Proteomics and machine learning in the prediction and explanation of low pectoralis muscle area.

Low muscle mass is associated with numerous adverse outcomes independent of other associated comorbid diseases. We aimed to predict and understand an individual's risk for developing low muscle mass using proteomics and machine learning. We identified eight biomarkers associated with low pectoralis muscle area (PMA).

CNNs trained with adult data are useful in pediatrics. A pneumonia classification example.

Background And Objectives: The scarcity of data for training deep learning models in pediatrics has prompted questions about the feasibility of employing CNNs trained with adult images for pediatric populations. In this work, a pneumonia classification CNN was used as an exploratory example to showcase the adaptability and efficacy of such models in pediatric healthcare settings despite the inherent data constraints.

Methods: To develop a curated training dataset with reduced biases, 46,947 chest X-ray images from various adult datasets were meticulously selected.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted chest computer tomography (CT) insights: a study on intensive care unit (ICU) admittance trends in 78 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

Background: The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed substantial challenges for healthcare systems, notably the increased demand for chest computed tomography (CT) scans, which lack automated analysis. Our study addresses this by utilizing artificial intelligence-supported automated computer analysis to investigate lung involvement distribution and extent in COVID-19 patients. Additionally, we explore the association between lung involvement and intensive care unit (ICU) admission, while also comparing computer analysis performance with expert radiologists' assessments.

Proteomics and Machine Learning in the Prediction and Explanation of Low Pectoralis Muscle Area.

Low muscle mass is associated with numerous adverse outcomes independent of other associated comorbid diseases. We aimed to predict and understand an individual's risk for developing low muscle mass using proteomics and machine learning. We identified 8 biomarkers associated with low pectoralis muscle area (PMA).

Quantitative imaging workshop XIX: Utilizing quantitative thoracic imaging to optimize population health final summary.

Lung cancer screening involves the use of thoracic CT for both detection and measurements of suspicious lung nodules to guide the screening management. Since lung cancer screening eligibility typically requires age over 50 years along with >20 pack-year tobacco exposure, thoracic CT scans also frequently reveal evidence for pulmonary emphysema as well as coronary artery calcification. These three thoracic diseases are collectively three of the leading causes of premature death across the world.

Is pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with schistosomiasis distinct from pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with portal hypertension?

Pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with schistosomiasis (SchPAH) and pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with portal hypertension (PoPAH) are lung diseases that develop in the presence of liver diseases. However, mechanistic pathways by which the underlying liver conditions and other drivers contribute to the development and progression of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are unclear for both etiologies. In turn, these unknowns limit certainty of strategies to prevent, diagnose, and reverse the resultant PAH.

Rheumatoid arthritis, quantitative parenchymal lung features and mortality among smokers.

Objectives: There have been limited investigations of the prevalence and mortality impact of quantitative CT (QCT) parenchymal lung features in RA. We examined the cross-sectional prevalence and mortality associations of QCT features, comparing RA and non-RA participants.

Methods: We identified participants with and without RA in COPDGene, a multicentre cohort study of current or former smokers.

COPD: pulmonary vascular volume associated with cardiac structure and function.

Background: Early recognition of cardiac dysfunction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may prevent future cardiac impairment and improve prognosis. Quantitative assessment of subsegmental and segmental vessel volume by Computed Tomographic (CT) imaging can provide a surrogate of pulmonary vascular remodeling. We aimed to examine the relationship between lung segmental- and subsegmental vessel volume, and echocardiographic measures of cardiac structure and function in patients with COPD.

Silent Airway Mucus Plugs in COPD and Clinical Implications.

Background: Airway mucus plugs are frequently identified on CT scans of patients with COPD with a smoking history without mucus-related symptoms (ie, cough, phlegm [silent mucus plugs]).

Research Question: In patients with COPD, what are the risk and protective factors associated with silent airway mucus plugs? Are silent mucus plugs associated with functional, structural, and clinical measures of disease?

Study Design And Methods: We identified mucus plugs on chest CT scans of participants with COPD from the COPDGene study. The mucus plug score was defined as the number of pulmonary segments with mucus plugs, ranging from 0 to 18, and categorized into three groups (0, 1-2, and ≥ 3).

TLR7 promotes smoke-induced experimental lung damage through the activity of mast cell tryptase.

Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) is known for eliciting immunity against single-stranded RNA viruses, and is increased in both human and cigarette smoke (CS)-induced, experimental chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here we show that the severity of CS-induced emphysema and COPD is reduced in TLR7-deficient mice, while inhalation of imiquimod, a TLR7-agonist, induces emphysema without CS exposure. This imiquimod-induced emphysema is reduced in mice deficient in mast cell protease-6, or when wild-type mice are treated with the mast cell stabilizer, cromolyn.

Quantifying the spatial clustering characteristics of radiographic emphysema explains variability in pulmonary function.

Quantitative assessment of emphysema in CT scans has mostly focused on calculating the percentage of lung tissue that is deemed abnormal based on a density thresholding strategy. However, this overall measure of disease burden discards virtually all the spatial information encoded in the scan that is implicitly utilized in a visual assessment. This simplification is likely grouping heterogenous disease patterns and is potentially obscuring clinical phenotypes and variable disease outcomes.

