Usefulness of Wave-CAIPI for Postcontrast 3D T1-SPACE in the Evaluation of Brain Metastases.

Background And Purpose: High-resolution postcontrast 3D T1WI is a widely used sequence for evaluating brain metastasis, despite the long scan time. This study aimed to compare highly accelerated postcontrast 3D T1-weighted sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts by using different flip angle evolution by using wave-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (wave-T1-SPACE) with the commonly used standard high-resolution postcontrast 3D T1-SPACE for the evaluation of brain metastases.

Materials And Methods: Among the 387 patients who underwent postcontrast wave-T1-SPACE and standard SPACE, 56 patients with suspected brain metastases were retrospectively included.

Differential Effect of Iron and Myelin on Susceptibility MRI in the Substantia Nigra.

Background The heterogeneous composition of substantia nigra (SN), including iron, nigrosome-1 substructure, and myelinated white matter, complicates the interpretation of MRI signals. Purpose To investigate R2* and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) in the SN subdivisions of participants with Parkinson disease and healthy control subjects. Materials and Methods In this prospective study conducted from November 2018 to November 2019, participants with Parkinson disease and sex-matched healthy control subjects underwent 3-T MRI.

Association between the initial serum phosphate level and 30-day mortality in blunt trauma patients.

Background: Studies on patients with cardiac arrest or sepsis have reported that high initial phosphate levels are associated with poor outcomes. However, no previous study has investigated the association between initial phosphate levels and outcomes in blunt trauma patients.

Methods: This study was a retrospective observational study conducted on blunt trauma patients who had been treated at the single regional trauma center between January 2016 and December 2017.

Real-Time Functional Assay of Volumetric Muscle Loss Injured Mouse Masseter Muscles via Nanomembrane Electronics.

Skeletal muscle has a remarkable regeneration capacity to recover its structure and function after injury, except for the traumatic loss of critical muscle volume, called volumetric muscle loss (VML). Although many extremity VML models have been conducted, craniofacial VML has not been well-studied due to unavailable in vivo assay tools. Here, this paper reports a wireless, noninvasive nanomembrane system that integrates skin-wearable printed sensors and electronics for real-time, continuous monitoring of VML on craniofacial muscles.

Association between Aortic Valve Calcification Progression and Coronary Atherosclerotic Plaque Volume Progression in the PARADIGM Registry.

Background Aortic valve calcification (AVC) is a key feature of aortic stenosis, and patients with aortic stenosis often have coronary -artery disease. Therefore, proving the association between the progression of AVC and coronary atherosclerosis could improve follow-up and treatment strategies. Purpose To explore the association between the progression of AVC and the progression of total and plaque volume composition from a large multicenter registry of serial coronary CT angiographic examinations.

Immediate and Long-Term Outcomes of Reperfusion Therapy in Patients With Cancer.

Background And Purpose: Patients with acute stroke are often accompanied by comorbidities, such as active cancer. However, adequate treatment guidelines are not available for these patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between cancer and the outcomes of reperfusion therapy in patients with stroke.

Promoter Methylation Status in Initial and Recurrent Glioblastoma: Correlation Study with DWI and DSC PWI Features.

Background And Purpose: () promoter methylation status in primary and recurrent glioblastoma may change during treatment. The purpose of this study was to correlate promoter methylation status changes with DWI and DSC PWI features in patients with recurrent glioblastoma after standard treatment.

Materials And Methods: Between January 2008 and November 2016, forty patients with histologically confirmed recurrent glioblastoma were enrolled.

Drug-Free, Nonsurgical Reduction of Intraocular Pressure for Four Months after Suprachoroidal Injection of Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness. Current treatments use drugs or surgery to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP). In this study, a drug-free, nonsurgical method is developed that lowers IOP for 4 months without requiring daily patient adherence.

Real-World Efficacy and Safety of Lenvatinib in Korean Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Multicenter Retrospective Analysis.

