Diagnostic Accuracy of Lung and Abdominal Ultrasound for Tuberculosis in a German Multicenter Cohort of Patients With Presumed Tuberculosis Disease.

Background: There is limited evidence on point-of-care ultrasound for tuberculosis (TB), but studies suggest high sensitivity, especially for lung ultrasound (LUS). However, insufficient data are available on specificity of the examination and its generalizability to a broader patient population.

Aims: Our study aimed to establish accuracy for lung, chest, and abdominal ultrasound, individually and in combination, for TB diagnosis.

Calcium-Based Imaging of the Spine at Dual-Layer CT and Evaluation of Vertebral Fractures in Multiple Myeloma.

Purpose: To evaluate the prediction of vertebral fractures in plasma cell dyscrasias using dual-layer CT (DLCT) with quantitative assessment of conventional CT image data (CI), calcium suppressed image data (CaSupp), and calculation of virtual calcium-only (VCa) image data.

Material And Methods: Patients ( = 81) with the diagnosis of a plasma cell dyscrasia and whole-body DLCT at the time of diagnosis and follow-up were retrospectively enrolled. CI, CaSupp25, and CaSupp100 were quantitatively analyzed using regions of interest in the lumbar vertebral bodies and fractured vertebral bodies on baseline or follow-up imaging.

Improvement of Breast Cancer Detection Using Dual-Layer Spectral CT.

This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic performance of breast mass detection on monoenergetic image data at 40 keV (MonoE40) and on iodine maps (IM) compared with conventional image data (CI). In this prospective single-center case-control study, 50 breast cancer patients were examined using contrast-enhanced dual-layer spectral CT. For qualitative and quantitative comparison of MonoE40 and IM with CI image data, four blinded, independent readers assessed 300 randomized single slices (two slices for each imaging type per case) with or without cancerous lesions for the presence of a breast mass.

Demonstration of particle tracking with scintillating fibres read out by a SPAD array sensor and application as a neutrino active target.

Scintillating fibre detectors combine sub-mm resolution particle tracking, precise measurements of the particle stopping power and sub-ns time resolution. Typically, fibres are read out with silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). Hence, if fibres with a few hundred m diameter are used, either they are grouped together and coupled with a single SiPM, losing spatial resolution, or a very large number of electronic channels is required.

The Invasive Alien Plant : Phytochemical Composition, Ecosystem Service Potential, and Application in Bioeconomy.

L. (Canadian goldenrod) is a widely distributed invasive herb from the Asteraceae family. It contains compounds that can change the soil structure and its nutritional components and thus affect indigenous species' growth, germination, and survival.

Imaging differentiation of solid pseudopapillary neoplasms and neuroendocrine neoplasms of the pancreas.

Purpose: The present study aimed to compare the computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs) and pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs).

Method: Lesion imaging features of 39 patients with SPNs and 127 patients with pNENs were retrospectively extracted from 104 CT and 91 MRI scans.

Results: Compared to pNEN patients, SPN patients were significantly younger (mean age 51.

Reproducible Radiomics Features from Multi-MRI-Scanner Test-Retest-Study: Influence on Performance and Generalizability of Models.

Background: Radiomics models trained on data from one center typically show a decline of performance when applied to data from external centers, hindering their introduction into large-scale clinical practice. Current expert recommendations suggest to use only reproducible radiomics features isolated by multiscanner test-retest experiments, which might help to overcome the problem of limited generalizability to external data.

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of using only a subset of robust radiomics features, defined in a prior in vivo multi-MRI-scanner test-retest-study, on the performance and generalizability of radiomics models.

Feasibility of Reduced Iodine Loads for Vascular Assessment Prior to Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) Using Spectral Detector CT.

Reduced iodine loads for computed tomography (CT)-based vascular assessment prior to transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) may be feasible in conjunction with a spectral detector CT scanner. This prospective single-center study considered 100 consecutive patients clinically referred for pre-TAVI CT. They were examined on a dual-layer detector CT scanner to obtain an ECG-gated cardiac scan and a non-ECG-gated aortoiliofemoral scan.

