Prostaglandin E1 administration for prevention of contrast-induced acute kidney injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: PGE1 has been studied for prevention of CI-AKI in several RCTs and significant heterogeneous results exist.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials up to December 26, 2017 for RCTs comparing PGE1 with placebo or other active medications for the prevention of CI-AKI in patients. Odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used for pooling dichotomous data, while mean difference and 95% confidence interval for pooling continuous data.

CNN models discriminating between pulmonary micro-nodules and non-nodules from CT images.

Background: Early and automatic detection of pulmonary nodules from CT lung screening is the prerequisite for precise management of lung cancer. However, a large number of false positives appear in order to increase the sensitivity, especially for detecting micro-nodules (diameter < 3 mm), which increases the radiologists' workload and causes unnecessary anxiety for the patients. To decrease the false positive rate, we propose to use CNN models to discriminate between pulmonary micro-nodules and non-nodules from CT image patches.

Improvements to the gastric cancer tumor-node-metastasis staging system based on computer-aided unsupervised clustering.

Background: The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification is a key gastric cancer prognosis system. This study aimed to create a new TNM system to provide a reference for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer.

Methods: A review of gastric cancer patients' records was conducted in The First Hospital of China Medical University and the Liaoning Cancer Hospital and Institute.

Evidence for plant-derived xenomiRs based on a large-scale analysis of public small RNA sequencing data from human samples.

In recent years, an increasing number of studies have reported the presence of plant miRNAs in human samples, which resulted in a hypothesis asserting the existence of plant-derived exogenous microRNA (xenomiR). However, this hypothesis is not widely accepted in the scientific community due to possible sample contamination and the small sample size with lack of rigorous statistical analysis. This study provides a systematic statistical test that can validate (or invalidate) the plant-derived xenomiR hypothesis by analyzing 388 small RNA sequencing data from human samples in 11 types of body fluids/tissues.

A similarity measure method combining location feature for mammogram retrieval.

Background: Breast cancer, the most common malignancy among women, has a high mortality rate in clinical practice. Early detection, diagnosis and treatment can reduce the mortalities of breast cancer greatly. The method of mammogram retrieval can help doctors to find the early breast lesions effectively and determine a reasonable feature set for image similarity measure.

A consistency evaluation of signal-to-noise ratio in the quality assessment of human brain magnetic resonance images.

Background: Quality assessment of medical images is highly related to the quality assurance, image interpretation and decision making. As to magnetic resonance (MR) images, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is routinely used as a quality indicator, while little knowledge is known of its consistency regarding different observers.

Methods: In total, 192, 88, 76 and 55 brain images are acquired using T, T, T and contrast-enhanced T (TC) weighted MR imaging sequences, respectively.

Discrimination between malignant and benign mass-like lesions from breast dynamic contrast enhanced MRI: semi-automatic vs. manual analysis of the signal time-intensity curves.

To investigate the performance of a new semi-automatic method for analyzing the signal time-intensity curve (TIC) obtained by breast dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE)-MRI. In the conventional method, a circular region of interest was drawn manually onto the map reflecting the maximum slope of increase (MSI) to delineate the suspicious lesions. The mean TIC was determined subjectively as one of three different wash-out patterns.

A simulation study comparing nine mathematical models of arterial input function for dynamic contrast enhanced MRI to the Parker model.

Due to large inter- and intra-patient variabilities of arterial input functions (AIFs), accurately modeling and using patient-specific AIF are very important for quantitative analysis of dynamic contrast enhanced MRI. Computer simulations were performed to evaluate and compare nine population AIF models with the Parker AIF used as 'gold standard'. The Parker AIF was calculated with a temporal resolution of 1.

A New Approach to Predict Progression-free Survival in Stage IV EGFR-mutant NSCLC Patients with EGFR-TKI Therapy.

We established a CT-derived approach to achieve accurate progression-free survival (PFS) prediction to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) therapy in multicenter, stage IV -mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. A total of 1,032 CT-based phenotypic characteristics were extracted according to the intensity, shape, and texture of NSCLC pretherapy images. On the basis of these CT features extracted from 117 stage IV -mutant NSCLC patients, a CT-based phenotypic signature was proposed using a Cox regression model with LASSO penalty for the survival risk stratification of EGFR-TKI therapy.

A new near-term breast cancer risk prediction scheme based on the quantitative analysis of ipsilateral view mammograms.

Purpose: To help improve efficacy of screening mammography and eventually establish an optimal personalized screening paradigm, this study aimed to develop and test a new near-term breast cancer risk prediction scheme based on the quantitative analysis of ipsilateral view of the negative screening mammograms.

Methods: The dataset includes digital mammograms acquired from 392 women with two sequential full-field digital mammography examinations. All the first ("prior") sets of mammograms were interpreted as negative during the original reading.

Influence of vascular geometry on local hemodynamic parameters: phantom and small rodent study.

Background: Many studies have demonstrated that the geometry of the carotid bifurcation enables prediction of blood flow variation associated with atherosclerotic plaque formation. The phase angle between the arterial wall circumferential strain and its instantaneous wall shear stress is known as stress phase angle (SPA). This parameter is used to evaluate hemodynamic factors of atherogenesis.

Airflow in Tracheobronchial Tree of Subjects with Tracheal Bronchus Simulated Using CT Image Based Models and CFD Method.

Tracheal Bronchus (TB) is a rare congenital anomaly characterized by the presence of an abnormal bronchus originating from the trachea or main bronchi and directed toward the upper lobe. The airflow pattern in tracheobronchial trees of TB subjects is critical, but has not been systemically studied. This study proposes to simulate the airflow using CT image based models and the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method.

