Neutrophil nucleus: shaping the past and the future.

Neutrophils are innate immune cells that are key to protecting the host against infection and maintaining body homeostasis. However, if dysregulated, they can contribute to disease, such as in cancer or chronic autoinflammatory disorders. Recent studies have highlighted the heterogeneity in the neutrophil compartment and identified the presence of immature neutrophils and their precursors in these pathologies.

MRI wrist in early rheumatoid arthritis: reduction in inflammation assessed quantitatively during treatment period correlates best with clinical improvement.

Objective: To investigate (a) which MR features of inflammation (synovitis, tenosynovitis, perfusion) correlate with clinical/serological features in early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) before, during and after 1 year of treatment and (b) whether quantitative or semi-quantitative measures of inflammation on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides the highest correlation in this regard.

Method: One hundred one ERA patients (76 females, 25 males, mean age, 53 ± 12 years) underwent clinical/serological testing and 3 T dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of the most symptomatic wrist. Seventy-seven of the 101 patients completed 1 year of treatment, followed by repeat MR examination.

Impact of intracranial artery calcification on cerebral hemodynamic changes.

Purpose: Intracranial artery calcification (IAC) has been demonstrated to be correlated with ischemic stroke, cognitive decline, and other vascular events by accumulating evidences from both Western and Asian populations. The proposed study aimed to investigate its potential mechanisms by evaluating the blood flow velocity and pulsatility index (PI) of cerebral arteries.

Methods: Consecutive ischemic stroke patients admitted to the Prince of Wales Hospital were recruited after excluding those with atrial fibrillation or poor temporal window.

Computational medical imaging and hemodynamics framework for functional analysis and assessment of cardiovascular structures.

Cardiac dysfunction constitutes common cardiovascular health issues in the society, and has been an investigation topic of strong focus by researchers in the medical imaging community. Diagnostic modalities based on echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, chest radiography and computed tomography are common techniques that provide cardiovascular structural information to diagnose heart defects. However, functional information of cardiovascular flow, which can in fact be used to support the diagnosis of many cardiovascular diseases with a myriad of hemodynamics performance indicators, remains unexplored to its full potential.

Quantification of brown and white adipose tissue based on Gaussian mixture model using water-fat and T2* MRI in adolescents.

Purpose: To develop a technique for the separation and quantification of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and white adipose tissue (WAT) using fat fraction and T2* intensity based on the Gaussian mixture model (GMM).

Materials And Methods: Chemical-shift water-fat and T2* images were acquired at the neck, supraclavicular, interscapular, and paravertebral regions in 24 volunteers (Obese: n = 12, female/male = 6/6, body mass index [BMI] = 31.3 ± 2.

Myocardial Iron Loading Assessment by Automatic Left Ventricle Segmentation with Morphological Operations and Geodesic Active Contour on T2* images.

Myocardial iron loading thalassemia patients could be identified using T2* magnetic resonance images (MRI). To quantitatively assess cardiac iron loading, we proposed an effective algorithm to segment aligned free induction decay sequential myocardium images based on morphological operations and geodesic active contour (GAC). Nine patients with thalassemia major were recruited (10 male and 16 female) to undergo a thoracic MRI scan in the short axis view.