From Voxels to Prognosis: AI-Driven Quantitative Chest CT Analysis Forecasts ICU Requirements in 78 COVID-19 Cases.

Background: The aim of the current study was to investigate the distribution and extent of lung involvement in patients with COVID-19 with AI-supported, automated computer analysis and to assess the relationship between lung involvement and the need for intensive care unit (ICU) admission. A secondary aim was to compare the performance of computer analysis with the judgment of radiological experts.

Methods: A total of 81 patients from an open-source COVID database with confirmed COVID-19 infection were included in the study.

GradICON: Approximate Diffeomorphisms via Gradient Inverse Consistency.

We present an approach to learning regular spatial transformations between image pairs in the context of medical image registration. Contrary to optimization-based registration techniques and many modern learning-based methods, we do not directly penalize transformation irregularities but instead promote transformation regularity via an inverse consistency penalty. We use a neural network to predict a map between a source and a target image as well as the map when swapping the source and target images.

CT imaging determinants of persistent hypoxemia in acute intermediate-risk pulmonary embolism.

The factors associated with persistent hypoxemia after pulmonary embolus (PE) are not well understood. Predicting the need for oxygen post discharge at the time of diagnosis using available CT imaging will enable better discharge planning. To examine the relationship between CT derived imaging markers (automated computation of arterial small vessel fraction, pulmonary artery diameter to aortic diameter ratio (PA:A), right to left ventricular diameter ratio (RV:LV) and new oxygen requirement at the time of discharge in patients diagnosed with acute intermediate-risk PE.

Gene polymorphisms associated with heterogeneity and senescence characteristics of sarcopenia in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Background: Sarcopenia, or loss of skeletal muscle mass and decreased contractile strength, contributes to morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The severity of sarcopenia in COPD is variable, and there are limited data to explain phenotype heterogeneity. Others have shown that COPD patients with sarcopenia have several hallmarks of cellular senescence, a potential mechanism of primary (age-related) sarcopenia.

Increased chest CT derived bone and muscle measures capture markers of improved morbidity and mortality in COPD.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease of accelerated aging and is associated with comorbid conditions including osteoporosis and sarcopenia. These extrapulmonary conditions are highly prevalent yet frequently underdiagnosed and overlooked by pulmonologists in COPD treatment and management. There is evidence supporting a role for bone-muscle crosstalk which may compound osteoporosis and sarcopenia risk in COPD.

Wasserstein-based texture analysis in radiomic studies.

The emerging field of radiomics that transforms standard-of-care images to quantifiable scalar statistics endeavors to reveal the information hidden in these macroscopic images. The concept of texture is widely used and essential in many radiomic-based studies. Practice usually reduces spatial multidimensional texture matrices, e.

Pulmonary arterial pruning is associated with CT-derived bronchiectasis progression in smokers.

Loss of small pulmonary arteries measured as the ratio of blood vessel volume in arteries <5 mm in cross-section to total arterial blood vessel volume (BV5a/TBVa), with lower values indicating more pruning, was associated with 5-yr progressing CT-derived bronchiectasis in smokers (Odds Ratio (OR) [95% Confidence interval], 1.28 [1.07-1.

Perinodular Parenchymal Features Improve Indeterminate Lung Nodule Classification.

Background: Radiomics, defined as quantitative features extracted from images, provide a non-invasive means of assessing malignant versus benign pulmonary nodules. In this study, we evaluate the consistency with which perinodular radiomics extracted from low-dose computed tomography images serve to identify malignant pulmonary nodules.

Materials And Methods: Using the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), we selected individuals with pulmonary nodules between 4mm to 20mm in diameter.

Vascular remodeling of the small pulmonary arteries and measures of vascular pruning on computed tomography.

Pulmonary hypertension is characterized histologically by intimal and medial thickening in the small pulmonary arteries, eventually resulting in vascular "pruning." Computed tomography (CT)-based quantification of pruning is associated with clinical measures of pulmonary hypertension, but it is not established whether CT-based pruning correlates with histologic arterial remodeling. Our sample consisted of 138 patients who underwent resection for early-stage lung adenocarcinoma.

Loss of Pulmonary Vascular Volume as a Predictor of Right Ventricular Dysfunction and Mortality in Acute Pulmonary Embolism.

Background: In acute pulmonary embolism, chest computed tomography angiography derived metrics, such as the right ventricle (RV): left ventricle ratio are routinely used for risk stratification. Paucity of intraparenchymal blood vessels has previously been described, but their association with clinical biomarkers and outcomes has not been studied. We sought to determine if small vascular volumes measured on computed tomography scans were associated with an abnormal RV on echocardiography and mortality.

Harmonization of in-plane resolution in CT using multiple reconstructions from single acquisitions.

Purpose: To providea methodology that removes the spatial variability of in-plane resolution using different CT reconstructions. The methodology does not require any training, sinogram, or specific reconstruction method.

Methods: The methodology is formulated as a reconstruction problem.