Publications by authors named "Qi-Yong H Ai"

Objective: To investigate the impact of cigarette consumption on mucosal thickening in paranasal sinuses and the relationships of smoking-related factors and dental status with mucosal thickening at different maxillary sinus locations using MRI.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study investigated 1094 paranasal sinuses on MRIs by correlating mucosal thickening with smoking-related factors. Presence/absence of maxillary posterior teeth was correlated with mucosal thickening on the maxillary sinus floor and other sinus locations.

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Physical activity (PA) may be considered an alternative method to ameliorate the elevated mortality risks associated with cadmium exposure. In this prospective cohort study, a total of 20,253 participants (weighted mean age, 47.79 years), including 10,247 men (weighted prevalence: 50.

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(1) Background: In recent years, large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have gained significant attention in various fields, including dentistry. This scoping review aims to examine the current applications and explore potential uses of LLMs in the orthodontic domain, shedding light on how they might improve dental healthcare. (2) Methods: We carried out a comprehensive search in five electronic databases, namely PubMed, Scopus, Embase, ProQuest and Web of Science.

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Automated tooth segmentation and identification on dental radiographs are crucial steps in establishing digital dental workflows. While deep learning networks have been developed for these tasks, their performance has been inferior in partially edentulous individuals. This study proposes a novel semi-supervised Transformer-based framework (SemiTNet), specifically designed to improve tooth segmentation and identification performance on panoramic radiographs, particularly in partially edentulous cases, and establish an open-source dataset to serve as a unified benchmark.

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Objectives: To investigate the potential of T1rho, a new quantitative imaging sequence for cancer, for pre and early intra-treatment prediction of treatment response in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and compare the results with those of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI).

Materials And Methods: T1rho and DWI imaging of primary NPCs were performed pre- and early intra-treatment in 41 prospectively recruited patients. The mean preT1rho, preADC, intraT1rho, intraADC, and % changes in T1rho (ΔT1rho%) and ADC (ΔADC%) were compared between residual and non-residual groups based on biopsy in all patients after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with (n = 29) or without (n = 12) induction chemotherapy (IC), and between responders and non-responders to IC in the subgroup who received IC, using Mann-Whitney U-test.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study developed and validated a deep learning model aimed at automatically identifying and segmenting parotid gland tumors (PGTs) using MRI scans, addressing the issue of incidental findings that might be overlooked.
  • The model was trained on a large dataset, utilizing two types of MRI images (T1-weighted and fat-suppressed T2-weighted) from a significant number of patients, and was rigorously tested with a cross-validation method.
  • Results showed high accuracy and sensitivity in detecting PGTs, with performance metrics indicating the model could effectively assist radiologists by reducing the chances of missing incidental tumors during MRI evaluations.
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Skeletal Class III malocclusion is one type of dentofacial deformity that significantly affects patients' facial aesthetics and oral health. The orthodontic treatment of skeletal Class III malocclusion presents challenges due to uncertainties surrounding mandibular growth patterns and treatment outcomes. In recent years, disease-specific radiographic features have garnered interest from researchers in various fields including orthodontics, for their exceptional performance in enhancing diagnostic precision and treatment effect predictability.

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Aim: This study aimed to investigate the association of social isolation, loneliness, and their trajectory with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) across genetic risk.

Methods: We included 439,337 participants (mean age 56.3 ± 8.

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Article Synopsis
  • A follow-up screening study evaluated the long-term significance of positive Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) DNA results in individuals previously screened for nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC).
  • Out of 17,838 participants rescreened, 423 had persistently detectable EBV DNA, which led to the identification of 24 cases of NPC, with a significantly higher proportion being early-stage cancers compared to historical data.
  • The results indicate that individuals with detectable EBV DNA were considerably more likely to be diagnosed with NPC in subsequent screenings, highlighting the potential of EBV DNA analysis for improvement in early detection and survival rates.
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Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted to evaluate a short, contrast-free MRI for detecting nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in patients screened positive for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA.
  • Among 354 patients, MRI identified additional NPC cases that were missed by endoscopy, with high sensitivity and specificity for detecting the cancer.
  • The results suggest that MRI can enhance NPC screening programs by finding cases that traditional methods might overlook, improving early detection and reducing the risk of missed diagnoses.
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Background: Individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are more vulnerable to social disconnection compared with the general population; however, there are few relevant studies investigating this issue.

Aims: To investigate whether social isolation or loneliness may be associated with subsequent risk of developing major adverse cardiovascular events, whether these associations vary according to fatal and non-fatal outcomes and how behavioural, psychological and physiological factors mediate these associations.

Methods: This longitudinal analysis included data from 19 360 individuals with T2DM at baseline (2006-2010) from the UK Biobank.

