independent sample t-test the mean difference in the posterior tibial vein was 25.54 (95% CI: 24.09; 26.98), while the mean difference in the iliac vein was 2.34 (95% CI: 0.64; 4.03) among normal and tricuspid regurgitation. Conclusion: A correlation was found between the cardiac activities in the lower limb veins and tricuspid regurgitation.

Objective: To determine the correlation between portal vein diameter and spleen size (craniocaudal). Methodology: The study was conducted at the University Ultrasound Clinic, The University of Lahore, Lahore Pakistan from 1st January to 1st July 2013. All the individuals who referred for abdominal sonographic examination, including male, female, older and younger were conveniently included in the study, voluntarily, irrespective of the disease state. Ultrasonographic measurements of the caudocranial length of the spleen and portal vein were carried out on all of the one thousand subjects. The subject position for spleen was supine or right posterior oblique during suspended inspiration and right anterior oblique position for portal vein diameter with quiet respiration. The correlation between the splenic length and portal vein diameter was evaluated. Result: A total of 1000 subjects; 36.9% females and 63.1% males aged from 4 to 79 years. The mean splenic length was 10.29 ± 1.89 cm. The mean portal vein diameter was 10.27 ± 1.78 mm. A statistically significant correlation was found between the spleen size and portal vein diameter; the Pearson correlation was significant at the 0.01 level. Conclusion: Portal vein diameter is directly correlated to splenic caudocranial length. A regression formula was developed to measure the splenic length from the calculation of portal vein diameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of sonoelastography in patients of primary and secondary health care settings. Google scholar, PubMed, Medline, Medscape, Wikipedia and NCBI were searched in October 2017 for all original studies and review articles to identify the relevant material. Two reviewers independently selected articles for evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of sonoelastography in different diseases based on titles and abstracts retrieved by the literature search. The accuracy of sonoelastography in different diseases was used as the index text, while B-mode sonography, micro pure imaging, surgery and histological findings were used as reference texts. Superficial lymph nodes, neck nodules, malignancy in thyroid nodules, benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes, thyroid nodules, prostate carcinoma, benign and malignant breast abnormalities, liver diseases, parotid and salivary gland masses, pancreatic masses, musculoskeletal diseases and renal disorders were target conditions. The data extracted by the two reviewers concerning selected study characteristics and results were presented in tables and figures. In total, 46 studies were found for breast masses, lymph nodes, prostate carcinoma, liver diseases, salivary and parotid gland diseases, pancreatic masses, musculoskeletal diseases and renal diseases, and the overall sensitivity of sonoelastography in diagnosing all these diseases was 83.14% while specificity was 81.41%. This literature review demonstrates that sonoelastography is characterized by high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing different disorders of the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]