Publications by authors named "Elizabeth Genega"

Article Synopsis
  • Two-photon microscopy (2PM) is being studied as a non-invasive technique for detecting high-grade cervical precancerous lesions by assessing tissue metabolism and structure in detail.* -
  • The study involved analyzing 62 cervical biopsies and using advanced image analysis to achieve a high sensitivity (90.8%) and specificity (72.3%) for identifying high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs), even with only two images taken from different tissue depths.* -
  • Results showed that the presence of HSILs was associated with metabolic changes, such as increased glycolysis and fatty acid metabolism, indicating that 2PM could be a valuable tool for clinical evaluation of cervical precancers.*
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Significance: Label-free, two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) imaging captures morphological and functional metabolic tissue changes and enables enhanced understanding of numerous diseases. However, noise and other artifacts present in these images severely complicate the extraction of biologically useful information.

Aim: We aim to employ deep neural architectures in the synthesis of a multiscale denoising algorithm optimized for restoring metrics of metabolic activity from low-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), TPEF images.

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Label-free, two-photon imaging captures morphological and functional metabolic tissue changes and enables enhanced understanding of numerous diseases. However, this modality suffers from low signal arising from limitations imposed by the maximum permissible dose of illumination and the need for rapid image acquisition to avoid motion artifacts. Recently, deep learning methods have been developed to facilitate the extraction of quantitative information from such images.

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Prostate cancer (PCa) is a pervasive condition that is manifested in a wide range of histologic patterns in biopsy samples. Given the importance of identifying abnormal prostate tissue to improve prognosis, many computerized methodologies aimed at assisting pathologists in diagnosis have been developed. It is often argued that improved diagnosis of a tissue region can be obtained by considering measurements that can take into account several properties of its surroundings, therefore providing a more robust context for the analysis.

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Accurate diagnosis of cribriform Gleason pattern 4 (CrP4) prostate adenocarcinoma (PCa) is important due to its independent association with adverse clinical outcomes and as a growing body of evidence suggests that it impacts clinical decision making in PCa management. To identify reproducible features for diagnosis of CrP4, we assessed interobserver agreement among 27 experienced urologic pathologists of 60 digital images from 44 radical prostatectomies (RP) that represented a broad spectrum of potential CrP4. The following morphologic features were correlated with the consensus diagnosis (defined as 75% agreement) for each image: partial vs.

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Introduction: Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and body cavity fluids (pleural and peritoneal) have a useful role in the detection of infectious diseases, especially when combined with ancillary stains (Grocott methenamine silver, acid-fast bacilli, Fite, and cytomegalovirus). However, empirical ordering of stains and duplicate testing by concurrent microbiology cultures leads to unnecessary wastage of resources. The aim of our study was to optimize the use of resources.

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Urothelial carcinoma usually shows divergent differentiation and variant histology with squamous and glandular morphology being most common. In this report, we present a case of divergent malignant melanocytic differentiation in a high-grade urothelial carcinoma. A 98-year-old East Asian woman with an anterior bladder wall mass underwent resection, which revealed a high-grade poorly differentiated tumor.

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While metabolic changes are considered a cancer hallmark, their assessment has not been incorporated in the detection of early or precancers, when treatment is most effective. Here, we demonstrate that metabolic changes are detected in freshly excised human cervical precancerous tissues using label-free, non-destructive imaging of the entire epithelium. The images rely on two-photon excited fluorescence from two metabolic co-enzymes, NAD(P)H and FAD, and have micron-level resolution, enabling sensitive assessments of the redox ratio and mitochondrial fragmentation, which yield metrics of metabolic function and heterogeneity.

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For cancer patients, treatment selection fundamentally relies on staging, with "under-staging" considered a common problem. Imaging modalities that can complement conventional white-light laparoscopy are needed to detect more accurately small metastatic lesions in patients undergoing operative cancer care. Biopsies from healthy parietal peritoneum and ovarian peritoneal metastases obtained from 8 patients were imaged employing a two-photon laser scanning microscope to generate collagen-second harmonic generation (SHG) and fluorescence images at 755 nm and 900 nm excitation and 460 ± 20 nm and 525 ± 25 nm emission.

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Background: Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is quickly becoming the preferred procedure for bariatric surgery. According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery guidelines, routine preoperative upper gastrointestinal endoscopies are not recommended universally for bariatric surgery. Some studies have shown that the histologic examination of SG specimens is insignificant and not a cost-effective practice.

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Objective: To compare the utility of saturation core biopsy and 12-core biopsy in detecting true Gleason grades, using final pathology in prostatectomy specimens as outcome measures, with a particular interest in Gleason upgrading.

