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Active contour models are of great importance for image segmentation and can extract smooth and closed boundary contours of the desired objects with promising results. However, they cannot work well in the presence of intensity inhomogeneity. Hence, a novel region-based active contour model is proposed by taking image intensities and ‘vesselness values’ from local phase-based vesselness enhancement into account simultaneously to define a novel multi-feature Gaussian distribution fitting energy in this paper. This energy is then incorporated into a level set formulation with a regularization term for accurate segmentations. Experimental results based on publicly available STructured Analysis of the Retina (STARE) demonstrate our model is more accurate than some existing typical methods and can successfully segment most small vessels with varying width. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) status plays an important role in treatment decision‐making in rectal cancer (RC). Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging has been shown to detect LVI; however, making better use of IVIM data remains an important issue that needs to be discussed. Purpose: We proposed to explore the best way to use IVIM quantitative parameters and images to construct radiomics models for the noninvasive detection of LVI in RC. Methods: A total of 83 patients (LVI negative (LVI‐): LVI positive (LVI+) = 51:32) with postoperative pathology‐confirmed LVI status in RC were divided into a training group (n = 58) and a validation group (n = 25). Images were acquired from a 3.0 Tesla machine, including oblique axial T2 weighted imaging (T2WI) and IVIM with 11 b values. The ADC, D, D* and f values were measured on IVIM maps. The ROIs of tumors were delineated on T2WI, DWI, ADCmap, and Dmap images, and three mapping methods were used: ROIs_mapping from DWI, ROIs_mapping from ADCmap, and ROIs_mapping from Dmap. Three‐dimensional radiomics features were extracted from the delineated ROIs. Multivariate logistic regression was used for radiomics feature selection. Radiomics models based on different mapping methods were developed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration, and decision curve analyses (DCA) were used to evaluate the performance of the models. Results: Model B, which was constructed with radiomics features from ADCmap, Dmap and fmap by "ROIs_mapping from DWI" and T2WI (AUC 0.894), performed better than other models based on single sequence (AUC 0.600‐0.806) and even better than Model A, which was based on "ROIs_mapping from ADC" and T2WI (AUC 0.838). Furthermore, an integrated model was constructed with Model B and the IVIM parameter (f value) with an AUC of 0.920 (95% CI: 0.820‐1.000), which was higher than that of Model B, in the validation group. Conclusions: The integrated model incorporating the radiomics features and IVIM parameters accurately detected LVI of RC. The "ROIs_mapping from DWI" method provided the best results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Colorectal tumor segmentation is an important step in the analysis and diagnosis of colorectal cancer. This task is a time consuming one since it is often performed manually by radiologists. This paper presents an automatic postprocessing module to refine the segmentation of deep networks. The label assignment generative adversarial network (LAGAN) is improved from the generative adversarial network (GAN) and assigns labels to the outputs of deep networks. We apply the LAGAN to segment colorectal tumors in computed tomography (CT) scans and explore the performances of different combinations of deep networks. Material and methods: A total of 223 patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) are enrolled in the study. The CT scans of the colorectal tumors are first segmented by FCN32 and Unet separately, which output probabilistic maps. Then, the probabilistic maps are labeled by the LAGAN and finally, the binary segmentation results are obtained. The LAGAN consists of a generating model and a discriminating model. The generating model utilizes the probabilistic maps from deep networks to imitate the distribution of the ground truths, and the discriminating model attempts to distinguish generations and ground truths. Through competitive training, the generating model of the LAGAN can realize label assignments for the probabilistic maps. Results: The LAGAN increases the DSC of FCN32 from 81.83% ± 0.35% to 90.82% ± 0.36%. In the Unet‐based segmentation, the LAGAN increases the DSC from 86.67% ± 0.70% to 91.54% ± 0.53%. It takes approximately 10 ms to refine a single CT slice. