Repeatability of quantitative MR fingerprinting for T and T measurements of metastatic bone in prostate cancer patients.

Objectives: MR fingerprinting (MRF) has the potential to quantify treatment response. This study evaluated the repeatability of MRF-derived T and T relaxation times in bone metastasis, bone, and muscle in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: This prospective single-centre study included same-day repeated MRF acquisitions from 20 patients (August 2019-October 2020).

Evaluation of simultaneous multi-slice acquisition with advanced processing for free-breathing diffusion-weighted imaging in patients with liver metastasis.

Objectives: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) acquisition and advanced processing can accelerate acquisition time and improve MR image quality. This study evaluated the image quality and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements of free-breathing DWI acquired from patients with liver metastases using a prototype SMS-DWI acquisition (with/without an advanced processing option) and conventional DWI.

Methods: Four DWI schemes were compared in a pilot 5-patient cohort; three DWI schemes were further assessed in a 24-patient cohort.

DCE-MRI is more sensitive than IVIM-DWI for assessing anti-angiogenic treatment-induced changes in colorectal liver metastases.

Background: Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) with intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) modelling can inform on tissue perfusion without exogenous contrast administration. Dynamic-contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI can also characterise tissue perfusion, but requires a bolus injection of a Gadolinium-based contrast agent. This study compares the use of DCE-MRI and IVIM-DWI methods in assessing response to anti-angiogenic treatment in patients with colorectal liver metastases in a cohort with confirmed treatment response.

"Real-world" radiomics from multi-vendor MRI: an original retrospective study on the prediction of nodal status and disease survival in breast cancer, as an exemplar to promote discussion of the wider issues.

Background: Most MRI radiomics studies to date, even multi-centre ones, have used "pure" datasets deliberately accrued from single-vendor, single-field-strength scanners. This does not reflect aspirations for the ultimate generalisability of AI models. We therefore investigated the development of a radiomics signature from heterogeneous data originating on six different imaging platforms, for a breast cancer exemplar, in order to provide input into future discussions of the viability of radiomics in "real-world" scenarios where image data are not controlled by specific trial protocols but reflective of routine clinical practice.

MRI texture feature repeatability and image acquisition factor robustness, a phantom study and in silico study.

Purpose: To evaluate robustness and repeatability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) texture features in water and tissue phantom test-retest study.

Materials And Methods: Separate water and tissue phantoms were imaged twice with the same protocol in a test-retest experiment using a 1.5-T scanner.

Radiomic features of cervical cancer on T2-and diffusion-weighted MRI: Prognostic value in low-volume tumors suitable for trachelectomy.

Background: Textural features extracted from MRI potentially provide prognostic information additional to volume for influencing surgical management of cervical cancer.

Purpose: To identify textural features that differ between cervical tumors above and below the volume threshold of eligibility for trachelectomy and determine their value in predicting recurrence in patients with low-volume tumors.

Methods: Of 378 patients with Stage1-2 cervical cancer imaged prospectively (3T, endovaginal coil), 125 had well-defined, histologically-confirmed squamous or adenocarcinomas with >100 voxels (>0.

Characterisation of fibrosis in chemically-induced rat mammary carcinomas using multi-modal endogenous contrast MRI on a 1.5T clinical platform.

Objectives: To determine the ability of multi-parametric, endogenous contrast MRI to detect and quantify fibrosis in a chemically-induced rat model of mammary carcinoma.

Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats (n=18) were administered with N-methyl-N-nitrosourea; resulting mammary carcinomas underwent nine-b-value diffusion-weighted (DWI), ultrashort-echo (UTE) and magnetisation transfer (MT) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on a clinical 1.5T platform, and associated quantitative MR parameters were calculated.

Noninvasive Imaging of Cycling Hypoxia in Head and Neck Cancer Using Intrinsic Susceptibility MRI.

To evaluate intrinsic susceptibility (IS) MRI for the identification of cycling hypoxia, and the assessment of its extent and spatial distribution, in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) xenografts and patients. Quantitation of the transverse relaxation rate, R*, which is sensitive to paramagnetic deoxyhemoglobin, using serial IS-MRI acquisitions, was used to monitor temporal oscillations in levels of paramagnetic deoxyhemoglobin in human CAL xenografts and patients with HNSCC at 3T. Autocovariance and power spectrum analysis of variations in R* was performed for each imaged voxel, to assess statistical significance and frequencies of cycling changes in tumor blood oxygenation.

