Detecting prostate cancer and prostatic calcifications using advanced magnetic resonance imaging

Prostate cancer and prostatic calcifications have a high incidence in elderly men. We aimed to investigate the diagnostic capabilities of susceptibility-weighted imaging in detecting prostate cancer and prostatic calcifications. A total number of 156 men, including 34 with prostate cancer and 122 with benign prostate were enrolled in this study. Computed tomography, conventional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging, and susceptibility-weighted imaging were performed on all the patients. One hundred and twelve prostatic calcifications were detected in 87 patients. The sensitivities and specificities of the conventional magnetic resonance imaging, apparent diffusion coefficient, and susceptibility-filtered phase images in detecting prostate cancer and prostatic calcifications were calculated. McNemar＇s Chi-square test was used to compare the differences in sensitivities and specificities between the techniques. The results showed that the sensitivity and specificity of susceptibility-filtered phase images in detecting prostatic cancer were greater than that of conventional magnetic resonance imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient （P 〈 0.05）. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity of susceptibility-filtered phase images in detecting prostatic calcifications were comparable to that of computed tomography and greater than that of conventional magnetic resonance imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient （P 〈 0.05）. Given the high incidence of susceptibility-weighted imaging （SWl） abnormality in prostate cancer, we conclude that susceptibility-weighted imaging is more sensitive and specific than conventional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging, and computed tomography in detecting prostate cancer. Furthermore, susceptibility-weighted imaging can identify prostatic calcifications similar to computed tomography, and it is much better than conventional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging.

Identification of Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients with T2DM Using Whole Brain Functional Connectivity

Majority of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)patients are highly susceptible to several forms of cognitive impairments,particularly dementia.However,the underlying neural mechanism of these cognitive impairments remains unclear.We aimed to investigate the correlation between whole brain resting state functional connections(RSFCs)and the cognitive status in 95 patients with T2DM.We constructed an elastic net model to estimate the Montreal Cognitive Assessment(MoCA)scores,which served as an index of the cognitive status of the patients,and to select the RSFCs for further prediction.Subsequently,we utilized a machine learning technique to evaluate the discriminative ability of the connectivity pattern associated with the selected RSFCs.The estimated and chronological MoCA scores were significantly correlated with R=0.81 and the mean absolute error(MAE)=1.20.Additionally,cognitive impairments of patients with T2DM can be identified using the RSFC pattern with classification accuracy of 90.54%and the area under the receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve(AUC)of 0.9737.This connectivity pattern not only included the connections between regions within the default mode network(DMN),but also the functional connectivity between the task-positive networks and the DMN,as well as those within the task-positive networks.The results suggest that an RSFC pattern could be regarded as a potential biomarker to identify the cognitive status of patients with T2DM.

^(18)F-FDG PET/MR Imaging for Evaluating of Obstructive Jaundice:Chinese Expert Consensus

The cause of obstructive jaundice is usually complex which renders its differential diagnosis and lesion localization challenging in clinical practice.Integrated Positron Emission tomography/Magnetic Resonance(PET/MR)offers complementary information from PET and MR in the diagnosis of obstructive jaundice and is becoming widely adopted in clinical setting.While preserving its diagnostic accuracy,it is important to standardize and streamline the clinical scan protocol of PET/MR in evaluating obstructive jaundice.Based on literature review and experience of large number of clinical cases from the author group,this article reports an expert consensus on imaging protocol optimization and case interpretation template standardization.