Can Pretreatment MRI and Planning CT Radiomics Improve Prediction of Complete Pathological Response in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer Following Neoadjuvant Treatment?

Objective(s): The treatment response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation (nCRT) differs largely in individuals treated for rectal cancer. In this study, we investigated the role of radiomics to predict the pathological response in locally advanced rectal cancers at different treatment time points: (1) before the start of any treatment using baseline T2-weighted MRI (T2W-MR) and (2) at the start of radiation treatment using planning CT.

Methods: Patients on nCRT followed by surgery between June 2017 to December 2019 were included in the study.

Reproducibility in Radiomics: A Comparison of Feature Extraction Methods and Two Independent Datasets.

Radiomics involves the extraction of information from medical images that are not visible to the human eye. There is evidence that these features can be used for treatment stratification and outcome prediction. However, there is much discussion about the reproducibility of results between different studies.

Is radiomics a useful addition to magnetic resonance imaging in the preoperative classification of PitNETs?

Background: The WHO 2021 introduced the term pituitary neuroendocrine tumours (PitNETs) for pituitary adenomas and incorporated transcription factors for subtyping, prompting the need for fresh diagnostic methods. Current biomarkers struggle to distinguish between high- and low-risk non-functioning PitNETs. We explored if radiomics can enhance preoperative decision-making.

Early and Long-Term Clinical Outcomes of Ductal Stenting Versus Surgical Aortopulmonary Shunt Among Young Infants with Duct-Dependent Pulmonary Circulation.

Surgical aortopulmonary shunting (SAPS) and ductal stenting (DS) are the main palliations in infants with cyanotic congenital heart diseases (CHD). We aimed to study the safety and efficacy of DS and to compare it with SAPS as a palliative procedure in infants with CHD and duct-dependent pulmonary circulation. Retrospective institutional clinical data review of consecutive infants aged < 3 months who underwent DS or SAPS over 5 years.

Aorto-Left Ventricular Tunnel-An Uncommon Entity.

The aorto-left ventricular tunnel is an extracardiac communication that has a specific morphological feature. It is important to differentiate this entity from other diagnoses because the treatment options differ significantly and better outcomes are obtained with this entity.

Natural history of coronary stents: 14 year follow-up of drug eluting stents versus bare metal stents.

Background: Several randomized trials have shown the effectiveness of drug-eluting stents (DES) over bare metal stents (BMS) in terms of repeat revascularization at 1 year; however long term data in this context is conflicting.

Aim: To assess the long term clinical outcomes after coronary artery stenting with drug-eluting stents and bare metal stents.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study, including 100 consecutive patients with Coronary Artery Disease who underwent successful percutaneous intervention (PCI) with implantation of DES and contemporary 100 patients who underwent PCI with implantation of BMS in the years 2005 and 2006 at our center.

A Giant Coronary Aneurysm in a Suspected Kawasaki Disease Causing Asymptomatic Myocardial Ischemia.

Coronary involvement in Kawasaki disease is not uncommon; however, giant coronary aneurysm exceeding 50 mm is extremely rare. In this article, we presented a case of giant coronary aneurysm involving right coronary artery with associated asymptomatic myocardial ischemia as evident by multimodality imaging.

Acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction with Guillain-Barre syndrome in Fontan circulation.

Total cavopulmonary connection, commonly referred to as the Fontan procedure, is the established destination therapy for univentricular hearts. While the procedure permits a longer survival of these patients, this circulation involves several compromises from normal human circulation and poses several challenges with increasing age after surgery. We present an instance of acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction with Guillain-Barre syndrome in an adult after Fontan palliation and discuss the challenges in management.

Clinical profile and outcomes of pediatric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in a South Indian tertiary care cardiac center: a three decade experience.

Introduction: Although much research has been done on adult hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, data on pediatric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is still limited.

Methods And Results: The study enrolled all patients with cardiomyopathy who presented to us between 1990 to 2020 and were younger than 18 yrs. During the thirty-year study period, we identified 233 cases of pediatric cardiomyopathy.

Multi-centre radiomics for prediction of recurrence following radical radiotherapy for head and neck cancers: Consequences of feature selection, machine learning classifiers and batch-effect harmonization.

Background And Purpose: Radiomics models trained with limited single institution data are often not reproducible and generalisable. We developed radiomics models that predict loco-regional recurrence within two years of radiotherapy with private and public datasets and their combinations, to simulate small and multi-institutional studies and study the responsiveness of the models to feature selection, machine learning algorithms, centre-effect harmonization and increased dataset sizes.

Materials And Methods: 562 patients histologically confirmed and treated for locally advanced head-and-neck cancer (LA-HNC) from two public and two private datasets; one private dataset exclusively reserved for validation.

