Fibroglandular Tissue and Background Parenchymal Enhancement on Breast MR Imaging Correlates With Breast Cancer.

Objectives: To evaluate the association of breast cancer with both the background parenchymal enhancement intensity and volume (BPE and BPE, respectively) and the amount of fibroglandular tissue (FGT) using an automatic quantitative assessment method in breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Materials And Methods: Among 17,274 women who underwent breast MRI, 132 normal women (control group), 132 women with benign breast lesions (benign group), and 132 women with breast cancer (cancer group) were randomly selected and matched by age and menopausal status. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was compared in Cancer vs Control and Cancer vs Benign groups to assess the discriminative ability of BPE, BPE and FGT.

Segmentation of whole breast and fibroglandular tissue using nnU-Net in dynamic contrast enhanced MR images.

Purpose: Segmentation of the whole breast and fibroglandular tissue (FGT) is important for quantitatively analyzing the breast cancer risk in the dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (DCE-MR) images. The purpose of this study is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the segmentation of the whole breast and FGT in 3-D fat-suppressed DCE-MR images with a versatile deep learning (DL) framework.

Methods: We randomly collected 100 breast DCE-MR scans from Shanghai Cancer Hospital of Fudan University.

A cascade-network framework for integrated registration of liver DCE-MR images.

Registration of hepatic dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images (DCE-MRIs) is an important task for evaluation of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) or radiofrequency ablation by quantifying enhancing viable residue tumor against necrosis. However, intensity changes due to contrast agents combined with spatial deformations render technical challenges for accurate registration of DCE-MRI, and traditional deformable registration methods using mutual information are often computationally intensive in order to tolerate such intensity enhancement and shape deformation variability. To address this problem, we propose a cascade network framework composed of a de-enhancement network (DE-Net) and a registration network (Reg-Net) to first remove contrast enhancement effects and then register the liver images in different phases.

Association Between Background Parenchymal Enhancement and Pathologic Complete Remission Throughout the Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer Patients.

Purpose: To retrospectively investigate the quantitative background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) of the contralateral normal breast in patients with unilateral invasive breast cancer throughout multiple monitoring points of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to further determine whether BPE is associated with tumor response, especially at the early stage of NAC.

Materials And Methods: A total of 90 patients with unilateral breast cancer who then received six or eight cycles of NAC before surgery were analyzed retrospectively. BPE was measured in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI at baseline and after 2nd, 4th, and 6th NAC, respectively.

Fully automated segmentation of whole breast using dynamic programming in dynamic contrast enhanced MR images.

Purpose: Amount of fibroglandular tissue (FGT) and level of background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) in breast dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance images (DCE-MRI) are suggested as strong indices for assessing breast cancer risk. Whole breast segmentation is the first important task for quantitative analysis of FGT and BPE in three-dimensional (3-D) DCE-MRI. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a fully automated technique for accurate segmentation of the whole breast in 3-D fat-suppressed DCE-MRI.

Quantitative assessment of background parenchymal enhancement in breast magnetic resonance images predicts the risk of breast cancer.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the association betweenthe quantitative assessment of background parenchymal enhancement rate (BPER) and breast cancer. From 14,033 consecutive patients who underwent breast MRI in our center, we randomly selected 101 normal controls. Then, we selected 101 women with benign breast lesions and 101 women with breast cancer who were matched for age and menstruation status.

[Regional differences and development tendency of livestock manure pollution in China].

The rapid development of livestock production in China has brought livestock manure pollution as a serious environment problem, even threatens China's agriculture sustainable development. On the basis of public statistical data and field research data, this paper analyzed the magnitude of livestock manure excretion and pollution of China and different provinces in 2010, and predicted development tendencies of livestock manure excretion and pollution in 2020 through the Decision Support System for China's Agricultural Sustainable Development (CHINAGRO). The result shows that total livestock manure excretion of China in 2010 is 1 900 million tons, and livestock manure pollution is 227 million tons, while per hectare arable land of livestock manure pollution is 1.

Haemodynamics-driven developmental pruning of brain vasculature in zebrafish.

The brain blood vasculature consists of a highly ramified vessel network that is tailored to meet its physiological functions. How the brain vasculature is formed has long been fascinating biologists. Here we report that the developing vasculature in the zebrafish midbrain undergoes not only angiogenesis but also extensive vessel pruning, which is driven by changes in blood flow.

Multiple myeloma-associated iliopsoas muscular amyloidoma first presenting with bilateral femoral nerve entrapment.

We report a 38-year-old man of multiple myeloma with bilateral femoral nerve entrapment caused by bilateral huge protruding masses in the inguinal areas. The masses were identified as iliopsoas muscular amyloidoma after the operation. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma 1 year ago before he was admitted to our hospital.

A new ion-exchange adsorbent with paramagnetic properties for the separation of genomic DNA.

A new ion-exchange adsorbent (IEA) derived from Fe(3)O(4)/SiO(2)-GPTMS-DEAE with paramagnetic properties was prepared. Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles were firstly prepared in water-in-oil microemulsion. The magnetic Fe(3)O(4) particles were modified in situ by hydrolysis and condensation reactions with tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) to form the core-shell Fe(3)O(4)/SiO(2).

Epidermal growth factor down-regulates the expression of human hepatic stimulator substance via CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein β in HepG2 cells.

hHSS (human hepatic stimulator substance), acting as a hepatotrophic growth factor, promotes liver regeneration. However, the regulatory mechanisms for hHSS transcription are still poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated transcription of hHSS triggered by EGF (epidermal growth factor) and the role of C/EBPβ (CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein β) as a potential core factor responsible for hHSS transcription in HepG2 cells.

2-[3-(1H-Benzimidazol-2-yl)prop-yl]-1H-benzimidazol-3-ium 3,5-dicarb-oxy-benzoate-benzene-1,3,5-tricarb-oxy-lic acid-water (1/1/1).

The title compound, C(17)H(17)N(4) (+)·C(9)H(5)O(6) (-)·C(9)H(6)O(6)·H(2)O, contains a protonated 2,2'-(1,3-propanedi-yl)bis-(1H-benzimidazole) cation, a deprotonated benzene-1,3,5-tricarb-oxy-lic acid anion, a neutral benzene-1,3,5-tricarb-oxy-lic acid mol-ecule and a water mol-ecule, which are linked together through N-H⋯O, O-H⋯O and weak C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds into almost double sheets parallel to (4). These hydrogen-bonded sheets are packed in the crystal with the formation of centrosymmetric voids of 25.5 Å(3), which are filled by the water mol-ecules.

Breast mass segmentation in mammography using plane fitting and dynamic programming.

Rationale And Objectives: Segmentation is an important and challenging task in a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system. Accurate segmentation could improve the accuracy in lesion detection and characterization. The objective of this study is to develop and test a new segmentation method that aims at improving the performance level of breast mass segmentation in mammography, which could be used to provide accurate features for classification.

Automated detection of breast mass spiculation levels and evaluation of scheme performance.

Rationale And Objectives: Although the spiculation levels of breast mass boundaries are a primary sign of malignancy for masses detected on mammography, developing an automated computerized method to detect spiculation levels and quantitatively evaluating the performance of such a method is a difficult task. The objectives of this study were to (1) develop and test a new method to improve mass segmentation and detect mass boundary spiculation levels and (2) assess the performance of this method using a relatively large imaging data set.

Materials And Methods: The fully automated method developed for this study includes three image-processing steps.