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Background: Poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is known to result in left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, myocardial fibrosis, and ischemic/nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (ICM/NIDCM). However, less is known about the prognostic value of T2DM on LV longitudinal function and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) assessed with cardiac MRI in ICM/NIDCM patients. Purpose: To measure LV longitudinal function and myocardial scar in ICM/NIDCM patients with T2DM and to determine their prognostic values. Study Type: Retrospective cohort. Population: Two hundred thirty‐five ICM/NIDCM patients (158 with T2DM and 77 without T2DM). Field Strength/Sequence: 3T; steady‐state free precession cine; phase‐sensitive inversion recovery segmented gradient echo LGE sequences. Assessment: Global peak longitudinal systolic strain rate (GLPSSR) was evaluated to LV longitudinal function with feature tracking. The predictive value of GLPSSR was determined with ROC curve. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was measured. The primary adverse cardiovascular endpoint was follow up every 3 months. Statistical Tests: Mann–Whitney U test or student's t‐test; Intra and inter‐observer variabilities; Kaplan–Meier method; Cox proportional hazards analysis (threshold = 5%). Results: ICM/NIDCM patients with T2DM exhibited significantly lower absolute value of GLPSSR (0.39 ± 0.14 vs. 0.49 ± 0.18) and higher proportion of LGE positive (+) despite similar LV ejection fraction, compared to without T2DM. LV GLPSSR was able to predict primary endpoint (AUC 0.73) and optimal cutoff point was 0.4. ICM/NIDCM patients with T2DM (GLPSSR < 0.4) had more markedly impaired survival. Importantly, this group (GLPSSR < 0.4, HbA1c ≥ 7.8%, or LGE (+)) exhibited the worst survival. In multivariate analysis, GLPSSR, HbA1c, and LGE (+) significantly predicted primary adverse cardiovascular endpoint in overall ICM/NIDCM and ICM/NIDCM patients with T2DM. Conclusions: T2DM has an additive deleterious effect on LV longitudinal function and myocardial fibrosis in ICM/NIDCM patients. Combining GLPSSR, HbA1c, and LGE could be promising markers in predicting outcomes in ICM/NIDCM patients with T2DM. Evidence Level: 3 Technical Efficacy: 5 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current radiomics for treatment response assessment in gastric cancer (GC) have focused solely on Computed tomography (CT). The importance of multi‐parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp‐MRI) radiomics in GC is less clear. Purpose: To compare and combine CT and mp‐MRI radiomics for pretreatment identification of pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in GC. Study Type: Retrospective. Population: Two hundred twenty‐five GC patients were recruited and split into training (157) and validation dataset (68) in the ratio of 7:3 randomly. Field/Sequence: T2‐weighted fast spin echo (fat suppressed T2‐weighted imaging [fs‐T2WI]), diffusion weighted echo planar imaging (DWI), and fast gradient echo (dynamic contrast enhanced [DCE]) sequences at 3.0T. Assessment: Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were generated from DWI. CT, fs‐T2WI, ADC, DCE, and mp‐MRI Radiomics score (Radscores) were compared between responders and non‐responders. A multimodal nomogram combining CT and mp‐MRI Radscores was developed. Patients were followed up for 3–65 months (median 19) after surgery, the overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) were calculated. Statistical Tests: A logistic regression classifier was applied to construct the five models. Each model's performance was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve. The association of the nomogram with OS/PFS was evaluated by Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and C‐index. A P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: CT Radscore, mp‐MRI Radscore and nomogram were significantly associated with tumor regression grading. The nomogram achieved the highest area under the curves (AUCs) of 0.893 (0.834–0.937) and 0.871 (0.767–0.940) in training and validation datasets, respectively. The C‐index was 0.589 for OS and 0.601 for PFS. The AUCs of the mp‐MRI model were not significantly different to that of the CT model in training (0.831 vs. 0.770, P = 0.267) and validation dataset (0.797 vs. 0.746, P = 0.137). Data Conclusions: mp‐MRI radiomics provides similar results to CT radiomics for early identification of pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The multimodal radiomics nomogram further improved the capability. Evidence Level: 3 Technical Efficacy: 2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of our study was to retrospectively evaluate the efficacy of combined analysis of T2-weighted imaging and DWI in the diagnosis of parametrial invasion (PMI) in cervical carcinoma., Materials and Methods: The clinical records of 192 patients with cervical carcinoma who met the study requirements were reviewed for this retrospective study. The signal intensities of suspicious PMI tissue were assessed on T2-weighted images, DW images, and apparent diffusion coefficient maps independently by two experienced radiologists. The radiologist observers predicted the presence of PMI by scoring T2-weighted imaging alone and then by scoring T2-weighted imaging and DWI combined. The results were compared with histopathologic findings., Results: Histopathologic findings revealed PMI in 24 of 192 study subjects. In positively predicting the presence of PMI, T2-weighted imaging and DWI combined scored significantly better than T2-weighted imaging alone, as proven by high sensitivity (T2-weighted imaging alone vs T2-weighted imaging and DWI combined: observer 1, 75.0% vs 83.3% [p = 0.477]; observer 2, 66.7% vs 91.7% [p < 0.05]), high specificity (T2-weighted imaging alone vs T2-weighted imaging and DWI combined: observer 1, 84.5% vs 98.8% [p < 0.001]; observer 2, 85.7% vs 98.8% [p < 0.001]), and high accuracy (T2-weighted imaging alone vs T2-weighted imaging and DWI combined: observer 1, 83.3% vs 96.9% [p < 0.001]; observer 2, 83.3% vs 97.9% [p < 0.001]). The area under the ROC curve was also significantly higher for T2-weighted imaging and DWI combined (observer 1, 0.911; observer 2, 0.952) than for T2-weighted imaging alone (observer 1, 0.798; observer 2, 0.762). Although the interobserver agreement was good for T2-weighted imaging (κ = 0.695) and excellent for T2-weighted imaging and DWI combined (κ = 0.753), the improvement failed to achieve statistical significance (p = 0.28)., Conclusion: Combined analysis of T2-weighted imaging and DWI enhances the accuracy of diagnosing PMI in patients with cervical cancer compared with T2-weighted imaging alone.

Rice is one of the most important staple crops. It has been the major focus in breeding program to improve grain yield. A unique feature of tetraploid rice is the increased grain size and weight compared to diploid. Therefore, investigating the effects of genome doubling on expression of genes regulating grain size is important for yield improvement in rice breeding program. In this study, we analyzed differential expression of six genes regulating grain size in young panicles of various developmental stages between diploid and tetraploid rice. Transgenic approaches were employed to explore the dosage effects on gene expression and grain size. The results showed that genome duplications did not influence the developmental patterns of rice growth, but enhanced plant height, leaf width and grain size. The grain length and width in Indica tetraploid increased significantly, but the grain length showed more obvious change than width in Japonica tetraploid. The expression levels were affected not only by the developmental stages, but also by genetic background. Upon genome doubling, the positive regulation gene GS5 and HGW expression levels were generally higher in tetraploid than the corresponding diploid. Negative regulation gene GS3 in Indica tetraploid tended to be down-regulated or silenced, but increased in Japonica tetraploid. Another negative regulation GW2 was up-regulated in Indica tetraploid and silenced in Japonica tetraploid. The extra copies of GW2 in diploid transgenic lines exerted a gene dosage effect that resulted in the higher expression level than that of wild type diploid and tetraploid, which causes small grain formation in transgenic lines. Our results will help to understand the function of genes regulating the grain size in the diploid and tetraploid, and provide a theoretical basis for yield improvement.