Analysis of the Retinal and Choroidal Vasculature Using Ultrawidefield Fundus Imaging in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Normal Cognition.

Purpose: To utilize ultrawidefield (UWF) imaging to evaluate retinal and choroidal vasculature and structure in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) compared with that of controls with normal cognition.

Design: Prospective cross sectional study.

Participants: One hundred thirty-one eyes of 82 MCI patients and 230 eyes of 133 cognitively normal participants from the Eye Multimodal Imaging in Neurodegenerative Disease Study.

Ultra-Widefield Imaging of the Retinal Macrovasculature in Parkinson Disease Versus Controls With Normal Cognition Using Alpha-Shapes Analysis.

Purpose: To investigate retinal vascular characteristics using ultra-widefield (UWF) scanning laser ophthalmoscopy in Parkinson disease (PD).

Methods: Individuals with an expert-confirmed clinical diagnosis of PD and controls with normal cognition without PD underwent Optos California UWF imaging. Patients with diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension, glaucoma, dementia, other movement disorders, or known retinal or optic nerve pathology were excluded.

An Open-Source Deep Learning Algorithm for Efficient and Fully Automatic Analysis of the Choroid in Optical Coherence Tomography.

Purpose: To develop an open-source, fully automatic deep learning algorithm, DeepGPET, for choroid region segmentation in optical coherence tomography (OCT) data.

Methods: We used a dataset of 715 OCT B-scans (82 subjects, 115 eyes) from three clinical studies related to systemic disease. Ground-truth segmentations were generated using a clinically validated, semiautomatic choroid segmentation method, Gaussian Process Edge Tracing (GPET).

DiCyc: GAN-based deformation invariant cross-domain information fusion for medical image synthesis.

Cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN) has been widely used for cross-domain medical image synthesis tasks particularly due to its ability to deal with unpaired data. However, most CycleGAN-based synthesis methods cannot achieve good alignment between the synthesized images and data from the source domain, even with additional image alignment losses. This is because the CycleGAN generator network can encode the relative deformations and noises associated to different domains.

Sonographic bridging callus at six weeks following displaced midshaft clavicle fracture can accurately predict healing.

Aims: To evaluate if union of clavicle fractures can be predicted at six weeks post-injury by the presence of bridging callus on ultrasound.

Methods: Adult patients managed nonoperatively with a displaced mid-shaft clavicle were recruited prospectively. Ultrasound evaluation of the fracture was undertaken to determine if sonographic bridging callus was present.

Retinal venular tortuosity and fractal dimension predict incident retinopathy in adults with type 2 diabetes: the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study.

Aims/hypothesis: Our aim was to determine whether a range of prespecified retinal vessel traits were associated with incident diabetic retinopathy in adults with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: In the prospective observational cohort Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study of 1066 adults with type 2 diabetes, aged 60-75 years at recruitment, 718 were free from diabetic retinopathy at baseline. Baseline retinal traits including vessel widths, tortuosity (curvature) and fractal dimensions (network complexity), were quantified using fundus camera images and semiautomated software, and analysed using logistic regression for their association with incident diabetic retinopathy over 10 years.

A review of machine learning methods for retinal blood vessel segmentation and artery/vein classification.

The eye affords a unique opportunity to inspect a rich part of the human microvasculature non-invasively via retinal imaging. Retinal blood vessel segmentation and classification are prime steps for the diagnosis and risk assessment of microvascular and systemic diseases. A high volume of techniques based on deep learning have been published in recent years.

The Eye as a Non-Invasive Window to the Microcirculation in Liver Cirrhosis: A Prospective Pilot Study.

Microcirculatory dysfunction is associated with organ failure, poor response to vasoactive drugs and increased mortality in cirrhosis, but monitoring techniques are not established. We hypothesized that the chorioretinal structures of the eye could be visualized as a non-invasive proxy of the systemic microvasculature in cirrhosis and would correlate with renal dysfunction. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) was performed to image the retina in = 55 cirrhosis patients being assessed for liver transplantation.

Retinal vessel phenotype in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.

Purpose: To characterize the phenotype of retinal vessels using central retinal artery equivalent (CRAE), central retinal vein equivalent (CRVE), tortuosity and fractal dimension (FD) in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) subjects.

