Racial discrimination among women seeking breast cancer care.

Discrimination can contribute to worse health outcomes, but its prevalence in breast cancer is not well studied. We aimed to understand how women with stage I-III breast cancer faced discrimination in health care and everyday settings through the Everyday Discrimination Scale, cross-sectional survey. 296 women, 178 (60%) Non-Hispanic White (NHW), 76 (26%) Non-Hispanic Black (NHB), and 42 (14%) Hispanic participated.

Metastatic Lung Lesion Changes in Follow-up Chest CT: The Advantage of Deep Learning Simultaneous Analysis of Prior and Current Scans With SimU-Net.

Purpose: Radiological follow-up of oncology patients requires the detection of metastatic lung lesions and the quantitative analysis of their changes in longitudinal imaging studies. Our aim was to evaluate SimU-Net, a novel deep learning method for the automatic analysis of metastatic lung lesions and their temporal changes in pairs of chest CT scans.

Materials And Methods: SimU-Net is a simultaneous multichannel 3D U-Net model trained on pairs of registered prior and current scans of a patient.

EXTREME VALUES OF THE FIEDLER VECTOR ON TREES.

Let be a tree on vertices and let denote the Laplacian matrix on . The second-smallest eigenvalue , also known as the algebraic connectivity, as well as the associated eigenvector have been of substantial interest. We investigate the question of when the maxima and minima of an associated eigenvector are assumed at the endpoints of the longest path in .

Assessing the Inner Setting among Massachusetts Community Health Centers: Opportunities for Multilevel Investigation and Expansion of Influences on Health Equity.

Background: Implementation science increasingly aims to improve equity in delivery of evidence-based interventions. It is important to expand the conceptualization of the inner setting, organizations like community health centers where interventions are put into place, accordingly. Taking a comprehensive, partnered approach to measuring the inner setting among a network of community health centers engaged in implementation research ensures assessment of the variability among sites and generates centralized contextual data that can be applied across studies.

Transcatheter electrosurgical aortic septostomy optimizes distal landing zone in chronic dissection.

Objective: Efficacy of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) for chronic type B aortic dissection (CTBAD) is dependent on eliminating retrograde false lumen perfusion and remodeling the aorta. We describe the efficacy of a novel transcatheter electrosurgical technique to fenestrate the dissection flap and create a distal seal zone for TEVAR in CTBAD.

Methods: A retrospective review of the Emory Aortic Database from 2016 to 2023 identified 33 patients who underwent TEVAR with intentional endovascular rupture of the dissection flap (Knickerbocker; KNICK) for CTBAD.

See Me, Hear Me: Racial Discrimination Among Women Seeking Breast Cancer Care.

Discrimination can contribute to worse health outcomes, but its prevalence in breast cancer is not well studied. We aimed to understand how women with stage I-III breast cancer faced discrimination in health care and everyday settings through a cross-sectional survey. 296 women, 178 (60%) Non-Hispanic White (NHW), 76 (26%) Non-Hispanic Black (NHB), and 42 (14%) Hispanic participated.

5-Year Outcomes of Anterior Mitral Leaflet Laceration to Prevent Outflow Obstruction.

Background: Left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction is a common, often fatal complication of transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR). Laceration of the anterior mitral leaflet to prevent outflow obstruction (LAMPOON) was safe and effective at preventing LVOT obstruction at 30 days in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute LAMPOON trial.

Objectives: The authors report the 5-year outcomes of intentional anterior mitral leaflet laceration before SAPIEN 3 TMVR, in patients at risk of LVOT obstruction.

Acousto-optic-based time domain electric field sensor for magnetic resonance imaging applications.

An acousto-optic (AO)-based electric field sensor is presented for time domain measurement under magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A fully MR-compatible sensor is designed and fabricated using a phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating mechanically coupled to a piezoelectric transducer. Mechanical resonance of the piezoelectric transducer is matched to the operating frequencies of commonly used MRI systems to increase the sensitivity of the sensor.

Ventricular Intramyocardial Navigation for Tachycardia Ablation Guided by Electrograms (VINTAGE): Deep Ablation in Inaccessible Targets.

Background: Deep intramural ventricular tachycardia substrate targets are difficult to access, map, and ablate from endocardial and epicardial surfaces, resulting in high recurrence rates.

Objectives: In this study, the authors introduce a novel approach called ventricular intramyocardial navigation for tachycardia ablation guided by electrograms (VINTAGE) to access and ablate anatomically challenging ventricular tachycardia from within the myocardium.

Methods: Guidewire/microcatheter combinations were navigated deep throughout the extravascular myocardium, accessed directly from the right ventricle cavity, in Yorkshire swine (6 naive, 1 infarcted).

Non-invasive pressure-volume loops using the elastance model and CMR: a porcine validation at transient pre-loads.

Aims: Pressure-volume (PV) loops have utility in the evaluation of cardiac pathophysiology but require invasive measurements. Recently, a time-varying elastance model to derive PV loops non-invasively was proposed, using left ventricular (LV) volume by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and brachial cuff pressure as inputs. Validation was performed using CMR and pressure measurements acquired on the same day, but not simultaneously, and without varying pre-loads.