Patients And Methods: We compared the concordance rates of Gleason grades diagnosed on biopsies and prostatectomy specimens in 375 consecutive patients, including 106 saturation biopsies (18-33 cores, median = 20 cores) and 269 12-core biopsies. Grading bias was addressed by a central rereview of all cases that had discordance in reporting high Gleason grades (Gleason grade ≥ 4) on biopsies and prostatectomy specimens.

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PD-L1 expression in primary clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) increases the likelihood of response to anti-PD-1 inhibition, but fails to identify all responders. We hypothesized that PD-L1 levels assessed in randomly selected areas of the primary tumors may not accurately reflect expression levels in metastatic lesions, which are the target of systemic therapy. Therefore, we compared PD-L1 expression in a series of primary ccRCC and their metastases.

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Background: Although the sentinel lymph node (SLN) hypothesis has been applied to many tissues and organs, liver has remained unstudied. Currently, it is unclear whether hepatic SLNs even exist. If so, they could alter the management of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and other hepatic malignancies by minimizing the extent of surgery while still providing precise nodal staging.

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Hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining of tissue has been the mainstay of pathology for more than a century. However, the learning curve for H&E tissue interpretation is long, whereas intra- and interobserver variability remain high. Computer-assisted image analysis of H&E sections holds promise for increased throughput and decreased variability but has yet to demonstrate significant improvement in diagnostic accuracy.

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The International Consultations on Urological Diseases are international consensus meetings, supported by the World Health Organization and the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer, which have occurred since 1981. Each consultation has the goal of convening experts to review data and provide evidence-based recommendations to improve practice. In 2012, the selected subject was bladder cancer, a disease which remains a major public health problem with little improvement in many years.

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Purpose: In this work, the authors introduce a novel framework, the anatomically constrained registration (AnCoR) scheme and apply it to create a fused anatomic-disease atlas of the prostate which the authors refer to as the prostatome. The prostatome combines a MRI based anatomic and a histology based disease atlas. Statistical imaging atlases allow for the integration of information across multiple scales and imaging modalities into a single canonical representation, in turn enabling a fused anatomical-disease representation which may facilitate the characterization of disease appearance relative to anatomic structures.

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Purpose: To identify computer-extracted features for central gland and peripheral zone prostate cancer localization on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Materials And Methods: Preoperative T2-weighted (T2w), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI were acquired from 23 men with confirmed prostate cancer. Following radical prostatectomy, the cancer extent was delineated by a pathologist on ex vivo histology and mapped to MRI by nonlinear registration of histology and corresponding MRI slices.

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Statistical imaging atlases allow for integration of information from multiple patient studies collected across different image scales and modalities, such as multi-parametric (MP) MRI and histology, providing population statistics regarding a specific pathology within a single canonical representation. Such atlases are particularly valuable in the identification and validation of meaningful imaging signatures for disease characterization within a population. Despite the high incidence of prostate cancer, an imaging atlas focused on different anatomic structures of the prostate, i.

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Objective: The study objective was to correlate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) with the histopathologic features and disease progression.

Methods: Institutional review board approval for this retrospective study was obtained; patient consent was not required. The initial staging MRI scans of 75 patients with histologically confirmed ccRCC were retrospectively reviewed.

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Objectives: To establish the value of MRI in targeting re-biopsy for undiagnosed prostate cancer despite multiple negative biopsies and determine clinical relevance of detected tumors.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-eight patients who underwent MRI after 2 or more negative biopsies due to continued clinical suspicion and later underwent TRUS-guided biopsy supplemented by biopsy of suspicious areas depicted by MRI were identified. Diagnostic performance of endorectal 3T MRI in diagnosing missed cancer foci was assessed using biopsy results as the standard of reference.

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Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of 3 Tesla endorectal magnetic resonance imaging (erMRI) with fusion to real-time transrectal ultrasound to detect a dominant cancer focus within the prostate gland.

Materials And Methods: The safety and effectiveness of identifying suspicious lesions using erMRI was assessed in men undergoing brachytherapy perineal implants. Suspicious lesions identified on erMRI fused to real-time transrectal ultrasound were biopsied at brachytherapy seed placement.

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Purpose: To assess the value of arterial spin-labeling (ASL) perfusion magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the characterization of solid renal masses by using histopathologic findings as the standard of reference.

Materials And Methods: This prospective study was compliant with HIPAA and approved by the institutional review board. Informed consent was obtained from all patients before imaging.

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