Methods: This prospective case-control multicentre study included 61 POAG subjects and 61 controls matched for age, systemic hypertension and body mass index. Fundus images of the right eye were acquired using a non-mydriatic camera.

Machine learning of neuroimaging for assisted diagnosis of cognitive impairment and dementia: A systematic review.

Introduction: Advanced machine learning methods might help to identify dementia risk from neuroimaging, but their accuracy to date is unclear.

Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature, 2006 to late 2016, for machine learning studies differentiating healthy aging from dementia of various types, assessing study quality, and comparing accuracy at different disease boundaries.

Results: Of 111 relevant studies, most assessed Alzheimer's disease versus healthy controls, using AD Neuroimaging Initiative data, support vector machines, and only T1-weighted sequences.

Evaluation of coronary artery disease as a risk factor for reticular pseudodrusen.

Purpose: Reticular pseudodrusen (RPD) are a risk factor for late age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Associations between RPD and coronary artery disease (CAD) have been reported from small case-control studies. This study investigated the association of RPD within a predominantly CAD cohort.

Blood vessel segmentation and width estimation in ultra-wide field scanning laser ophthalmoscopy.

Features of the retinal vasculature, such as vessel widths, are considered biomarkers for systemic disease. The aim of this work is to present a supervised approach to vessel segmentation in ultra-wide field of view scanning laser ophthalmoscope (UWFoV SLO) images and to evaluate its performance in terms of segmentation and vessel width estimation accuracy. The results of the proposed method are compared with ground truth measurements from human observers and with existing state-of-the-art techniques developed for fundus camera images that we optimized for UWFoV SLO images.

Role of multidetector computed tomography in the diagnosis and management of patients attending the rapid access chest pain clinic, The Scottish computed tomography of the heart (SCOT-HEART) trial: study protocol for randomized controlled trial.

Background: Rapid access chest pain clinics have facilitated the early diagnosis and treatment of patients with coronary heart disease and angina. Despite this important service provision, coronary heart disease continues to be under-diagnosed and many patients are left untreated and at risk. Recent advances in imaging technology have now led to the widespread use of noninvasive computed tomography, which can be used to measure coronary artery calcium scores and perform coronary angiography in one examination.

Carotid intima-media thickness and cerebrovascular disease in community-dwelling older people without stroke.

Background And Purpose: Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) is a noninvasive measure of atherosclerosis, but it is unclear whether it is a stronger risk factor for large vessel disease or small vessel disease.

Methods: One hundred seven volunteers, aged 75 to 81 years, underwent measurements of CIMT and vascular risk factors and brain MRI (structural and diffusion tensor); those with history of stroke were excluded.

Results: In 96 subjects without stroke, there were significant associations between CIMT and markers of large vessel disease (carotid stenosis: rho=0.

Birth parameters are associated with late-life white matter integrity in community-dwelling older people.

Background And Purpose: Lower birth weight is associated with increased risk of stroke, but little is known about the mechanism for this association or influence in addition to vascular risk factors. We investigated whether there was an association between birth parameters and imaging markers of white matter integrity in community-dwelling older people.

Methods: One hundred seven volunteers, age 75 to 81 years, had birth parameters (weight, length, placental weight, gestational age) extracted from archives.

B-mode compound imaging in mice.

Cross-sectional B-mode images were obtained from a dead mouse for a 360 degrees scan around the mouse using a 12-MHz linear array. For each cross-section, a set of aligned images was obtained after rotation about the isocenter, which were added to produce a single compound image. The compound images demonstrated a substantial improvement over single B-mode images, with uniform image quality, low noise and improved visualization of structures.

Childhood and current cognitive function in healthy 80-year-olds: a DT-MRI study.

Diffusion tensor MR imaging (DT-MRI) yields information on early pathological changes in white matter of the ageing brain which may correlate with cognitive function. However, because individuals vary in their cognitive ability, a measurement of prior cognition from youth is required to understand fully the significance of MR imaging changes associated with ageing. Here, diffusion tensor parameters and cognitive function were measured in a cohort of 30 older subjects whose cognitive ability was measured at age 11 and 80.