Contrast media viscosity and its potential effect on the diagnosis of vesicoureteral reflux in children.

Objective: To confirm that contrast-enhanced voiding cystourosonography (ceVUS) diagnoses more vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) than voiding cystourethrography (VCUG) and assess whether this could be explained by contrast agent viscosity differences.

Materials And Methods: Children addressed for a VCUG for suspected or known VUR between April 2021 and June 2023 were prospectively included. CeVUS and VCUG were consecutively performed during the same procedure by two operators; for each pelviureteric unit (PUU), VUR presence was assessed and scored (I-V scale).

Comparison of intra- and inter-patient intensity standardization methods for multi-parametric whole-body MRI.

To test and compare different intensity standardization approaches for whole-body multi-parametric MR images, aiming to compensate voxel intensity differences between scans. These differences, common for magnetic resonance imaging, pose problems in image quantification, assessment of changes between a baseline and follow-up scan, and hinder performance of image processing and machine learning algorithms.In this work, we present a comparison on the accuracy of intensity standardization approaches with increasing complexity, for intra- and inter-patient multi-parametric whole-body MRI.

Deep Learning for Reaction-Diffusion Glioma Growth Modeling: Towards a Fully Personalized Model?

Reaction-diffusion models have been proposed for decades to capture the growth of gliomas, the most common primary brain tumors. However, ill-posedness of the initialization at diagnosis time and parameter estimation of such models have restrained their clinical use as a personalized predictive tool. In this work, we investigate the ability of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) to address commonly encountered pitfalls in the field.

Initial Condition Assessment for Reaction-Diffusion Glioma Growth Models: A Translational MRI-Histology (In)Validation Study.

Reaction-diffusion models have been proposed for decades to capture the growth of gliomas. Nevertheless, these models require an initial condition: the tumor cell density distribution over the whole brain at diagnosis time. Several works have proposed to relate this distribution to abnormalities visible on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Voxelwise Principal Component Analysis of Dynamic [S-Methyl-C]Methionine PET Data in Glioma Patients.

Recent works have demonstrated the added value of dynamic amino acid positron emission tomography (PET) for glioma grading and genotyping, biopsy targeting, and recurrence diagnosis. However, most of these studies are based on hand-crafted qualitative or semi-quantitative features extracted from the mean time activity curve within predefined volumes. Voxelwise dynamic PET data analysis could instead provide a better insight into intra-tumor heterogeneity of gliomas.

Repeatability and reproducibility of ADC measurements: a prospective multicenter whole-body-MRI study.

Objectives: Multicenter oncology trials increasingly include MRI examinations with apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) quantification for lesion characterization and follow-up. However, the repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) limits above which a true change in ADC can be considered relevant are poorly defined. This study assessed these limits in a standardized whole-body (WB)-MRI protocol.

Multi-atlas segmentation of the skeleton from whole-body MRI-Impact of iterative background masking.

Purpose: To improve multi-atlas segmentation of the skeleton from whole-body MRI. In particular, we study the effect of employing the atlas segmentations to iteratively mask tissues outside of the region of interest to improve the atlas alignment and subsequent segmentation.

Methods: An improved atlas registration scheme is proposed.

Dopamine transporter genotype modulates brain activity during a working memory task in children with ADHD.

Dopamine active transporter gene (DAT1) is a candidate gene associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The DAT1 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR)-3' polymorphism is functional and 9R carriers have been shown to produce more DAT than 10R homozygotes. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the effects of this polymorphism on the neural substrates of working memory (WM) in a small but selected population of children with ADHD, naïve of any psychotropic treatment and without comorbidity.

Assessment of cardiac-driven liver movements with filtered harmonic phase image representation, optical flow quantification, and motion amplification.

Purpose: To characterize cardiac-driven liver movements using a harmonic phase image representation (HARP) with an optical flow quantification and motion amplification method. The method was applied to define the cardiac trigger delay providing minimal signal losses in liver DWI images.

Methods: The 16-s breath-hold balanced-SSFP time resolved 20 images/s were acquired at 3T in coronal and sagittal orientations.

Relationship Between White Matter Abnormalities and Neuropsychological Measures in Children With ADHD.

Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), to investigate microstructural white matter differences between ADHD and typically developing children (TDC), and their association with inhibition and working memory performance usually impaired in ADHD. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were estimated in 36 noncomorbid children with a (4th ed., text rev.

Assessment of response to chemotherapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Comparison between diffusion-weighted MR quantitative parameters and RECIST.

