A framework for developing Generic Implant Safety Procedures (GISPs) for scanning patients with medical implants and devices in MRI.

UK guidelines for MR safety recommend that MRI departments refer to the implant manufacturer for advice regarding the MRI safety of scanning patients with an implantable medical device prior to scanning [1]. This process of assuring safety can be time consuming, leading to delays and potential cancellations of a patient's MRI. Furthermore, at times the implant cannot be identified, or the implant manufacturers cannot provide up to date MRI safety information.

Application of synthetic data in the training of artificial intelligence for automated quality assurance in magnetic resonance imaging.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging scanner faults can be missed during routine quality assurance (QA) if they are subtle, intermittent, or the test being performed is insensitive to the type of fault. Coil element malfunction is a common fault within MRI scanners, which may go undetected for quite some time. Consequently, this may lead to poor image quality and the potential for misdiagnoses.

The Remarkable Outer Hair Cell: Proceedings of a Symposium in Honour of W. E. Brownell.

In 1985, Bill Brownell and colleagues published the remarkable observation that cochlear outer hair cells (OHCs) express voltage-driven mechanical motion: electromotility. They proposed OHC electromotility as the mechanism for the elusive "cochlear amplifier" required to explain the sensitivity of mammalian hearing. The finding and hypothesis stimulated an explosion of experiments that have transformed our understanding of cochlear mechanics and physiology, the evolution of hair cell structure and function, and audiology.

Joint British Society consensus recommendations for magnetic resonance imaging for patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is increasingly a fundamental component of the diagnostic pathway across a range of conditions. Historically, the presence of a cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) has been a contraindication for MRI, however, development of devices that can be scanned under strict protocols has facilitated the provision of MRI for patients. Additionally, there is growing safety data to support MR scanning in patients with CIEDs that do not have MR safety labelling or with CIEDs where certain conditions are not met, where the clinical justification is robust.

Origin of eukaryotes: What can be learned from the first successfully isolated Asgard archaeon.

The origin of cellular complexity characterizing eukaryotic cells remains a central unresolved issue in the study of diversification of cellular life on Earth. The isolation by Imachi . of a member of the Asgard archaea - a contemporary relative of organisms thought to have given rise to eukaryotic cells about 2 billion years ago - now promises new insight.

A resolution record for cryoEM.

Cryo electron microscopy (cryoEM) is a fast-growing technique for structure determination. Two recent papers report the first atomic resolution structure of a protein obtained by averaging images of frozen-hydrated biomolecules. They both describe maps of symmetric apoferritin assemblies, a common test specimen, in unprecedented detail.

Reproducibility of MRI-based white matter tract estimation using multi-fiber probabilistic tractography: effect of user-defined parameters and regions.

Objective: There is a pressing need to assess user-dependent reproducibility of multi-fibre probabilistic tractography in order to encourage clinical implementation of these advanced and relevant approaches. The goal of this study was to evaluate both intrinsic and inter-user reproducibility of corticospinal tract estimation.

Materials And Methods: Six clinical datasets including motor functional and diffusion MRI were used.

Macromolecular and electrical coupling between inner hair cells in the rodent cochlea.

Inner hair cells (IHCs) are the primary receptors for hearing. They are housed in the cochlea and convey sound information to the brain via synapses with the auditory nerve. IHCs have been thought to be electrically and metabolically independent from each other.

Implementation of clinical tractography for pre-surgical planning of space occupying lesions: An investigation of common acquisition and post-processing methods compared to dissection studies.

Background And Purpose: There is limited standardization of acquisition and processing methods in diffusion tractography for pre-surgical planning, leading to a range of approaches. In this study, a number of representative acquisition variants and post processing methods are considered, to assess their importance when implementing a clinical tractography program.

Methods: Diffusion MRI was undertaken in ten healthy volunteers, using protocols typical of clinical and research scanning: a 32-direction diffusion acquisition with and without peripheral gating, and a non-gated 64 diffusion direction acquisition.

Implementation of clinically relevant and robust fMRI-based language lateralization: Choosing the laterality index calculation method.

The assessment of language lateralization has become widely used when planning neurosurgery close to language areas, due to individual specificities and potential influence of brain pathology. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows non-invasive and quantitative assessment of language lateralization for presurgical planning using a laterality index (LI). However, the conventional method is limited by the dependence of the LI on the chosen activation threshold.

Wnts control membrane potential in mammalian cancer cells.

Key Points: Wnt ligands belonging to both canonical and non-canonical Wnt pathways regulate membrane potential signifying a very early event in the signal transduction. Wnts activate K currents by elevating intracellular Ca and trigger Ca release from intracellular stores. Control of potential by Wnt ligands has significant implications for gene transcription and opens up a novel avenue to interfere with this critical pathway.

