Diagnostic value of amygdala volume on structural magnetic resonance imaging in Alzheimer’s disease

BACKGROUND The main clinical manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease(AD)is memory loss,which can be accompanied by neuropsychiatric symptoms at different stages of the disease.Amygdala is closely related to emotion and memory.AIM To evaluate the diagnostic value of amygdala on structural magnetic resonance imaging(sMRI)for AD.METHODS In this study,22 patients with AD and 26 controls were enrolled.Their amygdala volumes were measured by sMRI and analyzed using an automatic analysis software.RESULTS The bilateral amygdala volumes of AD patients were significantly lower than those of the controls and were positively correlated with the hippocampal volumes.Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses showed that the sensitivity of the left and right amygdala volumes in diagnosing AD was 80.8%and 88.5%,respectively.Subgroup analyses showed that amygdala atrophy was more serious in AD patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms,which mainly included irritability(22.73%),sleep difficulties(22.73%),apathy(18.18%),and hallucination(13.64%).CONCLUSION Amygdala volumes measured by sMRI can be used to diagnose AD,and amygdala atrophy is more serious in patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Chromium Recycling from Argon-oxygen Decarburization Dust in Hot Metal Pre-dephosphorization Process

The chromium recycling from the stainless steel dust of an argon-oxygen decarburization （AOD） furnace during a hot metal pretreatment process was investigated. Experiments at different temperatures or with different amounts of AOD dusts were carried out in a laboratory furnace equipped with MoSi2 heating elements and subsequently industrial experiments were conducted in a stainless steelmaking factory, in order to study the thermodynamic mechanism of C and Si reacted with Cr2O3 to get Cr from AOD dust. The results showed that the reaction between C and Cr2 O1 occurred below 1572.18 K. Although its reducing ability was weaker than that of Si, C enabled the Cr in Cr2O3 in the AOD dust to be recycled using the Si in the slag. By combining the AOD dust added in an earlier stage, the hot metal pretreatment slag added in a later stage could not only recycle Cr from AOD dust but also remove Si, S, and P. Higher hot metal temperatures resulted in higher Cr content and lower remained P concentration in the molten iron.