Evaluation of mediastinal lymph node segmentation of heterogeneous CT data with full and weak supervision.

Accurate lymph node size estimation is critical for staging cancer patients, initial therapeutic management, and assessing response to therapy. Current standard practice for quantifying lymph node size is based on a variety of criteria that use uni-directional or bi-directional measurements. Segmentation in 3D can provide more accurate evaluations of the lymph node size.

Correlation of Radiomics with Treatment Response in Liver Metastases.

Rationale And Objectives: To assess differences in radiomics derived from semi-automatic segmentation of liver metastases for stable disease (SD), partial response (PR), and progressive disease (PD) based on RECIST1.1 and to assess if radiomics alone at baseline can predict response.

Materials And Methods: Our IRB-approved study included 203 women (mean age 54 ± 11 years) with metastatic liver disease from breast cancer.

Intrinsic brain functional connectivity patterns in alcohol use disorder.

Alcohol use disorder is associated with damaging effects to the brain. This study aimed to examine differences in static and dynamic intrinsic functional connectivity patterns in individuals with a history of alcohol use disorder in comparison to those with no history of alcohol abuse. A total of 55 participants consisting of 23 patients and 32 control individuals underwent neuropsychological assessments and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging on a 3 Tesla MRI scanner.

Ten-Year Follow-up of Internal Neurofibroma Growth Behavior in Adult Patients With Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Using Whole-Body MRI.

Background And Objectives: Internal neurofibromas, including plexiform neurofibromas (PNF), can cause significant morbidity in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). PNF growth is most pronounced in children and young adults, with more rapid growth thought to occur in a subset of PNF termed distinct nodular lesions (DNL). Growth behavior of internal neurofibromas and DNL in older adults is not well documented; yet knowledge thereof is important for patient risk stratification and clinical trial design.

Acute Pulmonary Embolism in an Intensive Care Unit Setting in Sierra Leone.

Introduction: In Sierra Leone, the lack of information on pulmonary embolism (PE) limits the access to evidence-based standard of diagnostic work-up and management of the disease. The objective of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics and management of acute pulmonary embolism in our setting and to determine whether the pre-test probability scoring algorithms were used prior to Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiogram (CTPA) request.

Methods: This retrospective observational study was conducted on CTPA-confirmed PE patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, Choithrams Memorial Hospital, in Freetown, Sierra Leone between July 2014 to June 2019.

Management of neurofibromatosis type 1-associated plexiform neurofibromas.

Plexiform Neurofibromas (PN) are a common manifestation of the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). These benign nerve sheath tumors often cause significant morbidity, with treatment options limited historically to surgery. There have been tremendous advances over the past two decades in our understanding of PN, and the recent regulatory approvals of the MEK inhibitor selumetinib are reshaping the landscape for PN management.

Integrating the OHIF Viewer into XNAT: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects for Quantitative Imaging Studies.

: XNAT is an informatics software platform to support imaging research, particularly in the context of large, multicentre studies of the type that are essential to validate quantitative imaging biomarkers. XNAT provides import, archiving, processing and secure distribution facilities for image and related study data. Until recently, however, modern data visualisation and annotation tools were lacking on the XNAT platform.

Imaging Evaluation of Plexiform Neurofibromas in Neurofibromatosis Type 1: A Survey-Based Assessment.

Objective: To assess imaging utilization practices across clinical specialists in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) for the evaluation of symptomatic and asymptomatic children and adults with or without plexiform neurofibromas (PN).

Methods: An institutional review board-exempt survey was administered to medical practitioners caring for individuals with NF1 at the Response Evaluation in Neurofibromatosis and Schwannomatosis (REiNS) meeting in September 2019. The survey included questions on respondent demographic data (9 questions), type of imaging obtained for asymptomatic (4 questions) and symptomatic (4 questions) people with and without PN, and utilization of diffusion-weighted imaging (2 questions).

Brain responsivity to emotional faces differs in men and women with and without a history of alcohol use disorder.