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that the LAGAN is a robust and flexible module, which can be used to refine the segmentation of diverse deep networks. Compared with other networks, the LAGAN can achieve desirable segmented accuracy for colorectal tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensing platform (termed as USP), comprised of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) as the energy donor and Cy5 as the energy acceptor, has been synthesized for cathepsin B (CTSB) activity detection in vitro and in vivo. When Cy5-modified peptide substrate (peptide-Cy5) of CTSB is covalently linked on the surface of UCNPs, the FRET between the UCNPs (excitation: 980 nm; emission: 541 nm/655 nm) and Cy5 (excitation: 645 nm) leads to a reduction in the red upconversion luminescence (UCL) signal intensity of UCNPs. Cy5 can be liberated from UCNPs in the presence of CTSB through the cleavage of peptide-Cy5 by CTSB, leading to the recovery of the red UCL signal of UCNPs. Because the green UCL signal of UCNPs remains constant during the CTSB digestion, it can be considered as an internal reference. The findings demonstrate the ability of USP to detect CTSB with the linear detection ranges of 1 to 100 ng·mL−1 in buffer and 2 × 103 to 1 × 105 cells in 0.2 mL cell lysates. The limits of detection (LODs) are 0.30 ng·mL−1 in buffer and 887 cells in 0.2 mL of cell lysates (S/N = 3). The viability of USP to detect CTSB activity in tumor-bearing mice is has further been investigated using in vivo fluorescent imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whiplash injury is common in traffic accidents, and severe whiplash is characterized by cervical spinal cord injuries with cervical dislocation or fracture, that can be diagnosed by postmortem computed tomography (PMCT), postmortem magnetic resonance (PMMR), or conventional autopsy. However, for cervical spinal cord injury without fracture and dislocation, PMMR can be more informative because it provides higher resolution of soft tissues. We report the case of a 29-year-old male who died immediately following a traffic accident, in which the vehicle hit an obstacle at a high speed, causing deformation of the bumper and severe damage of the vehicle body. PMCT indicated no significant injuries or diseases related to death, but PMMR showed patchy abnormal signals in the medulla oblongata, and the lower edge of the cerebellar tonsil was herniated out of the foramen magnum. The subsequent pathological and histological results confirmed that death was caused by medulla oblongata contusion combined with cerebellar tonsillar herniation. Our description of this case of a rare but fatal whiplash injury in which there was no fracture or dislocation provides a better understanding of the potentially fatal consequences of cervical spinal cord whiplash injury without fracture or dislocation and of the underlying lethal mechanisms. Compared with PMCT, PMMR provides important diagnostic information in forensic practice for the identification of soft tissue injuries, and is therefore an important imaging modality for diagnosis of whiplash injury when there is no fracture or dislocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal halide perovskite scintillators encounter unprecedented opportunities in indirect ionizing radiation detection due to their high quantum yields. However, the long scintillation lifetime of microseconds upon irradiation, known as the afterglow phenomenon, obviously limits their fast development. Here, a new type of hybrid X‐ray detector wafer combining direct methylamine lead iodide (MAPbI3) semiconductor and indirect zero‐dimensional cesium copper iodide (Cs3Cu2I5) scintillator through low‐cost fast tableting processes is reported. Due to the fast energy transfer from Cs3Cu2I5 to MAPbI3, the device response time to X‐rays is dramatically reduced by nearly 30 times to 36.6 ns, which enables fast X‐ray detection capability by a large area detector arrays within 1 s. Moreover, Cs3Cu2I5 exists at the grain boundaries of MAPbI3 crystals, and blocks the paths of mobile ions of perovskite, leading to the lowest detectable dose rate of hybrid X‐ray detector is thus reduced by 1.5 times compared with control MAPbI3 direct‐type semiconductor, and 10 times compared with the Cs3Cu2I5 indirect‐type scintillator. The direct/indirect hybrid wafer also exhibits improved operation stability at ambient conditions without any encapsulation. This new kind of hybrid X‐ray detectors provides strong competitiveness by combining the advantages of both direct perovskite semiconductors and indirect perovskite scintillators for next‐generation products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inconformity (IC) between pathological and imaging remissions after neoadjuvant immunotherapy in patients with NSCLC can affect the evaluation of curative effect of neoadjuvant therapy and the decision regarding the chance of surgery. Patients who achieved disease control(CR/PR/SD) after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy from a clinical trial (NCT04326153) and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy during the same period were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent radical resection and systematic mediastinal lymphadenectomy after neoadjuvant treatments. The pathological remission, immunohistochemistry (CD4, CD8, CD20, CD56, FoxP3, CD68, CD163, CD11b tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or macrophages), and single-source dual-energy computed tomography (ssDECT) scans were assessed. The IC between imaging remission by CT and pathological remission was investigated. The underlying cause of IC, the correlation between IC and DFS, and prognostic biomarkers were explored. After neoadjuvant immunotherapy, enhanced immune killing and reduced immunosuppressive performance were observed. 70 % of neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy patients were in high/medium IC level. Massive necrosis and repair around and inside the cancer nest were the main pathological changes observed 30–45 days post-treatment with PD1/PD-L1 antibody and were the main causes of IC between the pathology and imaging responses after neoadjuvant immunotherapy. High IC and preoperative CD8 expression (H score ≥ 3) indicate a high pathological response rate and prolonged DFS. Iodine material density ssDECT images showed that the iodine content in the lesion causes hyperattenuation in post-neoadjuvant lesion in PCR patient. Compared to chemotherapy and targeted therapy, the efficacy of neoadjuvant immunotherapy was underestimated based on the RECIST criteria due to the unique antitumor therapeutic mechanism. Preoperative CD8+ expression and ssDECT predict this IC and evaluate the residual tumor cells. This is of great significance for screening immune beneficiaries and making more accurate judgments about the timing of surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both semiconductors and scintillators have their own advantages in direct and indirect X‐ray detection, respectively. However, they are also limited by their intrinsic properties and detection mechanisms. Here, a low‐cost and large‐area flat X‐ray detector is reported by combining a cesium silver bismuth bromide (Cs2AgBiBr6) perovskite semiconductor with a ethylenebis‐triphenylphosphonium manganese (II) bromide ((C38H34P2)MnBr4) scintillator through fast tableting processes. Cs2AgBiBr6 and (C38H34P2)MnBr4 can attenuate the X‐ray photons to induce charge carriers that are collected through the continuous Cs2AgBiBr6 grains. (C38H34P2)MnBr4 blocks the Cs2AgBiBr6 ions migration paths at the grain boundaries to reduce the device dark current/noise and improves the working stability. Most charges generated by (C38H34P2)MnBr4 are transferred to the adjacent Cs2AgBiBr6, and recombined charges radiate light through scintillation, which will be further absorbed by the surrounding Cs2AgBiBr6 perovskite, and further induce collectable charges for indirect X‐ray detection, avoiding the unwanted light scattering, self‐absorption, or afterglow effects of scintillators. The hybrid X‐ray detector displays a high sensitivity of 114 µC Gyair−1 cm−2 to 120 keVp hard X‐rays with a lowest detectable dose rate of 0.2 μGyair s−1, showing 75 times lower detection limit compared to (C38H34P2)MnBr4 scintillator, which provides a new path for X‐ray flat‐panel design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Halide perovskites exhibit diverse properties depending on their compositions. However, integrating desired properties into one material is still challenging. Here, a facile solution‐processed epitaxial growth method to grow 2D perovskite single crystal on top of 3D perovskite single crystal, which can passivate the surface defects for improved device performance is reported. Short formamidine (FA+) ions are replaced by long organic cations, which can fully align and cover the single crystal surface to prevent the ions migration or short FA+ ions volatilization. The thickness of epitaxial layer can be finely adjusted by controlling the growth time. The defect density of single crystals heterojunction is only 3.18 × 109 cm−3, and the carrier mobility is 80.43 cm2 V−1 s−1, which is greater than that of the control 3D perovskite single crystal. This study for the first time realized large area 3D/2D perovskite single crystals heterojunction, which