Perfusion analysis of benign parotid gland tumors by contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS).

Background: Diagnosis of parotid gland tumors is sometimes challenging due to their diversity and pleomorphic histological appearance. B-scan sonography along with color-coded duplex sonography is the gold standard in the diagnostic workup of these lesions, whereas histopathology is to date the gold standard for the final diagnosis. To date no single imaging technique provides the chance for an art-diagnosis with highly diagnostic accuracy.

[Perfusion analysis in parotid gland tumors using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS)].

Objective: The diagnosis of parotid gland tumors is challenging due to their rarity and heterogenity. Neither conventional ultrasound nor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) nor computed tomography (CT) allow a reliable pretherapeutic diagnosis. In addition to conventional ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) enables a more detailed assessment of perfusion in parotid gland tumors, thereby improving evaluation of this tumor entity.

The YOUth study: Rationale, design, and study procedures.

Behavioral development in children shows large inter-individual variation, and is driven by the interplay between biological, psychological, and environmental processes. However, there is still little insight into how these processes interact. The YOUth cohort specifically focuses on two core characteristics of behavioral development: social competence and self-regulation.

Intra- and interobserver agreement for fetal cerebral measurements in 3D-ultrasonography.

The aim of this study is to evaluate intra- and interobserver agreement for measurement of intracranial, cerebellar, and thalamic volume with the Virtual Organ Computer-aided AnaLysis (VOCAL) technique in three-dimensional ultrasound images, in comparison to two-dimensional measurements of these brain structures. Three-dimensional ultrasound images of the brains of 80 fetuses at 20-24 weeks' gestational age were obtained from YOUth, a Dutch prospective cohort study. Two observers performed offline measurement of the occipitofrontal diameter, intracranial volume, transcerebellar diameter, cerebellar volume, and thalamic width, area, and volume, independently.