Relative Wash-In Rate in Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a New Prognostic Biomarker for Event-Free Survival in 82 Patients with Osteosarcoma: A Multicenter Study.

Background: The decreased perfusion of osteosarcoma in dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI, reflecting a good histological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, has been described.

Purpose: In this study, we aim to explore the potential of the relative wash-in rate as a prognostic factor for event-free survival (EFS).

Methods: Skeletal high-grade osteosarcoma patients, treated in two tertiary referral centers between 2005 and 2022, were retrospectively included.

Predicting cytogenetic risk in multiple myeloma using conventional whole-body MRI, spinal dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, and spinal diffusion-weighted imaging.

Objectives: Cytogenetic abnormalities are predictors of poor prognosis in multiple myeloma (MM). This paper aims to build and validate a multiparametric conventional and functional whole-body MRI-based prediction model for cytogenetic risk classification in newly diagnosed MM.

Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed MM who underwent multiparametric conventional whole-body MRI, spinal dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-)MRI, spinal diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) and had genetic analysis were retrospectively included (2011-2020/Ghent University Hospital/Belgium).

Emerging role of ferroptosis in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: revisiting hepatic lipid peroxidation.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) is characterised by cell death of parenchymal liver cells which interact with their microenvironment to drive disease activity and liver fibrosis. The identification of the major death type could pave the way towards pharmacotherapy for MASH. To date, increasing evidence suggest a type of regulated cell death, named ferroptosis, which occurs through iron-catalysed peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in membrane phospholipids.

A retrospective external validation study of the Birmingham Atypical Cartilage Tumour Imaging Protocol (BACTIP) for the management of solitary central cartilage tumours of the proximal humerus and around the knee.

Objectives: This study aimed to externally validate the Birmingham Atypical Cartilage Tumour Imaging Protocol (BACTIP) recommendations for differentiation/follow-up of central cartilage tumours (CCTs) of the proximal humerus, distal femur, and proximal tibia and to propose BACTIP adaptations if the results provide new insights.

Methods: MRIs of 123 patients (45 ± 11 years, 37 men) with an untreated CCT with MRI follow-up (n = 62) or histopathological confirmation (n = 61) were retrospectively/consecutively included and categorised following the BACTIP (2003-2020 / Ghent University Hospital/Belgium). Tumour length and endosteal scalloping differences between enchondroma, atypical cartilaginous tumour (ACT), and high-grade chondrosarcoma (CS II/III/dedifferentiated) were evaluated.

Diagnosis and monitoring denosumab therapy of giant cell tumors of bone: radiologic-pathologic correlation.

Objective: To determine the value of CT and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-)MRI for monitoring denosumab therapy of giant cell tumors of bone (GCTB) by correlating it to histopathology.

Materials And Methods: Patients with GCTB under denosumab treatment and monitored with CT and (DCE-)MRI (2012-2021) were retrospectively included. Imaging and (semi-)quantitative measurements were used to assess response/relapse.

Evaluation of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in osteosarcoma using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI: development and external validation of a model.

Objective: To identify which dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-)MRI features best predict histological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with an osteosarcoma.

Methods: Patients with osteosarcoma who underwent DCE-MRI before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to resection were retrospectively included at two different centers. Data from the center with the larger cohort (training cohort) was used to identify which method for region-of-interest selection (whole slab or focal area method) and which change in DCE-MRI features (time to enhancement, wash-in rate, maximum relative enhancement and area under the curve) gave the most accurate prediction of histological response.

Machine Learning Pipeline for Predicting Bone Marrow Edema Along the Sacroiliac Joints on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Objective: We aimed to develop and validate a fully automated machine learning (ML) algorithm that predicts bone marrow edema (BME) on a quadrant level in sacroiliac (SI) joint magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: A computer vision workflow automatically locates the SI joints, segments regions of interest (ilium and sacrum), performs objective quadrant extraction, and predicts presence of BME, suggestive of inflammatory lesions, on a quadrant level in semicoronal slices of T1/T2-weighted MRI scans. Ground truth was determined by consensus among human readers.

Neural network algorithm for detection of erosions and ankylosis on CT of the sacroiliac joints: multicentre development and validation of diagnostic accuracy.

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of a deep learning network for detection of structural lesions of sacroiliitis on multicentre pelvic CT scans.

Methods: Pelvic CT scans of 145 patients (81 female, 121 Ghent University/24 Alberta University, 18-87 years old, mean 40 ± 13 years, 2005-2021) with a clinical suspicion of sacroiliitis were retrospectively included. After manual sacroiliac joint (SIJ) segmentation and structural lesion annotation, a U-Net for SIJ segmentation and two separate convolutional neural networks (CNN) for erosion and ankylosis detection were trained.

Effect of erythrophagocytosis-induced ferroptosis during angiogenesis in atherosclerotic plaques.

Intraplaque (IP) angiogenesis is a key feature of advanced atherosclerotic plaques. Because IP vessels are fragile and leaky, erythrocytes are released and phagocytosed by macrophages (erythrophagocytosis), which leads to high intracellular iron content, lipid peroxidation and cell death. In vitro experiments showed that erythrophagocytosis by macrophages induced non-canonical ferroptosis, an emerging type of regulated necrosis that may contribute to plaque destabilization.

Caspase Inhibition Modulates Monocyte-Derived Macrophage Polarization in Damaged Tissues.

Circulating monocytes are recruited in damaged tissues to generate macrophages that modulate disease progression. Colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) promotes the generation of monocyte-derived macrophages, which involves caspase activation. Here, we demonstrate that activated caspase-3 and caspase-7 are located to the vicinity of the mitochondria in CSF1-treated human monocytes.