Inclusion of women in research on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) has shown that gender differences contribute to unique profiles of cognitive, emotional, and neuropsychological dysfunction. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of abstinent individuals with a history of AUD (21 women [AUDw], 21 men [AUDm]) and demographically similar non-AUD control (NC) participants without AUD (21 women [NCw], 21 men [NCm]) to explore how gender and AUD interact to influence brain responses during emotional processing and memory. Participants completed a delayed match-to-sample emotional face memory fMRI task, and brain activation contrasts between a fixation stimulus and pictures of emotional face elicited a similar overall pattern of activation for all four groups.

DINs: Deep Interactive Networks for Neurofibroma Segmentation in Neurofibromatosis Type 1 on Whole-Body MRI.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant tumor predisposition syndrome that involves the central and peripheral nervous systems. Accurate detection and segmentation of neurofibromas are essential for assessing tumor burden and longitudinal tumor size changes. Automatic convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are sensitive and vulnerable as tumors' variable anatomical location and heterogeneous appearance on MRI.

Outcomes of craniotomies for chronic subdural hematoma in Sierra Leone.

Introduction: chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) is not uncommon in sub-Saharan Africa and has a striking morbidity and mortality if not managed adequately. With the limited number of neurosurgeons in resource poor countries, general surgeons should be trained in the skills of craniotomy and burr-hole craniostomy.

Methods: we conducted a retrospective review of all medical records of patients with cSDH, who underwent flap craniotomy at the Choithrams Memorial Hospital, Sierra Leone, between January 2016 and March 2018.

Phase II trial of carboplatin and bevacizumab in patients with breast cancer brain metastases.

Background: We aimed to examine the safety and efficacy of bevacizumab and carboplatin in patients with breast cancer brain metastases.

Methods: We enrolled patients with breast cancer and > 1 measurable new or progressive brain metastasis. Patients received bevacizumab 15 mg/kg intravenously (IV) on cycle 1 day 1 and carboplatin IV AUC = 5 on cycle 1 day 8.

Comparative analysis of three-dimensional volume rendering and maximum intensity projection for preoperative planning in liver cancer.

Three-dimensional imaging is a useful tool to evaluate liver structure and surrounding vessels for preoperative planning. In this study, we compared two methods of visualizing vascular maps on computed tomography including maximum intensity projection (MIP) and 3D volume rendered (VR) imaging. We compiled important imaging components of pre-surgical planning, and developed criteria for comparison.

Hippocampal subfield volumes in abstinent men and women with a history of alcohol use disorder.

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) has been associated with abnormalities in hippocampal volumes, but these relationships have not been fully explored with respect to sub-regional volumes, nor in association with individual characteristics such as age, gender differences, drinking history, and memory. The present study examined the impact of those variables in relation to hippocampal subfield volumes in abstinent men and women with a history of AUD. Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 3 Tesla, we obtained brain images from 67 participants with AUD (31 women) and 64 nonalcoholic control (NC) participants (31 women).

Correlation between NF1 genotype and imaging phenotype on whole-body MRI: NF1 radiogenomics.

Objective: To investigate the genotype-phenotype correlation between neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) germline mutations and imaging features of neurofibromas on whole-body MRI (WBMRI) by using radiomics image analysis techniques.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-nine patients with NF1 who had known germline mutations determined by targeted next-generation sequencing were selected from a previous WBMRI study using coronal short tau inversion recovery sequence. Each tumor was segmented in WBMRI and a set of 59 imaging features was calculated using our in-house volumetric image analysis platform, 3DQI.

Open Health Imaging Foundation Viewer: An Extensible Open-Source Framework for Building Web-Based Imaging Applications to Support Cancer Research.

Purpose: Zero-footprint Web architecture enables imaging applications to be deployed on premise or in the cloud without requiring installation of custom software on the user's computer. Benefits include decreased costs and information technology support requirements, as well as improved accessibility across sites. The Open Health Imaging Foundation (OHIF) Viewer is an extensible platform developed to leverage these benefits and address the demand for open-source Web-based imaging applications.