Tandem Saphenous Vein Graft Aneurysms with Right Atrial Fistula: Evaluation of a "Rarest of a Rare Complication" Using CT Coronary Angiography.

Saphenous vein graft (SVG) aneurysm after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is a rare complication. A fistula between an SVG aneurysm and a cardiac chamber is even rarer. Herein, we report a middle-aged man who underwent CABG with five grafts 13 years prior presenting with multiple aneurysms in the venous graft with a fistula between the aneurysm and the right atrium.

Osimertinib-induced radiation recall pneumonitis.

Radiation recall pneumonitis (RRP) is a type of radiation induced lung injury that develops in a previously irradiated lung field and is triggered by administration of chemotherapeutic or immunomodulating agents. To our knowledge there is only one report of Osimertinib induced RRP. The predominant symptoms include dyspnea and cough which usually resolve after stopping the inciting agent and with glucocorticoids.

Mulberry Leaves (Morus Rubra)-Derived Blue-Emissive Carbon Dots Fed to Silkworms to Produce Augmented Silk Applicable for the Ratiometric Detection of Dopamine.

Silk fibers (SF) reeled from silkworms are constituted by natural proteins, and their characteristic structural features render them applicable as materials for textiles and packaging. Modification of SF with functional materials can facilitate their applications in additional areas. In this work, the preparation of functional SF embedded with carbon dots (CD) is reported through the direct feeding of a CD-modified diet to silkworms.

Culprit Lesion Morphology on Optical Coherence Tomography in ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction vs Non ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction - A Systematic Review of 7526 Patients.

Background: Patients with STEMI are postulated to have different culprit lesion morphology compared to NSTEMI. The use of OCT in ACS can help delineate lesion morphology. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the available data on culprit plaque morphology in ACS patients.

Feasibility, safety and oncological outcomes of minimally invasive oesophagectomy following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma - Experience from a tertiary care centre.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) has improved the resectability and survival of operable oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We aimed to study if nCRT for OSCC makes minimally invasive oesophagectomy (MIO) technically more challenging and if the peri-operative and oncological outcomes are acceptable for MIO following nCRT.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review of patients with OSCC (cT1-2N1-2, cT3-4aN0-2) treated with nCRT and MIO between 2013 and 2019 was performed.

Radiation and immune checkpoint inhibitor-mediated pneumonitis risk stratification in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer: role of functional lung radiomics?

Background: Patients undergoing chemoradiation and immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) experience pulmonary toxicity at higher rates than historical reports. Identifying biomarkers beyond conventional clinical factors and radiation dosimetry is especially relevant in the modern cancer immunotherapy era. We investigated the role of novel functional lung radiomics, relative to functional lung dosimetry and clinical characteristics, for pneumonitis risk stratification in locally advanced NSCLC.

Prognostic Value of Early Fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron Emission Tomography Response Imaging and Peripheral Immunologic Biomarkers: Substudy of a Phase II Trial of Risk-Adaptive Chemoradiation for Unresectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Purpose: We sought to examine the prognostic value of fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (PET) imaging during chemoradiation for unresectable non-small cell lung cancer for survival and hypothesized that tumor PET response is correlated with peripheral T-cell function.

Methods And Materials: Forty-five patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer version 7 stage IIB-IIIB non-small cell lung cancer enrolled in a phase II trial and received platinum-doublet chemotherapy concurrent with 6 weeks of radiation (NCT02773238). Fluorodeoxyglucose-PET was performed before treatment start and after 24 Gy of radiation (week 3).

Utility of Mid-treatment DWI in Selecting Pathological Responders to Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy in Locally Advanced Esophageal Cancer.

Purpose: Pathological complete response correlates with better clinical outcomes in locally advanced esophageal cancer (LA-EC). However, there is lack of prognostic markers to identify patients in the current setting of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NACRT) followed by surgery. This study evaluates the utility of mid-treatment diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in identifying pathological responders of NACRT.

Framework for Machine Learning of CT and PET Radiomics to Predict Local Failure after Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancers.

Context: Cancer Radiomics is an emerging field in medical imaging and refers to the process of converting routine radiological images that are typically qualitatively interpreted to quantifiable descriptions of the tumor phenotypes and when combined with statistical analytics can improve the accuracy of clinical outcome prediction models. However, to understand the radiomic features and their correlation to molecular changes in the tumor, first, there is a need for the development of robust image analysis methods, software tools and statistical prediction models which is often limited in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).

Aims: The aim is to build a framework for machine learning of radiomic features of planning computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) using open source radiomics and data analytics platforms to make it widely accessible to clinical groups.