Introduction/objective: Lenvatinib demonstrated efficacy and safety in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the randomized phase III REFLECT trial. Considering the discrepancies in patients between clinical trial data and daily practice, an account of practical experience is needed.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective analysis in which 3 tertiary referral centers participated.

Salt coatings functionalize inert membranes into high-performing filters against infectious respiratory diseases.

Respiratory protection is key in infection prevention of airborne diseases, as highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic for instance. Conventional technologies have several drawbacks (i.e.

Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Chronic Kidney Disease According to 2017 Blood Pressure Categories in Diabetes Mellitus.

The association between blood pressure (BP) defined by the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic kidney disease in patients with diabetes mellitus remains unclear. This study used the National Health Insurance Database of Korea that has health information of 8 922 940 persons who were screened from 2009 to 2014. We determined the BP status of 490 352 diabetes mellitus: level 1 (systolic <120 mm Hg and diastolic <80 mm Hg), level 2 (systolic 120-129 mm Hg and diastolic <80 mm Hg), level 3 (systolic 130-139 mm Hg or diastolic 80-89 mm Hg), and level 4 (systolic ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic ≥90 mm Hg).

Multicenter Study on the Diagnostic Performance of Native-T1 Cardiac Magnetic Resonance of Chronic Myocardial Infarctions at 3T.

Background: Preclinical studies and pilot patient studies have shown that chronic infarctions can be detected and characterized from cardiac magnetic resonance without gadolinium-based contrast agents using native-T1 maps at 3T. We aimed to investigate the diagnostic capacity of this approach for characterizing chronic myocardial infarctions (MIs) in a multi-center setting.

Methods: Patients with a prior MI (n=105) were recruited at 3 different medical centers and were imaged with native-T1 mapping and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) at 3T.

Synthesis of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid-Based ALACELL Possessing Inhibitory Effect against : Whitening Effect and Protective Effect of UVB-Irradiated Damage Cells.

Five-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-photodynamic therapy combined with infrared radiation is an effective and safe therapy for facial acne. Although there are various available agents for treating acne, therapies for resistant or severe strains have been limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the inhibitory efficacy of ALACELL synthesized by combining 5-ALA with Y-G-G-F-L peptide against , , , and , as well as .

Fully Automated CT Quantification of Epicardial Adipose Tissue by Deep Learning: A Multicenter Study.

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of deep learning for robust and fully automated quantification of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) from multicenter cardiac CT data.

Materials And Methods: In this multicenter study, a convolutional neural network approach was trained to quantify EAT on non-contrast material-enhanced calcium-scoring CT scans from multiple cohorts, scanners, and protocols ( = 850). Deep learning performance was compared with the performance of three expert readers and with interobserver variability in a subset of 141 scans.

Point of Care Clinical Risk Score to Improve the Negative Diagnostic Utility of an Agatston Score of Zero: Averting the Need for Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography.

Background: Coronary artery calcification is a marker of underlying atherosclerotic vascular disease. The absence of coronary artery calcification is associated with a low prevalence of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), but it cannot be ruled out completely. We sought to develop a clinical tool that can be added to Agatston score of zero to rule out obstructive CAD with high accuracy.

Feasibility of Coronary F-Sodium Fluoride Positron-Emission Tomography Assessment With the Utilization of Previously Acquired Computed Tomography Angiography.

Background: We assessed the feasibility of utilizing previously acquired computed tomography angiography (CTA) with subsequent positron-emission tomography (PET)-only scan for the quantitative evaluation of F-NaF PET coronary uptake.

Methods And Results: Forty-five patients (age 67.1±6.

Thrombus Volume as a Predictor of Nonrecanalization After Intravenous Thrombolysis in Acute Stroke.

Background and Purpose- We investigated whether measuring the volume and density of a thrombus could predict nonrecanalization after intravenous thrombolysis. Methods- This study included a retrospective cohort to develop a computed tomography marker of thrombus for predicting nonrecanalization after intravenous thrombolysis and a prospective multicenter cohort for validation of this marker. The volume and density of thrombus were measured semiautomatically using 3-dimensional software on a baseline thin-section noncontrast computed tomography (1 or 1.