TABERNACL: Temporary Hemodynamic Stabilization In Vivo.

Background: Acute aortic regurgitation is life-threatening with few nonsurgical options for immediate stabilization. We propose Trans-Aortic Balloon to Ease Regurgitation Applying Counter-Pulsation (TABERNACL), a simple, on-table temporary valve using commercially available equipment to temporize acute severe aortic regurgitation.

Methods: We hypothesize that an appropriately sized commercial balloon dilatation catheter-straddling the aortic annulus and connected to a counterpulsation console-can serve as a temporizing valve to restore hemodynamic stability in acute aortic regurgitation.

Transcatheter Myotomy to Reduce Left Ventricular Outflow Obstruction.

Background: Left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction is a source of morbidity in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and a life-threatening complication of transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Available surgical and transcatheter approaches are limited by high surgical risk, unsuitable septal perforators, and heart block requiring permanent pacemakers.

Objectives: The authors report the initial experience of a novel transcatheter electrosurgical procedure developed to mimic surgical myotomy.

Inline automatic quality control of 2D phase-contrast flow MRI for subject-specific scan time adaptation.

Purpose: To develop an inline automatic quality control to achieve consistent diagnostic image quality with subject-specific scan time, and to demonstrate this method for 2D phase-contrast flow MRI to reach a predetermined SNR.

Methods: We designed a closed-loop feedback framework between image reconstruction and data acquisition to intermittently check SNR (every 20 s) and automatically stop the acquisition when a target SNR is achieved. A free-breathing 2D pseudo-golden-angle spiral phase-contrast sequence was modified to listen for image-quality messages from the reconstructions.

On Manifold Learning in Plato's Cave: Remarks on Manifold Learning and Physical Phenomena.

Many techniques in machine learning attempt explicitly or implicitly to infer a low-dimensional manifold structure of an underlying physical phenomenon from measurements without an explicit model of the phenomenon or the measurement apparatus. This paper presents a cautionary tale regarding the discrepancy between the geometry of measurements and the geometry of the underlying phenomenon in a benign setting. The deformation in the metric illustrated in this paper is mathematically straightforward and unavoidable in the general case, and it is only one of several similar effects.

Interventional device tracking under MRI via alternating current controlled inhomogeneities.

Purpose: To introduce alternating current-controlled, conductive ink-printed marker that could be implemented with both custom and commercial interventional devices for device tracking under MRI using gradient echo, balanced SSFP, and turbo spin-echo sequences.

Methods: Tracking markers were designed as solenoid coils and printed on heat shrink tubes using conductive ink. These markers were then placed on three MR-compatible test samples that are typically challenging to visualize during MRI scans.

Evaluation of 12-lead electrocardiogram at 0.55T for improved cardiac monitoring in magnetic resonance imaging.

Background: The 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is a standard diagnostic tool for monitoring cardiac ischemia and heart rhythm during cardiac interventional procedures and stress testing. These procedures can benefit from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) information; however, the MRI scanner magnetic field leads to ECG distortion that limits ECG interpretation. This study evaluated the potential for improved ECG interpretation in a "low field" 0.

Efficient high-resolution refinement in cryo-EM with stochastic gradient descent.

Electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM) is an imaging technique widely used in structural biology to determine the three-dimensional structure of biological molecules from noisy two-dimensional projections with unknown orientations. As the typical pipeline involves processing large amounts of data, efficient algorithms are crucial for fast and reliable results. The stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm has been used to improve the speed of ab initio reconstruction, which results in a first, low-resolution estimation of the volume representing the molecule of interest, but has yet to be applied successfully in the high-resolution regime, where expectation-maximization algorithms achieve state-of-the-art results, at a high computational cost.

MC3DU-Net: a multisequence cascaded pipeline for the detection and segmentation of pancreatic cysts in MRI.

Purpose: Radiological detection and follow-up of pancreatic cysts in multisequence MRI studies are required to assess the likelihood of their malignancy and to determine their treatment. The evaluation requires expertise and has not been automated. This paper presents MC3DU-Net, a novel multisequence cascaded pipeline for the detection and segmentation of pancreatic cysts in MRI studies consisting of coronal MRCP and axial TSE MRI sequences.

Hybrid Closure of Postinfarction Apical Ventricular Septal Defect Using Septal Occluder Device and Right Ventricular Free Wall: The Apical BASSINET Concept.

Background: Postinfarction ventricular septal defect (VSD) is a catastrophic complication of myocardial infarction. Surgical repair still has poor outcomes. This report describes clinical outcomes after a novel hybrid transcatheter/surgical repair in patients with apical VSD.

Moderated Online Social Therapy for Carers of Early Psychosis Clients in Real-World Settings: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Family carers of youth recovering from early psychosis experience significant stress; however, access to effective family interventions is poor. Digital interventions provide a promising solution.

Objective: Our objective was to evaluate across multiple Australian early psychosis services the effectiveness of a novel, web-based early psychosis intervention for carers.