Modulation of renal oxygenation and perfusion in rat kidney monitored by quantitative diffusion and blood oxygen level dependent magnetic resonance imaging on a clinical 1.5T platform.

Background: To investigate the combined use of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) diffusion-weighted (DW) and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess rat renal function using a 1.5T clinical platform.

Methods: Multiple b-value DW and BOLD MR images were acquired from adult rats using a parallel clinical coil arrangement, enabling quantitation of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), IVIM-derived diffusion coefficient (D), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D*) and perfusion fraction (f), and the transverse relaxation time T*, for whole kidney, renal cortex, and medulla.

Feasibility and applicability of diffusion-weighted and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in routine assessments of children with high-grade gliomas.

Diffusion-weighted (DW) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been used as imaging biomarkers in adults with high-grade gliomas (HGGs). We incorporated free-breathing DW-MRI and DCE-MRI, at a single time point, in the routine follow-up of five children (median age 9 years, range 8-15) with histologically confirmed HGG within a prospective imaging study. It was feasible to incorporate DW-MRI and DCE-MRI in routine assessments of children with HGG.

Repeatability of derived parameters from histograms following non-Gaussian diffusion modelling of diffusion-weighted imaging in a paediatric oncological cohort.

Objectives: To examine repeatability of parameters derived from non-Gaussian diffusion models in data acquired in children with solid tumours.

Methods: Paediatric patients (<16 years, n = 17) were scanned twice, 24 h apart, using DWI (6 b-values, 0-1000 mm s) at 1.5 T in a prospective study.

Multi-parametric MRI in the early prediction of response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer: Value of non-modelled parameters.

Objective: To prospectively evaluate individual functional MRI metrics for the early prediction of pathological complete response (pCR) to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-two women (median age 52 years; range 32-71 years) with biopsy proven breast cancer due to receive neo-adjuvant anthracycline and/or taxane-based chemotherapy were prospectively recruited following local research ethics committee approval and written informed consent. Breast MRI was performed prior to and after two cycles of NAC and pCR was assessed after surgery.

Phase I study of nintedanib incorporating dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Background: This open-label phase I dose-escalation study investigated the safety, efficacy, pharmacokinetics (PK), and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) effects of the oral angiokinase inhibitor nintedanib in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Methods: Nintedanib was administered once daily continuously, starting at 100 mg and later amended to allow evaluation of 250 mg b.i.

Demonstration of the reproducibility of free-breathing diffusion-weighted MRI and dynamic contrast enhanced MRI in children with solid tumours: a pilot study.

Objectives: The objectives are to examine the reproducibility of functional MR imaging in children with solid tumours using quantitative parameters derived from diffusion-weighted (DW-) and dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE-) MRI.

Methods: Patients under 16-years-of age with confirmed diagnosis of solid tumours (n = 17) underwent free-breathing DW-MRI and DCE-MRI on a 1.5 T system, repeated 24 hours later.

Comparison of free-breathing with navigator-controlled acquisition regimes in abdominal diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images: Effect on ADC and IVIM statistics.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect on diffusion-weighted image-derived parameters in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and intra-voxel incoherent motion (IVIM) models from choice of either free-breathing or navigator-controlled acquisition.

Materials And Methods: Imaging was performed with consent from healthy volunteers (n = 10) on a 1.5T Siemens Avanto scanner.

Informatics in radiology: development of a research PACS for analysis of functional imaging data in clinical research and clinical trials.

Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) provide limited flexibility for the development of novel research methods. By contrast, the research model of data access is more flexible but has vulnerabilities in numerous areas. No single monolithic application can fulfill the diverse and rapidly changing needs of the clinical imaging research community.

Neuroendocrine tumor liver metastases: use of dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging to monitor and predict radiolabeled octreotide therapy response.

Purpose: To evaluate dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for monitoring and assessing treatment response in patients with neuroendocrine liver metastases treated using yttrium 90 ((90)Y)-labeled octreotide ((90)Y-DOTATOC).