Purpose: To prospectively assess chemotherapy-induced changes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) with diffusion-weighted (DW)-MR quantitative metrics, including apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and histogram-derived parameters, compared with RECIST 1.1.

Methods: 24 patients underwent DW-MR at baseline, week-2 and week-8 after chemotherapy initiation.

Total choline quantification measured by 1H MR spectroscopy as early predictor of response after neoadjuvant treatment for locally advanced breast cancer: The impact of immunohistochemical status.

Background: Validation of new biomarkers is essential for the early evaluation of neoadjuvant treatments.

Purpose: To determine whether measurements of total choline (tCho) by 1H spectroscopy could predict morphological or pathological complete response (pCR) of neoadjuvant treatment and whether breast cancer subgroups are related to prediction accuracy.

Study Type: Prospective, nonrandomized, monocentric, diagnostic study.

TumourMetrics: a comprehensive clinical solution for the standardization of DCE-MRI analysis in research and routine use.

Background: A reliable analysis methodology is needed to provide valuable imaging biomarkers for clinical trials, with particular regards to dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) application using pharmacokinetic (PK) model analysis. In order to address this scientific challenge, we provided a comprehensive analysis solution that could overcome the impediments to clinical research and routine use.

Methods: TumourMetrics has been designed to meet the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA) v.

Absence of clinical cerebellar syndrome after serial injections of more than 20 doses of gadoterate, a macrocyclic GBCA: a monocenter retrospective study.

Sound evidence of gadolinium accumulation in brain has been recently provided after repeated administrations of linear gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs), especially at the cerebellum level. Although data regarding brain accumulation of macrocyclic GBCAs are more reassuring, there is now a genuine concern ("gadolinium-phobia") about possible long-term consequences of gadolinium deposits, especially in terms of cerebellar sequelae. We, therefore, questioned about the clinical impact of serial administration of gadoterate meglumine, a macrocyclic GBCA.

Neural correlates of correct and failed response inhibition in heavy versus light social drinkers: an fMRI study during a go/no-go task by healthy participants.

The ability to suppress responses that are inappropriate, as well as the mechanisms monitoring the accuracy of actions in order to compensate for errors, is central to human behavior. Neural alterations that prevent stopping an inaccurate response, combined with a decreased ability of error monitoring, are considered to be prominent features of alcohol abuse. Moreover, (i) alterations of these processes have been reported in heavy social drinkers (i.

Hyperactivity in motor response inhibition networks in unmedicated children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

Objectives: Hypo/reduced activity in motor response inhibition (RI) cerebral networks was recently proposed as a promising specific neurobiological marker of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Before adopting such a pattern as a key diagnosis tool, we aim to replicate in an independent study the mechanisms underlying reduced RI-related activity in ADHD, after controlling for potentially confounding effects.

Methods: In this fMRI study, we investigated the neural networks mediating successful and failed motor RI in children with ADHD and typically developing children (TDC) using the stop-signal task (SST) paradigm.

Quantifying brain volumes for Multiple Sclerosis patients follow-up in clinical practice - comparison of 1.5 and 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging.

Introduction: There is emerging evidence that brain atrophy is a part of the pathophysiology of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and correlates with several clinical outcomes of the disease, both physical and cognitive. Consequently, brain atrophy is becoming an important parameter in patients' follow-up. Since in clinical practice both 1.

Liver apparent diffusion coefficient repeatability with individually predetermined optimal cardiac timing and artifact elimination by signal filtering.

Purpose: To prospectively assess liver ADC (apparent diffusion coefficient) repeatability from cardiac-triggered diffusion-weighted images obtained with an individually predetermined optimal cardiac time window minimizing cardiac-related effects and to evaluate a signal filtering method aimed at artifact elimination.

Materials And Methods: After Institutional Review Board approval and written informed consent, eight healthy volunteers underwent four repetitions of respiratory-triggered diffusion-weighted sequences (3T, b: 0,150,500 s/mm(2) ) without (RTnoCT, 51 sec) and with individually optimized cardiac triggering (RTCT, 306 sec). The optimal cardiac delay was individually predetermined using a 5-second breath-hold sequence.

Quantitative DCE-MRI for prediction of pathological complete response following neoadjuvant treatment for locally advanced breast cancer: the impact of breast cancer subtypes on the diagnostic accuracy.

Objectives: To assess whether DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters obtained before and during chemotherapy can predict pathological complete response (pCR) differently for different breast cancer groups.

Methods: Eighty-four patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer were retrospectively included. All patients underwent two DCE-MRI examinations, one before (EX1) and one during treatment (EX2).