Sensing Levofloxacin with an RNA Aptamer as a Bioreceptor.

To combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, environmental testing for antibiotic contamination is gaining an increasing role. This study aims to develop an easy-to-use assay for the detection of the fluoroquinolone antibiotic levofloxacin. Levofloxacin is used in human and veterinary medicine and has been detected in wastewater and river water.

Risk factors and management of biliary leakage after Endocystectomy for hepatic cystic echinococcosis.

Background: Endocystectomy is a conservative surgical approach to managing cystic echinococcosis. Bile leakage is the main complication of this technique. The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors associated with bile leakage and to assess the outcomes and cost efficiency of strategies used to treat bile leakage.

Potential of ChatGPT and GPT-4 for Data Mining of Free-Text CT Reports on Lung Cancer.

Background The latest large language models (LLMs) solve unseen problems via user-defined text prompts without the need for retraining, offering potentially more efficient information extraction from free-text medical records than manual annotation. Purpose To compare the performance of the LLMs ChatGPT and GPT-4 in data mining and labeling oncologic phenotypes from free-text CT reports on lung cancer by using user-defined prompts. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included patients who underwent lung cancer follow-up CT between September 2021 and March 2023.

Hydride formation and dynamic phase changes during template-assisted Pd electrodeposition.

We investigated the structural evolution of electrochemically fabricated Pd nanowiresby means of grazing-incidence transmission small- and wide-angle x-ray scattering (GTSAXS and GTWAXS), x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and two-dimensional surface optical reflectance (2D-SOR). This shows how electrodeposition and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) compete and interact during Pd electrodepositon. During the bottom-up growth of the nanowires, we show that-phase Pd hydride is formed.

Pattern and time point of relapse in locally advanced esophagogastric adenocarcinoma after multimodal treatment: implications for a useful structured follow-up.

Purpose: Despite improvements in multimodal treatment of locally advanced esophagogastric adenocarcinoma, the majority of patients still relapses. The impact of structured follow-up for early detection of recurrence is unclear and controversially discussed.

Methods: Patients with locally advanced esophagogastric adenocarcinoma having received neoadjuvant/perioperative chemotherapy followed by tumor resection between 2009 and 2021, underwent a structured follow-up including three-monthly imaging during the first 2 years, followed by semiannual and annual examinations in year 3-4 and 5, respectively.

Pulmonary cystic echinococcosis.

Purpose Of Review: The aim of our review is to summarize specific clinical, diagnostic and treatment aspects of pulmonary cystic echinococcosis. The lung is the organ second most affected by cystic echinococcosis with approximately a quarter of cystic echinococcosis cysts. Most cysts are in the liver.

Vascular pathology in patients with alveolar echinococcosis: framework for assessment and clinical management - a retrospective case series.

Objective: Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a parasitic liver disease with infiltrative growth similar to solid organ malignancies. Major vascular damage is frequent and often remains untreated until catastrophic events precipitate. Detailed clinical and radiological assessment is required to guide individualised treatment decisions.

Echinococcoses - A Primer for Radiologists.

Background: Cystic (CE) and alveolar (AE) echinococcoses are zoonotic parasitoses that may pose diagnostic problems due to their relative rarity in Middle Europe.

Methods: Based on a recent literature search and the observation of casuistics from a national echinococcosis treatment center, epidemiological, radiological, and therapeutic fundamentals are presented and important differences between AE and CE are discussed.

Results And Conclusion: AE and CE must be regarded as completely different diseases, which differ from each other in every significant aspect.

Prediction of Bone Marrow Biopsy Results From MRI in Multiple Myeloma Patients Using Deep Learning and Radiomics.

Objectives: In multiple myeloma and its precursor stages, plasma cell infiltration (PCI) and cytogenetic aberrations are important for staging, risk stratification, and response assessment. However, invasive bone marrow (BM) biopsies cannot be performed frequently and multifocally to assess the spatially heterogenous tumor tissue. Therefore, the goal of this study was to establish an automated framework to predict local BM biopsy results from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Test-retest, inter- and intra-rater reproducibility of size measurements of focal bone marrow lesions in MRI in patients with multiple myeloma.