suppressed ions migration and exhibited advanced performance in hard X‐rays detection applications. This strategy also provides a way to grow large area 2D perovskite single crystal from solution processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crystal growth rate was greatly controlled through volatilization control valve, which avoid producing a large number of defects because of high growth rate. Constant growth rate leads to high-quality single crystal for high sensitive X-ray detector. [Display omitted] Halide perovskite single crystals (HPSCs) provide a unique platform to study the optoelectronic properties of such emerging semiconductor materials, while the temperature induced crystal growth method often has an increased solute integration speed and/or unavoidable solute consumption, resulting in a soaring or slumping crystal growth rate of HPSCs. Here, we developed a universal and facile solvent-volatilization-limited-growth (SVG) strategy to finely control the crystal growth rate by the fine-control-valve for high quality crystal grown through solution processes. The grown HPSCs by SVG method exhibited a record low trap density of 2.8 × 108 cm−3 and a high charge carrier mobility-lifetime product (μτ product) of 0.021 cm2/V, indicating the excellent crystal quality. The crystal surface defects were further passivated by oxygen suppliers as Lewis base, which led to a reduction of surface leakage current by two times when using for low dose rate X-ray detection. Such HPSC X-ray detector displayed a high sensitivity of 1274 µC/(Gy air cm2) with a lowest detectable dose rate of 0.56 μGy air /s under 120 keV hard X-ray. Further applications including alloy composition analysis and metal flaw detection by HPSC detectors were also demonstrated, which not only shows the bright future for product quality inspection and non-destructive materials analysis, but also paves the way for growing high quality single crystals and fabricating polycrystalline films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To develop and validate a PET/CT nomogram for preoperative estimation of lymph node (LN) staging in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 263 pathologically confirmed LNs from 124 patients with NCSLC were retrospectively analyzed. Positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) examination was performed before treatment according to the clinical schedule. In the training cohort (N = 185), malignancy-related features, such as SUVmax, short-axis diameter (SAD), and CT radiomics features, were extracted from the regions of LN based on the PET/CT scan. The Minimum-Redundancy Maximum-Relevance (mRMR) algorithm and the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression model were used for feature selection and radiomics score building. The radiomics score (Rad-Score) and SUVmax were incorporated in a PET/CT nomogram using the multivariable logistic regression analysis. The performance of the proposed model was evaluated with discrimination, calibration, and clinical application in an independent testing cohort (N = 78). Results: The radiomics scores consisting of 14 selected features were significantly associated with LN status for both training cohort with AUC of 0.849 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.796–0.903) and testing cohort with AUC of 0.828 (95% CI, 0.782–0.919). The PET/CT nomogram incorporating radiomics score and SUVmax showed moderate improvement of the efficiency with AUC of 0.881 (95% CI, 0.834–0.928) in the training cohort and AUC of 0.872 (95% CI, 0.797–0.946) in the testing cohort. The decision curve analysis indicated that the PET/CT nomogram was clinically useful. Conclusion: The PET/CT nomogram, which incorporates Rad-Score and SUVmax, can improve the diagnostic performance of LN metastasis. Key Points: • The PET/CT nomogram (Int-Score) based on lymph node (LN) PET/CT images can reliably predict LN status in NSCLC. • Int-Score is a relatively objective diagnostic method, which can play an auxiliary role in the process of clinicians making treatment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perineural invasion (PNI) as a grossly underreported independent risk predictor in rectal cancer is hard to identify preoperatively. We aim to predict PNI status in rectal cancer using multi-modality radiomics. In total, 396 radiomics features were extracted from T2-weighted images (T2WIs), diffusion-weighted images (DWIs), and portal venous phase of contrast-enhanced CT (CE-CT) respectively of 94 consecutive patients with histologically confirmed rectal cancer. T2WI score, DWI score, and CT score were calculated via the radiomics features selection and