A Free Virtual Reality Experience to Prepare Pediatric Patients for Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.

Background: A magnetic resonance image (MRI) is a diagnostic test that requires patients to lie still for prolonged periods within a claustrophobic and noisy environment. This can be difficult for children to tolerate, and often general anesthetic (GA) is required at considerable cost and detriment to patient safety. Virtual reality (VR) is a newly emerging technology that can be implemented at low cost within a health care setting.

Differential Free Intracellular Calcium Release by Class II Antiarrhythmics in Cancer Cell Lines.

Class II antiarrhythmics or -blockers are antisympathetic nervous system agents that act by blocking -adrenoceptors. Despite their common clinical use, little is known about the effects of -blockers on free intracellular calcium (Ca ), an important cytosolic second messenger and a key regulator of cell function. We investigated the role of four chemical analogs, commonly prescribed -blockers (atenolol, metoprolol, propranolol, and sotalol), on Ca release and whole-cell currents in mammalian cancer cells (PC3 prostate cancer and MCF7 breast cancer cell lines).

The neuroscience of hearing or how to do a hard job with soft components.

The inner ear is a small and relatively inaccessible structure. The use of multiple biophysical recording techniques from the late 1970s onwards, combined with molecular genetics to identify genes critically involved in cochlear development, has revealed how the cochlea acts as the front end for the central nervous system analysis of the auditory world. Some notable progress has been made in clarifying the mechanisms of frequency coding and cochlear amplification, and of mechano-transduction in hair cells and in establishing molecules necessary for normal (and by implication in abnormal) development of hearing and balance.

Intercellular Ca signalling in the adult mouse cochlea.

Key Points: Intercellular Ca waves are increases in cytoplasmic Ca levels that propagate between cells. Periodic Ca waves have been linked to gene regulation and are thought to play a crucial role in the development of our hearing epithelium, the organ of Corti and the acquisition of hearing. We observed regular periodic intercellular Ca waves in supporting cells of an ex vivo preparation of the adult mouse organ of Corti, and these waves were found to propagate independently of extracellular ATP and were inhibited by the gap junction blockers 1-octanol and carbenoxolone.

Outer Hair Cells and Electromotility.

Outer hair cells (OHCs) of the mammalian cochlea behave like actuators: they feed energy into the cochlear partition and determine the overall mechanics of hearing. They do this by generating voltage-dependent axial forces. The resulting change in the cell length, observed by microscopy, has been termed "electromotility.

Outcome study of the pipeline embolization device for treatment of intracranial aneurysms at a single UK institution.

Background: The introduction of flow-diverting stents in the last decade provides an alternative endovascular treatment choice in selected intracranial aneurysms. This retrospective analysis of a UK centre's experience provides insight into clinical and radiographic outcomes.

Methods: Electronic patient records, diagnostic and procedural images and written procedural records for patients treated with the PED between August 2009 and April 2014 were reviewed.

Intracellular Calcium Mobilization in Response to Ion Channel Regulators via a Calcium-Induced Calcium Release Mechanism.

Free intracellular calcium ([Ca]), in addition to being an important second messenger, is a key regulator of many cellular processes including cell membrane potential, proliferation, and apoptosis. In many cases, the mobilization of [Ca] is controlled by intracellular store activation and calcium influx. We have investigated the effect of several ion channel modulators, which have been used to treat a range of human diseases, on [Ca] release, by ratiometric calcium imaging.

Tensor and non-tensor tractography for the assessment of the corticospinal tract of children with motor disorders: a comparative study.

Introduction: Non-invasive measures of corticospinal tract (CST) integrity may help to guide clinical interventions, particularly in children and young people (CAYP) with motor disorders. We compared diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics extracted from the CST generated by tensor and non-tensor based tractography algorithms.

Methods: For a group of 25 CAYP undergoing clinical evaluation, the CST was reconstructed using (1) deterministic tensor-based tractography algorithm, (2) probabilistic tensor-based, and (3) constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD)-derived tractography algorithms.

Non-Monotonic Relation between Noise Exposure Severity and Neuronal Hyperactivity in the Auditory Midbrain.

The occurrence of tinnitus can be linked to hearing loss in the majority of cases, but there is nevertheless a large degree of unexplained heterogeneity in the relation between hearing loss and tinnitus. Part of the problem might be that hearing loss is usually quantified in terms of increased hearing thresholds, which only provides limited information about the underlying cochlear damage. Moreover, noise exposure that does not cause hearing threshold loss can still lead to "hidden hearing loss" (HHL), i.