Agile convolutional neural network for pulmonary nodule classification using CT images.

Objective: To distinguish benign from malignant pulmonary nodules using CT images is critical for their precise diagnosis and treatment. A new Agile convolutional neural network (CNN) framework is proposed to conquer the challenges of a small-scale medical image database and the small size of the nodules, and it improves the performance of pulmonary nodule classification using CT images.

Methods: A hybrid CNN of LeNet and AlexNet is constructed through combining the layer settings of LeNet and the parameter settings of AlexNet.

Transient Dynamics Simulation of Airflow in a CT-Scanned Human Airway Tree: More or Fewer Terminal Bronchi?

Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, the feasibility of simulating transient airflow in a CT-based airway tree with more than 100 outlets for a whole respiratory period is studied, and the influence of truncations of terminal bronchi on CFD characteristics is investigated. After an airway model with 122 outlets is extracted from CT images, the transient airflow is simulated. Spatial and temporal variations of flow velocity, wall pressure, and wall shear stress are presented; the flow pattern and lobar distribution of air are gotten as well.

The Study of Pulse Condition of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Information Age.

Using the study of pulse condition in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a case example, this paper discusses the characteristics of pulse information obtained by Chinese medicine practitioners, how to correctly understand the relationship between the human body and Chinese medicine in the information age, how to deal with pulse data, and how to study TCM pulse condition . Furthermore, we point out that the application of modern big data processing technology to the pulse of Chinese medicine offers new opportunities.

Comparison of Regression Analysis and Transfer Function in Estimating the Parameters of Central Pulse Waves from Brachial Pulse Wave.

This study analyzed ascending branch slope (A_slope), dicrotic notch height (Hn), diastolic area (Ad) and systolic area (As) diastolic blood pressure (DBP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), pulse pressure (PP), subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR), waveform parameter (k), stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO), and peripheral resistance (RS) of central pulse wave invasively and non-invasively measured. Invasively measured parameters were compared with parameters measured from brachial pulse waves by regression model and transfer function model. Accuracy of parameters estimated by regression and transfer function model, was compared too.

Comparison of central hemodynamic parameters for young basketball athletes and control group.

Background: Long-term exercise training may have negative effects on cardiovascular functions. Measurement and calculation of central hemodynamic parameters can comprehensively evaluate the cardiovascular functions. This study aims to compare the central hemodynamics between young basketball athletes and matched controls.

Content-based image retrieval for Lung Nodule Classification Using Texture Features and Learned Distance Metric.

Similarity measurement of lung nodules is a critical component in content-based image retrieval (CBIR), which can be useful in differentiating between benign and malignant lung nodules on computer tomography (CT). This paper proposes a new two-step CBIR scheme (TSCBIR) for computer-aided diagnosis of lung nodules. Two similarity metrics, semantic relevance and visual similarity, are introduced to measure the similarity of different nodules.

Performance of Ultrafast DCE-MRI for Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer.

Rationale And Objectives: This study aimed to test high temporal resolution dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for different zones of the prostate and evaluate its performance in the diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa). Determine whether the addition of ultrafast DCE-MRI improves the performance of multiparametric MRI.

Materials And Methods: Patients (n = 20) with pathologically confirmed PCa underwent preoperative 3T MRI with T2-weighted, diffusion-weighted, and high temporal resolution (~2.

An interleaved sequence for simultaneous magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).

Purpose: To image the entire vasculature of the brain with complete suppression of signal from background tissue using a single 3D excitation interleaved rephased/dephased multi-echo gradient echo sequence. This ensures no loss of signal from fast flow and provides co-registered susceptibility weighted images (SWI) and quantitative susceptibility maps (QSM) from the same scan.

Materials And Methods: The suppression of background tissue was accomplished by subtracting the flow-dephased images from the flow-rephased images with the same echo time of 12.

STrategically Acquired Gradient Echo (STAGE) imaging, part II: Correcting for RF inhomogeneities in estimating T1 and proton density.

Purpose: To develop a method for mapping the B transmit (B) and B receive (B) fields from two gradient echo datasets each with a different flip angle and from these two images obtain accurate T and proton density (PD) maps of the brain.

Methods: A strategically acquired gradient echo (STAGE) data set is collected using two flip angles each with multiple echoes. The B field extraction was based on forcing cortical gray matter and white matter to have specific T values and fitting the resulting B field to a quadratic function.

STrategically Acquired Gradient Echo (STAGE) imaging, part I: Creating enhanced T1 contrast and standardized susceptibility weighted imaging and quantitative susceptibility mapping.

Purpose: To provide whole brain grey matter (GM) to white matter (WM) contrast enhanced T1W (T1WE) images, multi-echo quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), proton density (PD) weighted images, T1 maps, PD maps, susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI), and R2* maps with minimal misregistration in scanning times <5min.

Methods: Strategically acquired gradient echo (STAGE) imaging includes two fully flow compensated double echo gradient echo acquisitions with a resolution of 0.67×1.

2D and 3D CT Radiomics Features Prognostic Performance Comparison in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Objective: To compare 2D and 3D radiomics features prognostic performance differences in CT images of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Method: We enrolled 588 NSCLC patients from three independent cohorts. Two sets of 463 patients from two different institutes were used as the training cohort.

Synchronous acquisition of multi-channel signals by single-channel ADC based on square wave modulation.

Synchronous acquisition of multi-channel biopotential signals, such as electrocardiograph (ECG) and electroencephalograph, has vital significance in health care and clinical diagnosis. In this paper, we proposed a new method which is using single channel ADC to acquire multi-channel biopotential signals modulated by square waves synchronously. In this method, a specific modulate and demodulate method has been investigated without complex signal processing schemes.