optimization. Discrimination, calibration, and clinical benefit ability were used to evaluate the performance of the radiomics scores in both training and testing datasets. CT score and T2WI score were independent risk predictors [CT score, OR (95% CI) = 4.218 (1.070–16.620); T2WI score, OR (95% CI) = 105.721 (3.091–3615.790)]. The concise score which combined CT score and T2WI score, showed the best performance [training dataset, AUC (95% CI) = 0.906 (0.833–0.979); testing dataset, AUC (95% CI) = 0.884 (0.761–1.000)] and good calibration (P > 0.05 in the Hosmer–Lemeshow test for the training and testing datasets). Decision curve analysis showed that the multi-modality radiomics nomogram had a higher clinical net benefit. The multi-modality radiomics score could be used to preoperatively assess PNI status in rectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate measuring of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is vital for the research of many diseases. The localization and quantification of SAT and VAT by computed tomography (CT) expose patients to harmful ionizing radiation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe and painless test. The aim of this paper is to explore a practical method for the segmentation of SAT and VAT based on the iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least square estimation‑iron quantification (IDEAL-IQ) technology and machine learning. The approach involves two main steps. First, a deep network is designed to segment the inner and outer boundaries of SAT in fat images and the peritoneal cavity contour in water images. Second, after mapping the peritoneal cavity contour onto the fat images, the assumption-free K-means++ with a Markov chain Monte Carlo (AFK-MC2) clustering method is used to obtain the VAT content. An MRI data set from 75 subjects is utilized to construct and evaluate the new strategy. The Dice coefficients for the SAT and VAT content obtained from the proposed method and the manual measurements performed by experts are 0.96 and 0.97, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method and the manual measurements exhibit high reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CT and MRI-based methods have potentials to stage liver fibrosis quantitatively and reproducibly. • MRE is the most accurate method currently and recommended by multiple clinical societies. • The CT LSN score, volumetric assessment and AI-based method have high accuracy, but need additional validation. • There are critical questions that must be considered before the development and validation of non-invasive methods. Chronic liver disease (CLD) ultimately develops into liver fibrosis and cirrhosis and is a major public health problem globally. The assessment of liver fibrosis is important for patients with CLD for prognostication, treatment decisions, and surveillance. Liver biopsies are traditionally performed to determine the stage of liver fibrosis. However, the risks of complications and technical limitations restrict their application to screening and sequential monitoring in clinical practice. CT and MRI are essential for evaluating cirrhosis-associated complications in patients with CLD, and several non-invasive methods based on them have been proposed. Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have also been applied to stage liver fibrosis. This review aimed to explore the values of conventional and AI-based CT and MRI quantitative techniques for non-invasive liver fibrosis staging and summarized their diagnostic performance, advantages, and limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A kind of multifunctional nanoplatform was synthesized for tri-modal ATC therapy. • The CpG ODNs were carried on the PDA NPs with their complementary ODNs. • PDA-dsCpG-DOX NPs introduce a synergistic therapy for ATC treatment. It is still of great challenge for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) treatment since ATC is an extremely destructive and lethal thyroid malignancy. Herein, a kind of multifunctional nanoplatform (denoted as PDA-dsCpG-DOX NP) has been prepared and applied for tri-modal ATC therapy including photothermal therapy (PTT), chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Polydopamine nanoparticle (PDA NP) serves as a photothermal agent to generate PTT, as well as a carrier of doxorubicin (DOX) and immunotherapeutic DNA (i.e., oligonucleotide comprising unmethylated cytosine-phosphate-guanine dinucleotide (CpG ODN)). The high temperature induced by PTT results in the release of CpG ODNs for immunotherapy and the liberation of DOX for chemotherapy. PDA-dsCpG-DOX NPs exhibit a phenomenal collaborative therapy effect contrasted with a