Quantification of Coronary Atherosclerosis in the Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease.

Background: Diagnosis of coronary artery disease and management strategies have relied solely on the presence of diameter stenosis ≥50%. We assessed whether direct quantification of plaque burden (PB) and plaque characteristics assessed by coronary computed tomography angiography could provide additional value in terms of predicting rapid plaque progression.

Methods And Results: From a 13-center, 7-country prospective observational registry, 1345 patients (60.

Therapeutic Potential of a Novel Necrosis Inhibitor, 7-Amino-Indole, in Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pore and Ca overload are main contributors to myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, which paradoxically causes a wide variety of myocardial damage. We investigated the protective role of a novel necrosis inhibitor (NecroX-7; NecX) against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury using in vitro and in vivo models. H9C2 rat cardiomyoblasts and neonatal cardiomyocytes were exposed to hypoxia-reoxygenation stress after pre-treatment with NecX, vitamin C, a combination of vitamin C and E, N-acetylcysteine, an apoptosis inhibitor (Z-VAD-fmk), or cyclosporine A.

Droplet digital PCR-based EGFR mutation detection with an internal quality control index to determine the quality of DNA.

In clinical translational research and molecular in vitro diagnostics, a major challenge in the detection of genetic mutations is overcoming artefactual results caused by the low-quality of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPET)-derived DNA (FFPET-DNA). Here, we propose the use of an 'internal quality control (iQC) index' as a criterion for judging the minimum quality of DNA for PCR-based analyses. In a pre-clinical study comparing the results from droplet digital PCR-based EGFR mutation test (ddEGFR test) and qPCR-based EGFR mutation test (cobas EGFR test), iQC index ≥ 0.

Differentiation of High-Grade from Low-Grade Astrocytoma: Improvement in Diagnostic Accuracy and Reliability of Pharmacokinetic Parameters from DCE MR Imaging by Using Arterial Input Functions Obtained from DSC MR Imaging.

Purpose To evaluate whether arterial input functions (AIFs) derived from dynamic susceptibility-contrast (DSC) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, or AIF values, improve diagnostic accuracy and reliability of the pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters of dynamic contrast material-enhanced (DCE) MR imaging for differentiating high-grade from low-grade astrocytomas, compared with AIFs obtained from DCE MR imaging (AIF). Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 226 patients (138 men, 88 women; mean age, 52.27 years ± 15.

Incremental Value of Repeated Risk Factor Measurements for Cardiovascular Disease Prediction in Middle-Aged Korean Adults: Results From the NHIS-HEALS (National Health Insurance System-National Health Screening Cohort).

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that repeatedly measured cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors may have an additive predictive value compared with single measured levels. Thus, we evaluated the incremental predictive value of incorporating periodic health screening data for CVD prediction in a large nationwide cohort with periodic health screening tests.

Methods And Results: A total of 467 708 persons aged 40 to 79 years and free from CVD were randomly divided into development (70%) and validation subcohorts (30%).

Can Arterial Spin-Labeling with Multiple Postlabeling Delays Predict Cerebrovascular Reserve?

Background And Purpose: The effect of delayed transit time is the main source of error in the quantitative measurement of CBF in arterial spin-labeling. In the present study, we evaluated the usefulness of the transit time-corrected CBF and arterial transit time delay from multiple postlabeling delays arterial spin-labeling compared with basal/acetazolamide stress technetium Tc99m-hexamethylpropylene amineoxime (Tc99m-HMPAO) SPECT in predicting impairment in the cerebrovascular reserve.

Materials And Methods: Transit time-corrected CBF maps and arterial transit time maps were acquired in 30 consecutive patients with unilateral ICA or MCA steno-occlusive disease (severe stenosis or occlusion).