Predictive markers for head and neck cancer treatment response: T1rho imaging in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

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.

Spin-lock based fast whole-brain 3D macromolecular proton fraction mapping of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

A sensitive and efficient imaging technique is required to assess the subtle abnormalities occurring in the normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) and normal-appearing grey matter (NAGM) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). In this study, a fast 3D macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) quantification based on spin-lock (fast MPF-SL) sequence was proposed for brain MPF mapping. Thirty-four participants, including 17 healthy controls and 17 RRMS patients were prospectively recruited.

Dual-Level Augmentation Radiomics Analysis for Multisequence MRI Meningioma Grading.

Background: Preoperative, noninvasive prediction of meningioma grade is important for therapeutic planning and decision making. In this study, we propose a dual-level augmentation strategy incorporating image-level augmentation (IA) and feature-level augmentation (FA) to tackle class imbalance and improve the predictive performance of radiomics for meningioma grading on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Methods: This study recruited 160 consecutive patients with pathologically proven meningioma (129 low-grade (WHO grade I) tumors; 31 high-grade (WHO grade II and III) tumors) with preoperative multisequence MRI imaging.

Radiomics Analysis in Characterization of Salivary Gland Tumors on MRI: A Systematic Review.

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.

Repeatability of quantitative T1rho magnetic resonance imaging in normal brain tissues at 3.0T.

Purpose: T1rho imaging is a promising MRI technique for imaging of brain disease. This study aimed to assess the repeatability of quantitative T1rho imaging in the normal brain grey and white matter.

Methods: The study prospectively recruited 30 healthy volunteers without a history of neurological diseases or brain injury, and T1rho was performed and quantified from three imaging sessions.

The Brain Tumor Segmentation - Metastases (BraTS-METS) Challenge 2023: Brain Metastasis Segmentation on Pre-treatment MRI.

The translation of AI-generated brain metastases (BM) segmentation into clinical practice relies heavily on diverse, high-quality annotated medical imaging datasets. The BraTS-METS 2023 challenge has gained momentum for testing and benchmarking algorithms using rigorously annotated internationally compiled real-world datasets. This study presents the results of the segmentation challenge and characterizes the challenging cases that impacted the performance of the winning algorithms.

Radiomics for Discriminating Benign and Malignant Salivary Gland Tumors; Which Radiomic Feature Categories and MRI Sequences Should Be Used?

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.

Normal size of benign upper neck nodes on MRI: parotid, submandibular, occipital, facial, retroauricular and level IIb nodal groups.

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.

Editorial Comment: Iron-sensitive MR imaging of the primary motor cortex to differentiate hereditary spastic paraplegia from other motor neuron diseases.

• Conventional and advanced MR techniques may aid in the diagnosis of motor neuron disease.• Iron-sensitive MR imaging of the primary motor cortex may reveal changes to help differentiate hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) from UMM predominant amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (UMN-ALS) and primary lateral sclerosis (PLS).• Additional research in this area is necessary.

Lower Prevalence and Severity of Degenerative Changes in the Lumbar Spine in Elderly Hong Kong Chinese Compared With Age-Matched Italian Caucasian Women.

Study Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Objective: The aim was to compare the prevalence and severity of radiographic lumbar spine degeneration between elderly Hong Kong Chinese and elderly Italian Caucasian women.

Summary Of Background Data: Rates of symptomatic low back pain and osteoporotic vertebral fracture have been shown to be lower in Asian and Chinese populations compared with Caucasians, but ethnic differences in spinal degeneration are less established.

Prognostic value of cervical nodal necrosis on staging imaging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in era of intensity-modulated radiotherapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

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.

Current Concepts in Imaging Diagnosis and Screening of Blunt Cerebrovascular Injuries.

Blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI) is an often underrecognized injury occurring in the carotid or vertebral arteries, associated with a risk of ischemic stroke and potential for poor neurological outcome or death. Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is the most common modality for initial screening and diagnosis. Vessel wall intimal injuries, intraluminal thrombus, dissection, intramural hematoma, pseudoaneurysm, vessel transection, and arteriovenous fistula, are potential findings to be considered in approach to imaging.

Machine learning application for the prediction of SARS-CoV-2 infection using blood tests and chest radiograph.

Triaging and prioritising patients for RT-PCR test had been essential in the management of COVID-19 in resource-scarce countries. In this study, we applied machine learning (ML) to the task of detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection using basic laboratory markers. We performed the statistical analysis and trained an ML model on a retrospective cohort of 5148 patients from 24 hospitals in Hong Kong to classify COVID-19 and other aetiology of pneumonia.

Federated deep learning for detecting COVID-19 lung abnormalities in CT: a privacy-preserving multinational validation study.

Data privacy mechanisms are essential for rapidly scaling medical training databases to capture the heterogeneity of patient data distributions toward robust and generalizable machine learning systems. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, a major focus of artificial intelligence (AI) is interpreting chest CT, which can be readily used in the assessment and management of the disease. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of a federated learning method for detecting COVID-19 related CT abnormalities with external validation on patients from a multinational study.

Test-retest repeatability of T1rho (T1ρ) MR imaging in the head and neck.

Purpose: T1rho imaging is a new quantitative MRI sequence for head and neck cancer and the repeatability for this region is unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the repeatability of quantitative T1rho imaging in the head and neck.

Materials And Methods: T1rho imaging of the head and neck was prospectively performed in 15 healthy participants on three occasions.

Intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging for discrimination of benign and malignant retropharyngeal nodes.

Purpose: Anatomical imaging criteria for the diagnosis of malignant head and neck nodes may not always be reliable. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of conventional diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) DWI in discriminating benign and malignant metastatic retropharyngeal nodes (RPNs).

Methods: IVIM DWI using 14 b-values was performed on RPNs of 30 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and 30 patients with elevated plasma Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-DNA without NPC who were part of an EBV-based NPC screening program.

Pre-treatment intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging predicts treatment outcome in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Purpose: To evaluate whether pre-treatment intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI) can predict treatment outcome after 2 years in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Method: One hundred and sixty-one patients with newly diagnosed NPC underwent pre-treatment IVIM-DWI. Univariate Cox regression analysis was performed to evaluate the correlation of the mean values of the pure diffusion coefficient (D), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*), perfusion fraction and apparent diffusion coefficient with local relapse-free survival (LRFS), regional relapse-free survival (RRFS), distant metastases-free survival (DMFS) and disease-free survival (DFS).

Traumatic dural venous sinus gas predicts a higher likelihood of dural venous sinus thrombosis following blunt head trauma.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the association between intrasinus gas and dural venous sinus thrombosis (DVST) in patients with blunt head trauma.

Methods: One hundred and two consecutive patients with blunt head trauma imaged with non-enhanced CT and CT head venography at our institution between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2016 were included. Image review was performed by two independent reviewers to assess for the presence of intrasinus or perisinus gas and DVST.

Foramen tympanicum with symptomatic temporomandibular joint herniation.

Foramen tympanicum (FT), or foramen of Huschke, describes an uncommon anatomicvariant of a persistent bony defect connecting the external acoustic meatus to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Although rare, it can be associated with significant complications, such as TMJ herniation, salivary gland fistula, infectious or tumoral spread between the external acoustic meatus and the TMJ, or result in inadvertent ear injury during TMJ arthroscopy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of a symptomatic FT with a full description of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging findings.