corresponding single therapy or dual-modal treatment. By use of mice bearing C643 thyroid tumors as a model, PDA-dsCpG-DOX NPs have been demonstrated to realize nearly complete tumor growth suppression with good biocompatibility. Hence, PDA-dsCpG-DOX NPs introduce a synergistic scheme for ATC treatment and foreground the congregate effects of tri-modal therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study is to identify pediatric brain tumors (PBT) driver genes and key pathways to detect the expression of the driver genes and also to clarify the relationship between patients' prognosis and expression of driver genes. Methods The gene expression profile of GSE50161 was analyzed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between tumor tissue and the normal tissue. Gene ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis, and protein-protein interaction network analysis were conducted to identify the enrichment functions, pathways, and hub genes. After hub genes were identified, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to confirm the differential expression of these hub genes. Survival data of 325 patients' were analyzed to clarify the relationship between prognosis and expression levels of the mutual hub genes. Results Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis showed that there were 13 common functions and 3 common pathways which were upregulated or downregulated among the 4 groups. Mutual hub genes were somatostatin (SST), glutamate decarboxylase 2 (GAD2), and single copy human parvalbumin gene (PVALB). The expression of SST, GAD2, and PVALB in glioma cells significantly decreased compared with normal glial cells ( P < 0.05). In addition, survival analysis showed a favorable progression-free and overall survival in patients with glioma with SST, GAD2, and PVALB high expression ( P < 0.05). Conclusions SST, GAD2, and PVALB significantly decrease in glioma cells compared with normal glial cells. Survival analysis suggests that patients with high-expressed SST, GAD2, and PVALB have a longer overall and progression-free survival. The differential expressed genes identified in this study provide novel targets for diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph cuts is an image segmentation method by which the region and boundary information of objects can be revolved comprehensively. Because of the complex spatial characteristics of high-dimensional images, time complexity and segmentation accuracy of graph cuts methods for high-dimensional images need to be improved. This paper proposes a new three-dimensional multilevel banded graph cuts model to increase its accuracy and reduce its complexity. Firstly, three-dimensional image is viewed as a high-dimensional space to construct three-dimensional network graphs. A pyramid image sequence is created by Gaussian pyramid downsampling procedure. Then, a new energy function is built according to the spatial characteristics of the three-dimensional image, in which the adjacent points are expressed by using a 26-connected system. At last, the banded graph is constructed on a narrow band around the object/background. The graph cuts method is performed on the banded graph layer by layer to obtain the object region sequentially. In order to verify the proposed method, we have performed an experiment on a set of three-dimensional colon CT images, and compared the results with local region active contour and Chan-Vese model. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can segment colon tissues from three-dimensional abdominal CT images accurately. The segmentation accuracy can be increased to 95.1% and the time complexity is reduced by about 30% of the other two methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the effect of varying iodine flow rate (IFR) and iodine concentration on the quality of virtual unenhanced (VUE) images of the abdomen obtained with dual-energy CT. Methods: 94 subjects underwent unenhanced and triphasic contrast-enhanced CT scan of the abdomen, including arterial phase, portal venous phase, and delayed phase using dual-energy CT. Patients were randomized into 4 groups with different IFRs or iodine concentrations. VUE images were generated at 70 keV. The CT values, image noise, SNR and CNR of aorta, portal vein, liver, liver lesion, pancreatic parenchyma, spleen, erector spinae, and retroperitoneal fat were recorded. Dose-length product and effective dose for an examination with and without plain phase scan were calculated to assess the potential dose savings. Two radiologists independently assessed subjective image quality using a five-point scale. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used first to test for normal distribution. Where data conformed to a normal distribution, analysis of variance was used to compare mean HU values, image noise, SNRs and CNRs for the 4 image sets. Where data distribution was not normal, a nonparametric test (Kruskal-Wallis test followed by stepwise step-down comparisons) was used. The significance level for all tests was 0.01 (two-sided) to allow for type 2 errors due to multiple testing. Results: The CT numbers (HU) of VUE images showed no significant differences between the 4 groups ( p > 0.05) or between different phases within the same group ( p > 0.05). VUE images had equal or higher SNR and CNR than true unenhanced images. VUE images received equal or lower subjective image quality scores than unenhanced images but were of acceptable quality for diagnostic use. Calculated dose-length product and estimated dose showed that the use of VUE images in place of unenhanced images would be associated with a dose saving of 25%. Conclusions: VUE images can replace conventional unenhanced images. VUE images are not affected by varying iodine flow rates and iodine concentrations, and diagnostic examinations could be acquired with a potential dose saving of 25%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the potential role of interleukin ( IL)-10+ regulatory B cells and other B cell subsets in the development of hepatitis B virus-associated membranous nephropathy ( HBV- MN). A total of 14 patients with new onset HBV- MN, 12 individuals with immune-tolerant HBV infection ( HBV- IT), and 12 healthy controls ( HC) were examined for the percentages of CD38+, CD86+, CD27+, CD95+ and IL-10+ B cells by flow cytometry. Serum IL-10 concentration was examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA). The percentages of CD38+ CD19+, CD86+ CD19+, CD38+ CD86+ CD19+, and CD95+ CD19+ B cells were significantly higher in HBV- MN patients than the HBV- IT and HC. The percentages of CD5+ CD19+, IL-10+ CD19+ B cells and serum IL-10 level in HBV- MN patients were significantly higher than the HC, and lower than the HBV- IT. Percentages of CD38+ CD19+, and CD86+ CD19+ B cells were reduced after treatment, while the percentages of CD5+ CD1d+ CD19+, CD5+ CD1d+ IL-10+ CD19+, and IL-10+ CD19+ B cells were increased. The 24 h urinary protein concentration was positively correlated with the percentage of CD38+ CD19+, and negatively correlated with the percentage of IL-10+ CD19+ B cells and serum IL-10 level. Similarly, the value of eGFR was negatively correlated with the percentage of CD38+ CD19+, and positively correlated with the percentage of IL-10+ CD19+ B cells and serum IL-10 level. Serum IL-10 level and the percentage of IL-10+ CD19+ were negatively correlated with the percentages of CD38+ CD19+, and CD86+ CD19+ B cells. These results suggest that CD86+ CD19+, CD38+ CD86+ CD19+, CD95+ CD19+, and especially CD38+ CD19+ and IL-10+ CD19+ cells may participate in the pathogenesis of HBV- MN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Here, we report the covalently conjugation of lanthanide doped NaGdF4:Yb3+, Er3+@NaGdF4 upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) on methylphosphonate functionalized silica nanospheres (pSi NPs) for in vivo upconversion luminescence (UCL), T 1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR), and X-ray computed tomography (CT) multi-modality imaging. The nanocomposites (pSi@UCNPs) were synthesized by a facile ligand exchange strategy. The hydrophobic pSi@UCNPs were transferred into aqueous solution by surface coating Pluronic F127. The Pluronic F127 coated pSi@UCNPs (pSi@UCNPs@F127) exhibit excellent stability in biological medium, inappreciable cytotoxicity and negligible organ toxicity. The pSi@UCNPs@F127 also shows brighter UCL, and higher CT/MR enhancements than that of Pluronic F127 coated NaGdF4:Yb3+, Er3+@NaGdF4 UCNP. In detail, the capability of pSi@UCNPs@F127 as high performance contrast agents for in vivo multi-modality (UCL/MR/CT) imaging is evaluated successfully through small-animal experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] A multi-step approach was developed for the efficient doping of amino-reactive dyes into silica particles. [•] This approach included surface modification and then covalent coupling of the dyes on the particle surface. [•] Doping efficiency of typical amino-reactive dye such as fluorescein isothiocyanate was as high as 91%. [•] The dye doped silica particles showed bright luminescence and excellent anti-leaking ability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A highly monodispersed hetero-nanostructure with two different functional nanomaterials (gold (Au) and iron oxide (Fe3O4, IO)) within one structure was