Machine Learning and Bias in Medical Imaging: Opportunities and Challenges.

Bias in health care has been well documented and results in disparate and worsened outcomes for at-risk groups. Medical imaging plays a critical role in facilitating patient diagnoses but involves multiple sources of bias including factors related to access to imaging modalities, acquisition of images, and assessment (ie, interpretation) of imaging data. Machine learning (ML) applied to diagnostic imaging has demonstrated the potential to improve the quality of imaging-based diagnosis and the precision of measuring imaging-based traits.

Local aortic aneurysm wall expansion measured with automated image analysis.

Background: Assessment of regional aortic wall deformation (RAWD) might better predict for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture than the maximal aortic diameter or growth rate. Using sequential computed tomography angiograms (CTAs), we developed a streamlined, semiautomated method of computing RAWD using deformable image registration (dirRAWD).

Methods: Paired sequential CTAs performed 1 to 2 years apart of 15 patients with AAAs of various shapes and sizes were selected.

Molecular Interaction Between Butorphanol and κ-Opioid Receptor.

Background: The misuse of opioids stems, in part, from inadequate knowledge of molecular interactions between opioids and opioid receptors. It is still unclear why some opioids are far more addictive than others. The κ-opioid receptor (KOR) plays a critical role in modulating pain, addiction, and many other physiological and pathological processes.

Middle School Students Effectively Improve Stroke Knowledge and Pass Them to Family Members in China Using Stroke 1-2-0.

This study tests the hypothesis that middle school and high school students can improve their stroke knowledge using Stroke 1-2-0, a stroke educational tool, and pass this knowledge on to their family members. A total of 625 students and 198 parents/grandparents participated in learning about stroke using Stroke 1-2-0. After a group training session for the students by a neurologist at school, the students took educational material to home and educated their parents/grandparents.

Too Young to Have a Stroke?-a Global Health Crisis.

This editorial discusses the importance of improving awareness of stroke in young individuals. Stoke can occur in any age group and is not restricted to elderly populations. Today, the average age of the first-time stroke patient continues to decrease.

pH Sensing Properties of Flexible, Bias-Free Graphene Microelectrodes in Complex Fluids: From Phosphate Buffer Solution to Human Serum.

Advances in techniques for monitoring pH in complex fluids can have a significant impact on analytical and biomedical applications. This study develops flexible graphene microelectrodes (GEs) for rapid (<5 s), very-low-power (femtowatt) detection of the pH of complex biofluids by measuring real-time Faradaic charge transfer between the GE and a solution at zero electrical bias. For an idealized sample of phosphate buffer solution (PBS), the Faradaic current is varied monotonically and systematically with the pH, with a resolution of ≈0.

Scalable Production of High-Sensitivity, Label-Free DNA Biosensors Based on Back-Gated Graphene Field Effect Transistors.

Scalable production of all-electronic DNA biosensors with high sensitivity and selectivity is a critical enabling step for research and applications associated with detection of DNA hybridization. We have developed a scalable and very reproducible (>90% yield) fabrication process for label-free DNA biosensors based upon graphene field effect transistors (GFETs) functionalized with single-stranded probe DNA. The shift of the GFET sensor Dirac point voltage varied systematically with the concentration of target DNA.