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Purpose: Extranodal extension (ENE) has the potential to add value to the current nodal staging system (N) for predicting outcome in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). This study aimed to incorporate ENE, as well as cervical nodal necrosis (CNN) to the current stage N3 and evaluated their impact on outcome prediction. The findings were validated on an external cohort.

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Radiomics analysis can potentially characterize salivary gland tumors (SGTs) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The procedures for radiomics analysis were various, and no consistent performances were reported. This review evaluated the methodologies and performances of studies using radiomics analysis to characterize SGTs on MRI.

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Purpose: This study aimed to discover intra-tumor heterogeneity signature and validate its predictive value for adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) following concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC).

Materials And Methods: 397 LA-NPC patients were retrospectively enrolled. Pre-treatment contrast-enhanced T1-weighted (CET1-w) MR images, clinical variables, and follow-up were retrospectively collected.

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Background: Social isolation and loneliness have emerged as important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, particularly during the coronavirus disease pandemic. However, it is unclear whether social isolation and loneliness had independent and joint associations with incident heart failure (HF).

Objectives: This study sought to examine the association of social isolation, loneliness, and their combination with incident HF.

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The increasing use of computed tomography (CT) and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in oral and maxillofacial imaging has driven the development of deep learning and radiomics applications to assist clinicians in early diagnosis, accurate prognosis prediction, and efficient treatment planning of maxillofacial diseases. This narrative review aimed to provide an up-to-date overview of the current applications of deep learning and radiomics on CT and CBCT for the diagnosis and management of maxillofacial diseases. Based on current evidence, a wide range of deep learning models on CT/CBCT images have been developed for automatic diagnosis, segmentation, and classification of jaw cysts and tumors, cervical lymph node metastasis, salivary gland diseases, temporomandibular (TMJ) disorders, maxillary sinus pathologies, mandibular fractures, and dentomaxillofacial deformities, while CT-/CBCT-derived radiomics applications mainly focused on occult lymph node metastasis in patients with oral cancer, malignant salivary gland tumors, and TMJ osteoarthritis.

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The lack of a consistent MRI radiomic signature, partly due to the multitude of initial feature analyses, limits the widespread clinical application of radiomics for the discrimination of salivary gland tumors (SGTs). This study aimed to identify the optimal radiomics feature category and MRI sequence for characterizing SGTs, which could serve as a step towards obtaining a consensus on a radiomics signature. Preliminary radiomics models were built to discriminate malignant SGTs (n = 34) from benign SGTs (n = 57) on T1-weighted (T1WI), fat-suppressed (FS)-T2WI and contrast-enhanced (CE)-T1WI images using six feature categories.

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Purpose: Nodal size is an important imaging criterion for differentiating benign from malignant nodes in the head and neck cancer staging. This study evaluated the size of normal nodes in less well-documented nodal groups in the upper head and neck on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: Analysis was performed on 289 upper head and neck MRIs of patients without head and neck cancer.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the diagnostic performances of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) for discriminating between benign and malignant salivary gland tumors (SGTs).

Materials And Methods: Sixty-seven patients with 71 SGTs who underwent MRI examination at 3 Tesla were included. There were 34 men and 37 women with a mean age of 57 ± 17 (SD) years (age range: 20-90 years).

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Discriminating early-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) from benign hyperplasia (BH) on MRI is a challenging but important task for the early detection of NPC in screening programs. Radiomics models have the potential to meet this challenge, but instability in the feature selection step may reduce their reliability. Therefore, in this study, we aim to discriminate between early-stage T1 NPC and BH on MRI using radiomics and propose a method to improve the stability of the feature selection step in the radiomics pipeline.

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Purposes: To systematically review and perform meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of cervical nodal necrosis (CNN) on the staging computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in era of intensity-modulated radiotherapy.

Methods: Literature search through PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library was conducted. The hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of CNN for distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were extracted from the eligible studies and meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the pooled HRs with 95%CI.

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Objectives: Novel artificial intelligence (AI) learning algorithms in dento-maxillofacial radiology (DMFR) are continuously being developed and improved using advanced convolutional neural networks. This review provides an overview of the potential and impact of AI algorithms in DMFR.

Materials And Methods: A narrative review was conducted on the literature on AI algorithms in DMFR.

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Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate whether melatonin receptor type 1B (MTNR1B) rs10830963 polymorphism interacts with night shift work on the risk of incident stroke.

Methods: This study included individuals free of stroke at baseline from the UK Biobank. Night-shift work was assessed by the self-reported questions.

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Objectives: To propose and evaluate a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm for automatic detection and segmentation of mucosal thickening (MT) and mucosal retention cysts (MRCs) in the maxillary sinus on low-dose and full-dose cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT).

Materials And Methods: A total of 890 maxillary sinuses on 445 CBCT scans were analyzed. The air space, MT, and MRCs in each sinus were manually segmented.

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