Benign pancreatic lesion on 18F-FDG PET-MRI: A case report.

RATIONALE: Differentiation of benign and malignant lesions in the head of pancreas is the key. When the mass is small, it is difficult to distinguish via conventional imaging modalities. Positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) can distinguish benign and malignant lesions from the perspective of metabolism, which provides a new idea for the diagnosis of pancreatic head mass. PATIENT CONCERNS: We report the case of a 44-year-old male patient who underwent an 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/MRI for medical examination. The patient did not complain of special discomfort. DIAGNOSES: PET-MRI revealed in the head of the pancreas, there is a circular space-occupying lesion without obvious fluorodeoxyglucose accumulation, which tends to be benign based on its MRI and metabolic characteristics. INTERVENTIONS: The patient refused further laboratory examination or ultrasound gastroscopy as there is no discomfort. OUTCOMES: No special discomfort was found in the patient after 6 months follow-up. LESSONS: If routine examination fails to diagnose benign or malignant pancreatic head occupying, and the patient refuses invasive examination, PET-MRI can be performed for identification.

The role of artificial intelligence based on PET/CT radiomics in NSCLC: Disease management, opportunities, and challenges.

Objectives: Lung cancer has been widely characterized through radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI). This review aims to summarize the published studies of AI based on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) radiomics in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and methods: A comprehensive search of literature published between 2012 and 2022 was conducted on the PubMed database. There were no language or publication status restrictions on the search. About 127 articles in the search results were screened and gradually excluded according to the exclusion criteria. Finally, this review included 39 articles for analysis. Results: Classification is conducted according to purposes and several studies were identified at each stage of disease:1) Cancer detection (n=8), 2) histology and stage of cancer (n=11), 3) metastases (n=6), 4) genotype (n=6), 5) treatment outcome and survival (n=8). There is a wide range of heterogeneity among studies due to differences in patient sources, evaluation criteria and workflow of radiomics. On the whole, most models show diagnostic performance comparable to or even better than experts, and the common problems are repeatability and clinical transformability. Conclusion: AI-based PET/CT Radiomics play potential roles in NSCLC clinical management. However, there is still a long way to go before being translated into clinical application. Large-scale, multi-center, prospective research is the direction of future efforts, while we need to face the risk of repeatability of radiomics features and the limitation of access to large databases.

Magnetic natural composite Fe3O4-chitosan@bentonite for removal of heavy metals from acid mine drainage.

Magnetic Fe3O4-chitosan@bentonite (Fe3O4-CS@BT) composites using natural materials were synthesized and used to remediate acid mine drainage (AMD) for heavy metal removal. It was found that the composites had a good magnetism, high stability and good performance in removal of Cr(VI) in the synthetic aqueous solutions. The thermodynamic parameters showed that Cr(VI) adsorption onto Fe3O4-CS@BT was an exothermic and spontaneous process. The adsorption kinetics was well described by a pseudo-second-order model, and the adsorption isotherms fit the Langmuir model with a maximum adsorption capacity of 62.1 mg/g at 25 °C. Solution pH was a key factor for adsorption and the optimized pH was 2.0. Fe3O4-CS@BT could be easily recycled through an external magnetic field and the adsorption capacity reduced by only 3% after five consecutive adsorption-desorption processes. In addition, Fe3O4-CS@BT was found to be an excellent adsorbent for actual AMD remediation containing Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe Zn, Ni and Pb, suggesting that the Fe3O4-CS@BT was an effective and economical adsorbent for the treatment of AMD.

The γ-aminobutyric acid type B (GABAB) receptor agonist baclofen inhibits morphine sensitization by decreasing the dopamine level in rat nucleus accumbens.

BACKGROUND: Repeated morphine exposure can induce behavioral sensitization. There are evidences have shown that central gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system is involved in morphine dependence. However, the effect of a GABAB receptor agonist baclofen on morphine-induced behavioral sensitization in rats is unclear. METHODS: We used morphine-induced behavioral sensitization model in rat to investigate the effects of baclofen on behavioral sensitization. Moreover, dopamine release in the shell of the nucleus accumbens was evaluated using microdialysis assay in vivo. RESULTS: The present study demonstrated that morphine challenge (3 mg/kg, s.c.) obviously enhanced the locomotor activity following 4-day consecutive morphine administration and 3-day withdrawal period, which indicated the expression of morphine sensitization. In addition, chronic treatment with baclofen (2.5, 5 mg/kg) significantly inhibited the development of morphine sensitization. It was also found that morphine challenge 3 days after repeated morphine administration produced a significant increase of extracellular dopamine release in nucleus accumbens. Furthermore, chronic treatment with baclofen decreased the dopamine release induced by morphine challenge. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that gamma-aminobutyric acid system plays an important role in the morphine sensitization in rat and suggested that behavioral sensitization is a promising model to study the mechanism underlying drug abuse.