Materials And Methods: The study was approved by the local research and ethics committee and patient informed consent was obtained. Twenty patients with liver metastases from neuroendocrine tumors underwent T1-weighted DCE MR imaging of the liver before and at 2 months after intravenous (90)Y-DOTATOC treatment.

Assessing potential nanoparticle release during nanocomposite shredding using direct-reading instruments.

This study was conducted to determine if engineered nanoparticles are released into the air when nanocomposite parts are shredded for recycling. Test plaques made from polypropylene resin reinforced with either montmorillonite nanoclay or talc and from the same resin with no reinforcing material were shredded by a granulator inside a test apparatus. As the plaques were shredded, an ultrafine condensation particle counter; a diffusion charger; a photometer; an electrical mobility analyzer; and an optical particle counter measured number, lung-deposited surface area, and mass concentrations and size distributions by number in real-time.

A strategy for assessing workplace exposures to nanomaterials.

This article describes a highly tailorable exposure assessment strategy for nanomaterials that enables effective and efficient exposure management (i.e., a strategy that can identify jobs or tasks that have clearly unacceptable exposures), while simultaneously requiring only a modest level of resources to conduct.

Use of dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging to predict survival in patients with primary breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Purpose: To investigate whether early changes in vascular parameters determined with dynamic contrast material-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging after two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) are predictive of disease-free and overall survival in primary breast cancer.

Materials And Methods: Institutional ethics approval and informed consent were obtained. Patients with primary breast cancer (median age, 45 years; age range, 22-70 years) recruited from January 2001 to September 2008 underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging before and after two cycles of NAC.

Assessment of the effect of haematocrit-dependent arterial input functions on the accuracy of pharmacokinetic parameters in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI.

The detection and prognosis of prostate cancer in its early stages are critically important. It is therefore essential to improve the existing dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE MRI) techniques commonly used for the assessment of the tumour vascular environment. The goal of this study was to describe a method for the estimation of the arterial input function (AIF) in DCE MRI by measuring R(2) * values in the femoral artery of patients with early-stage prostate cancer.

Vascular characterisation of triple negative breast carcinomas using dynamic MRI.

Objectives: Triple-negative (ER-/PR-/HER2-) breast carcinomas (TNBC) are aggressive tumours with underexplored imaging features. This study investigates whether their vascular characteristics as assessed by dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) and dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced (DSC) MRI are distinct from the prognostically more favourable ER+/PR+/HER2- cancers.

Methods: Patients with primary breast cancer underwent MRI before neoadjuvant chemotherapy and were identified as ER-/PR-/HER2- or ER+/PR+/HER2- from core biopsy specimens.

Primary human breast adenocarcinoma: imaging and histologic correlates of intrinsic susceptibility-weighted MR imaging before and during chemotherapy.

Purpose: To investigate the histopathologic and dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging correlates of intrinsic susceptibility-weighted (ISW) MR imaging in patients with primary human breast adenocarcinoma and to assess the relationship between baseline transverse relaxation rate (R2*) and T2* relaxivity change (ΔR2*) and the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

Materials And Methods: Institutional ethics approval and informed consent were obtained. Between September 2001 and January 2008, 83 women (median age, 46 years; age range, 26-72 years) with breast cancer were recruited to undergo dynamic contrast medium-enhanced (DCE), dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced (DSC), and ISW MR imaging before and after two cycles of NAC.

Antivascular effects of neoadjuvant androgen deprivation for prostate cancer: an in vivo human study using susceptibility and relaxivity dynamic MRI.

Purpose: The antivascular effects of androgen deprivation have been investigated in animal models; however, there has been minimal investigation in human prostate cancer. This study tested the hypothesis that androgen deprivation causes significant reductions in human prostate tumor blood flow and the induction of hypoxia at a magnitude and in a time scale relevant to the neoadjuvant setting before radiotherapy.

Methods And Materials: Twenty patients were examined, each with five multi-parameter magnetic resonance imaging scans: two scans before the commencement of androgen suppression, one scan after 1 month of hormone treatment, and two further scans after 3 months of therapy.