Early molecular oxidative stress biomarkers of ischemic penumbra in acute stroke.

Objectives: To assess whether plasma biomarkers of oxidative stress predict diffusion-perfusion mismatch in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS).

Methods: We measured plasma levels of oxidative stress biomarkers such as F2-isoprostanes (F2-isoPs), total and perchloric acid Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC and ORAC), urinary levels of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguoanosine, and inflammatory and tissue-damage biomarkers (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9) in a prospective study of patients with AIS presenting within 9 hours of symptom onset. Diffusion-weighted (DWI) and perfusion-weighted (PWI) MRI sequences were analyzed with a semiautomated volumetric method.

Alcoholism gender differences in brain responsivity to emotional stimuli.

Men and women may use alcohol to regulate emotions differently, with corresponding differences in neural responses. We explored how the viewing of different types of emotionally salient stimuli impacted brain activity observed through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) from 42 long-term abstinent alcoholic (25 women) and 46 nonalcoholic (24 women) participants. Analyses revealed blunted brain responsivity in alcoholic compared to nonalcoholic groups, as well as gender differences in those activation patterns.

Measurement of Glenoid Bone Loss With 3-Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Matched Computed Tomography Analysis.

Purpose: To compare the measurement of glenoid bone surface area (GBSA) and glenoid bone loss (GBL) between 3-dimensional computed tomography (3D CT) and an autosegmentation approach for 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with recurrent shoulder instability.

Methods: Eight subjects (2 women and 6 men; age range, 15-72 years [mean, 44 ± 19 years]) were consecutively enrolled who had both CT and MRI of the shoulder for clinical shoulder instability. Inclusion criteria were patients with shoulder instability or other shoulder injury who had both a CT scan and MRI performed of the same shoulder.

Sexually dimorphic structural abnormalities in major connections of the medial forebrain bundle in alcoholism.

Background: The mesocorticolimbic system is particularly susceptible to the effects of chronic alcoholism. Disruption of this system has been linked to drug seeking and the development of Reward Deficiency Syndrome, a neurobiological framework for describing the development and relapsing patterns of addictions. In this study, we evaluated the association of alcoholism and sex with major connections of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB), a prominent mesocorticolimbic fiber pathway connecting the ventral tegmental area with the basal forebrain.

Intravenous thrombolysis in unwitnessed stroke onset: MR WITNESS trial results.

Objective: Most acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients with unwitnessed symptom onset are ineligible for intravenous thrombolysis due to timing alone. Lesion evolution on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) correlates with stroke duration, and quantitative mismatch of diffusion-weighted MRI with FLAIR (qDFM) might indicate stroke duration within guideline-recommended thrombolysis. We tested whether intravenous thrombolysis ≤4.

2016 Children's Tumor Foundation conference on neurofibromatosis type 1, neurofibromatosis type 2, and schwannomatosis.

Organized and hosted by the Children's Tumor Foundation (CTF), the Neurofibromatosis (NF) conference is the premier annual gathering for clinicians and researchers interested in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), and schwannomatosis (SWN). The 2016 edition constituted a blend of clinical and basic aspects of NF research that helped in clarifying different advances in the field. The incorporation of next generation sequencing is changing the way genetic diagnostics is performed for NF and related disorders, providing solutions to problems like genetic heterogeneity, overlapping clinical manifestations, or the presence of mosaicism.

Pain correlates with germline mutation in schwannomatosis.

Schwannomatosis has been linked to germline mutations in the SMARCB1 and LZTR1 genes, and is frequently associated with pain.In a cohort study, we assessed the mutation status of 37 patients with clinically diagnosed schwannomatosis and compared to clinical data, whole body MRI (WBMRI), visual analog pain scale, and Short Form 36 (SF-36) bodily pain subscale.We identified a germline mutation in LZTR1 in 5 patients (13.