Erdheim-Chester disease: diffusion-weighted imaging and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI provide useful information.

This is, to our knowledge, the first case report with in-depth analysis of bone marrow and bone lesions with diffusion-weighted imaging and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in Erdheim-Chester disease to date. We present a case of a 70-year-old woman who was referred for an X-ray of the pelvis, right femur and right knee after complaints of migratory arthralgia in hip and knee five months after an initial hip and knee trauma. Bone lesions on X-ray were identified.

Proton density fat fraction (PDFF) maps aid fat metaplasia evaluation in the sacroiliac joints in additional to T1WI: Improved diagnostic accuracy in axial spondyloarthritis.

Purpose: To evaluate the added value of qualitative and quantitative fat metaplasia analysis using proton-density fat fraction (PDFF) map in additional to T1-weighted imaging (T1WI) of the sacroiliac joints (SIJ) for diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).

Method: Patients aged 18-45 years with axSpA were enrolled. Non-SpA patients and healthy volunteers were included as controls.

MRI-based synthetic CT of the hip: can it be an alternative to conventional CT in the evaluation of osseous morphology?

Objectives: MRI is the gold standard for soft tissue evaluation in the hip joint. However, CT is superior to MRI in providing clear visualization of bony morphology. The aim of this study is to test the equivalency of MRI-based synthetic CT to conventional CT in quantitatively assessing bony morphology of the hip.

Review of diffusion-weighted imaging and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI for multiple myeloma and its precursors (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smouldering myeloma).

The last decades, increasing research has been conducted on dynamic contrast-enhanced and diffusion-weighted MRI techniques in multiple myeloma and its precursors. Apart from anatomical sequences which are prone to interpretation errors due to anatomical variants, other pathologies and subjective evaluation of signal intensities, dynamic contrast-enhanced and diffusion-weighted MRI provide additional information on microenvironmental changes in bone marrow and are helpful in the diagnosis, staging and follow-up of plasma cell dyscrasias. Diffusion-weighted imaging provides information on diffusion (restriction) of water molecules in bone marrow and in malignant infiltration.

Imaging of treatment response and minimal residual disease in multiple myeloma: state of the art WB-MRI and PET/CT.

Bone imaging has been intimately associated with the diagnosis and staging of multiple myeloma (MM) for more than 5 decades, as the presence of bone lesions indicates advanced disease and dictates treatment initiation. The methods used have been evolving, and the historical radiographic skeletal survey has been replaced by whole body CT, whole body MRI (WB-MRI) and [F]FDG-PET/CT for the detection of bone marrow lesions and less frequent extramedullary plasmacytomas.Beyond diagnosis, imaging methods are expected to provide the clinician with evaluation of the response to treatment.

The molecular machinery of regulated cell death.

Cells may die from accidental cell death (ACD) or regulated cell death (RCD). ACD is a biologically uncontrolled process, whereas RCD involves tightly structured signaling cascades and molecularly defined effector mechanisms. A growing number of novel non-apoptotic forms of RCD have been identified and are increasingly being implicated in various human pathologies.

To NET or not to NET:current opinions and state of the science regarding the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps.

Since the discovery and definition of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) 14 years ago, numerous characteristics and physiological functions of NETs have been uncovered. Nowadays, the field continues to expand and novel mechanisms that orchestrate formation of NETs, their previously unknown properties, and novel implications in disease continue to emerge. The abundance of available data has also led to some confusion in the NET research community due to contradictory results and divergent scientific concepts, such as pro- and anti-inflammatory roles in pathologic conditions, demarcation from other forms of cell death, or the origin of the DNA that forms the NET scaffold.

Discovery of Novel, Drug-Like Ferroptosis Inhibitors with in Vivo Efficacy.

Ferroptosis is an iron-catalyzed, nonapoptotic form of regulated necrosis that results in oxidative lipid damage in cell membranes that can be inhibited by the radical-trapping antioxidant Ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1). Novel inhibitors derived from the Fer-1 scaffold inhibited ferroptosis potently but suffered from solubility issues. In this paper, we report the synthesis of a more stable and readily soluble series of Fer-1 analogues that potently inhibit ferroptosis.

Novel Cardinium strains in non-marine ostracod (Crustacea) hosts from natural populations.

Endosymbiotic bacteria are known from many metazoan taxa, where they manipulate host biology and reproduction. Here, we used classic PCR amplification and direct DNA sequencing with universal primers for four different endosymbionts to test for their presence in more than 300 specimens of three recent non-marine ostracod superfamilies from different geographic areas and aquatic habitats. We verified these results with "high throughput" amplicon sequencing of 16S of nine selected specimens and evolutionary placement algorithms.

The influence of cerebrospinal fluid on blood coagulation and the implications for ventriculovenous shunting.

Objective: The effect of CSF on blood coagulation is not known. Enhanced coagulation by CSF may be an issue in thrombotic complications of ventriculoatrial and ventriculosinus shunts. This study aimed to assess the effect of CSF on coagulation and its potential effect on thrombotic events affecting ventriculovenous shunts.

Depletion of RIPK3 or MLKL blocks TNF-driven necroptosis and switches towards a delayed RIPK1 kinase-dependent apoptosis.

In human cells, the RIPK1-RIPK3-MLKL-PGAM5-Drp1 axis drives tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced necroptosis through mitochondrial fission, but whether this pathway is conserved among mammals is not known. To answer this question, we analyzed the presence and functionality of the reported necroptotic axis in mice. As in humans, knockdown of receptor-interacting kinase-3 (RIPK3) or mixed lineage kinase domain like (MLKL) blocks TNF-induced necroptosis in L929 fibrosarcoma cells.