Objective: To investigate the reproducibility of size measurements of focal bone marrow lesions (FL) in MRI in patients with monoclonal plasma cell disorders under variation of patient positioning and observer.

Methods: A data set from a prospective test-retest study was used, in which 37 patients with a total of 140 FL had undergone 2 MRI scans with identical parameters after patient repositioning. Two readers measured long and short axis diameter on the initial scan in weighted, weighted short tau inversion recovery and diffusion-weighted imaging sequences.

Quantification of airway wall contrast enhancement on virtual monoenergetic images from spectral computed tomography.

Objectives: Quantitative computed tomography (CT) plays an increasingly important role in phenotyping airway diseases. Lung parenchyma and airway inflammation could be quantified by contrast enhancement at CT, but its investigation by multiphasic examinations is limited. We aimed to quantify lung parenchyma and airway wall attenuation in a single contrast-enhanced spectral detector CT acquisition.

Asynchronous calibration of quantitative computed tomography bone mineral density assessment for opportunistic osteoporosis screening: phantom-based validation and parameter influence evaluation.

Asynchronous calibration could allow opportunistic screening based on routine CT for early osteoporosis detection. In this phantom study, a bone mineral density (BMD) calibration phantom and multi-energy CT (MECT) phantom were imaged on eight different CT scanners with multiple tube voltages (80-150 kV) and image reconstruction settings (e.g.

Deep Learning for Automatic Bone Marrow Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Measurements From Whole-Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients With Multiple Myeloma: A Retrospective Multicenter Study.

Objectives: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly important in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). The objective of this study was to train and test an algorithm for automatic pelvic bone marrow analysis from whole-body apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in patients with MM, which automatically segments pelvic bones and subsequently extracts objective, representative ADC measurements from each bone.

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective multicentric study, 180 MRIs from 54 patients were annotated (semi)manually and used to train an nnU-Net for automatic, individual segmentation of the right hip bone, the left hip bone, and the sacral bone.

Deep Learning-based Assessment of Oncologic Outcomes from Natural Language Processing of Structured Radiology Reports.

Purpose: To train a deep natural language processing (NLP) model, using data mined structured oncology reports (SOR), for rapid tumor response category (TRC) classification from free-text oncology reports (FTOR) and to compare its performance with human readers and conventional NLP algorithms.

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective study, databases of three independent radiology departments were queried for SOR and FTOR dated from March 2018 to August 2021. An automated data mining and curation pipeline was developed to extract Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors-related TRCs for SOR for ground truth definition.

In Vivo Repeatability and Multiscanner Reproducibility of MRI Radiomics Features in Patients With Monoclonal Plasma Cell Disorders: A Prospective Bi-institutional Study.

Objectives: Despite the extensive number of publications in the field of radiomics, radiomics algorithms barely enter large-scale clinical application. Supposedly, the low external generalizability of radiomics models is one of the main reasons, which hinders the translation from research to clinical application. The objectives of this study were to investigate reproducibility of radiomics features (RFs) in vivo under variation of patient positioning, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence, and MRI scanners, and to identify a subgroup of RFs that shows acceptable reproducibility across all different acquisition scenarios.

A combined rotating disk electrode-surface x-ray diffraction setup for surface structure characterization in electrocatalysis.

Characterizing electrode surface structures under operando conditions is essential for fully understanding structure-activity relationships in electrocatalysis. Here, we combine in a single experiment high-energy surface x-ray diffraction as a characterizing technique with a rotating disk electrode to provide steady state kinetics under electrocatalytic conditions. Using Pt(111) and Pt(100) model electrodes, we show that full crystal truncation rod measurements are readily possible up to rotation rates of 1200 rpm.

Combining Deep Learning and Radiomics for Automated, Objective, Comprehensive Bone Marrow Characterization From Whole-Body MRI: A Multicentric Feasibility Study.

Objectives: Disseminated bone marrow (BM) involvement is frequent in multiple myeloma (MM). Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (wb-MRI) enables to evaluate the whole BM. Reading of such whole-body scans is time-consuming, and yet radiologists can transfer only a small fraction of the information of the imaging data set to the report.