Diagnostic efficacy of dual-energy CT virtual non-calcium technique in the diagnosis of bone marrow edema of sacroiliac joints in ankylosing spondylitis.

Objective: In-depth investigation of the diagnostic performance of dual-energy CT (DECT) virtual non-calcium (VNCa) technique for sacroiliac joint bone marrow edema (BME) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis(AS).

Methods: A total of 42 patients with AS)who underwent sacroiliac joint MRI and DECT scans on the same day at our Rheumatology and Immunology Department between August 2022 and June 2023 were selected. Using MRI as the reference standard, the presence of BME on the iliac and sacral surfaces was evaluated, resulting in the categorization of patients into BME-positive and BME-negative groups.

Single-cell impedance cytometry of anticancer drug-treated tumor cells exhibiting mitotic arrest state to apoptosis using low-cost silver-PDMS microelectrodes.

Chemotherapeutic drugs such as paclitaxel and vinblastine interact with microtubules and thus induce complex cell states of mitosis arrest at the G/M phase followed by apoptosis dependent on drug exposure time and concentration. Microfluidic impedance cytometry (MIC), as a label-free and high-throughput technology for single-cell analysis, has been applied for viability assay of cancer cells post drug exposure at fixed time and dosage, yet verification of this technique for varied tumor cell states after anticancer drug treatment remains a challenge. Here we present a novel MIC device and for the first time perform impedance cytometry on carcinoma cells exhibiting progressive states of G/M arrest followed by apoptosis related to drug concentration and exposure time, after treatments with paclitaxel and vinblastine, respectively.