successfully developed as Affibody based trimodality nanoprobe (positron emission tomography, PET; optical imaging; and magnetic resonance imaging, MRI) for imaging of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) positive tumors. Unlike other regular nanostructures with a single component, the Au-IO hetero-nanostructures (Au-IONPs) with unique chemical and physical properties have capability to combine several imaging modalities together to provide complementary information. The IO component within hetero-nanostructures serve as a T2 reporter for MRI; and gold component serve as both optical and PET reporters. Moreover, such hetero-nanoprobes could provide a robust nano-platform for surface-specific modification with both targeting molecules (anti-EGFR Affibody protein) and PET imaging reporters (radiometal 64Cu chelators) in highly efficient and reliable manner. In vitro and in vivo study showed that the resultant nanoprobe provided high specificity, sensitivity, and excellent tumor contrast for both PET and MRI imaging in the human EGFR-expressing cells and tumors. Our study data also highlighted the EGFR targeting efficiency of hetero-nanoparticles and the feasibility for their further theranostic applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A distortion correction method for single-shot EPI was proposed. Point-spread-function encoded EPI (PSF-EPI) images were used as the references to correct traditional EPI images based on deep neural network. The PSF-EPI method can obtain distortion-free echo planar images. In this study, a 2D U-net based network was trained to achieve the distortion correction of single-shot EPI (SS-EPI) images, using PSF-EPI images as targets in the training stage. Anatomical T2W-TSE images were also fed into the network to improve the quality of the results. The applications in diffusion-weighted images were used as examples in this work. The network was trained on data acquired on healthy volunteers and tested on data of both healthy volunteers and patients. The corrected EPI images from the proposed method were also compared with those from field-mapping and top-up based distortion correction methods. Experimental results showed that the proposed method can correct for EPI distortions better than both the field-mapping and top-up based methods, and the results were close to the distortion-free images from PSF-EPI. Additionally, inclusion of T2W-TSE images helped improve distortion correction of the SS-EPI images without contaminating the output noticeably. The experiments with patients and different MRI platforms demonstrated the generalization feasibility of the proposed method preliminarily. Through the correction of diffusion-weighted images, the proposed deep-learning based method was demonstrated to have the feasibility to correct for the distortion of EPI images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The aim of this study is to identify novel targets of diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis for glioblastoma, as well as to verify the therapeutic effect of JNJ-7706621 regarding glioblastoma. Methods The gene expression profiles of GSE42656, GSE50161, and GSE86574 were obtained respectively from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified with comparison between gene expression profiles of the glioblastoma tissues and normal tissues. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analyses were performed. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and survival curve analysis were also conducted to verify the correlation between expression of hub genes and prognosis. Moreover, in vitro, MTT assay, colony-forming assay, the scratch assay, and flow cytometry were performed to verify the therapeutic effect of JNJ-7706621. Results AURKA, NDC80, KIF4A, and NUSAP1 were identified as hub genes after PPI network analysis. Differential expression of those genes was detected between human normal glial cells and glioblastoma cells by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction ( P < 0.05), and the survival curve analysis showed that the patients with low expression of gene AURKA, NDC80, KIF4A, and NUSAP1 had a significant favorable prognosis ( P < 0.05). In vitro assays showed that JNJ-7706621 inhibited glioblastoma cellular viability, proliferation, and migration via inducing glioblastoma cells apoptosis. Conclusions AURKA, NDC80, KIF4A, and NUSAP1 were significantly more highly expressed in glioblastoma cells than in human normal glial cell. Patients with low expression of those 4 genes had a favorable prognosis. JNJ-7706621 was a potential drug in treatment of patients with glioblastoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]