PET-guided attention for prediction of microvascular invasion in preoperative hepatocellular carcinoma on PET/CT.

PURPOSE: To achieve PET/CT-based preoperative prediction of microvascular invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma by combining the advantages of PET and CT. METHODS: This retrospective study included a total of 100 patients from two institutions who underwent PET/CT imaging. The above patients were divided into a training cohort (n = 70) and a validation cohort (n = 30). This study was based on PET/CT images to evaluate the possibility of microvascular invasion (MVI) of patients. In this study, we proposed a two-branch PET-guided attention network to predict MVI. The model used a two-branch network to extract image features from PET and CT, respectively. The PET-guided attention module aimed to enable the model to focus on the lesion region and reduce the disturbance of irrelevant and redundant information. Model performance was evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: The method outperformed the single-modality prediction model for preoperative hepatocyte microvascular invasion, achieving an AUC of 0.907. On the validation set, accuracy reached 0.846, precision reached 0.881, recall 0.793, and F1-score 0.835. CONCLUSION: The model exploits the particularities of the molecular metabolic function of PET and the anatomical structure of CT and can strongly improve the accuracy of clinical diagnosis of MVI.

FDG PET/CT in a Case With Cellular Schwannoma of the Kidney.

ABSTRACT: Schwannoma of the kidney is exceedingly rare. We describe contrast-enhanced CT and FDG PET/CT findings in a case with renal cellular schwannoma. Contrast-enhanced CT showed the enhancing tumor was located in the anterior middle portion of the left kidney, encasing the renal vessels and compressing the renal pelvis. The tumor showed inhomogeneous FDG uptake with SUV max of 8.6 mimicking renal cell carcinoma. This case indicates renal schwannoma should be included in the differential diagnosis of FDG-avid renal lesions.

Preoperative clinical-radiomics nomogram for microvascular invasion prediction in hepatocellular carcinoma using [Formula: see text]F-FDG PET/CT.

PURPOSE: To develop a clinical-radiomics nomogram by incorporating radiomics score and clinical predictors for preoperative prediction of microvascular invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS: A total of 97 HCC patients were retrospectively enrolled from Shanghai Universal Medical Imaging Diagnostic Center and Changhai Hospital Affiliated to the Second Military Medical University. 909 CT and 909 PET slicers from 97 HCC patients were divided into a training cohort (N = 637) and a validation cohort (N = 272). Radiomics features were extracted from each CT or PET slicer, and features selection was performed with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression and radiomics score was also generated. The clinical-radiomics nomogram was established by integrating radiomics score and clinical predictors, and the performance of the models were evaluated from its discrimination ability, calibration ability, and clinical usefulness. RESULTS: The radiomics score consisted of 45 selected features, and age, the ratio of maximum to minimum tumor diameter, and [Formula: see text]F-FDG uptake status were independent predictors of microvascular invasion. The clinical-radiomics nomogram showed better performance for MVI detection (0.890 [0.854, 0.927]) than the clinical nomogram (0.849 [0.804, 0.893]) ([Formula: see text]). Both nomograms showed good calibration and the clinical-radiomics nomogram's clinical practicability outperformed the clinical nomogram. CONCLUSIONS: With the combination of radiomics score and clinical predictors, the clinical-radiomics nomogram can significantly improve the predictive efficacy of microvascular invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma ([Formula: see text]) compared with clinical nomogram.

FDG PET/CT in a Case of Diffuse Esophageal Adenocarcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Esophageal cancer usually shows focal intense FDG uptake on FDG PET. Diffuse FDG uptake pattern of the esophageal cancer has been rarely reported. We describe FDG PET/CT findings in a case of esophageal adenocarcinoma showing diffusely intense FDG uptake mimicking esophagitis.

FDG-Avid Sclerosing Adenosis of the Breast Mimicking Malignancy.

ABSTRACT: Sclerosing adenosis is a common benign proliferative disorder of the breast. We describe FDG PET/CT findings in a case of sclerosing adenosis showing focal intense FDG uptake mimicking malignancy. This case indicates that sclerosing adenosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of focal breast FDG accumulation along with malignant and nonmalignant conditions.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma activation attenuates diabetic cardiomyopathy via regulation of the TGF-ß/ERK pathway and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a kind of disease caused by metabolic disorders and microangiopathy. The main pathophysiological changes of DCM include fibrosis, myocardial cell apoptosis and autonomic neuropathy. Therefore, treatment aimed at these processes may benefit patients with DCM. We designed an experiment with the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ) agonist GW 1929 to detect whether the activation of PPARγ could alleviate the degree of DCM. To further detect the mechanism of PPARγ in DCM, we used the PPARγ antagonist GW 9662 and ERK antagonist PD 098059 both in vitro and in vivo and found that PPARγ functioned by inhibiting ERK. We also performed Western blot, PCR, ELISA, immunohistochemistry, TUNEL assay, Sirius red staining and gelatin zymography to investigate inflammation, apoptosis, MMP activity and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The results showed that the activation of PPARγ inhibited these reactions and inhibiting ERK also simulated this phenomenon. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that PPARγ activation in the diabetic myocardium of mice reduces myocardial fibrosis via regulation of the TGF-ß/ERK pathway and EMT.

Cross-modality PET/CT and contrast-enhanced CT imaging for pancreatic cancer.

AIM: To explore the diagnostic value of the cross-modality fusion images provided by positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) for pancreatic cancer (PC). METHODS: Data from 70 patients with pancreatic lesions who underwent CECT and PET/CT examinations at our hospital from August 2010 to October 2012 were analyzed. PET/CECT for the cross-modality image fusion was obtained using TureD software. The diagnostic efficiencies of PET/CT, CECT and PET/CECT were calculated and compared with each other using a χ(2) test. P < 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS: Of the total 70 patients, 50 had PC and 20 had benign lesions. The differences in the sensitivity, negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy between CECT and PET/CECT in detecting PC were statistically significant (P < 0.05 for each). In 15 of the 31 patients with PC who underwent a surgical operation, peripancreatic vessel invasion was verified. The differences in the sensitivity, positive predictive value, NPV, and accuracy of CECT vs PET/CT and PET/CECT vs PET/CT in diagnosing peripancreatic vessel invasion were statistically significant (P < 0.05 for each). In 19 of the 31 patients with PC who underwent a surgical operation, regional lymph node metastasis was verified by postsurgical histology. There was no statistically significant difference among the three methods in detecting regional lymph node metastasis (P > 0.05 for each). In 17 of the 50 patients with PC confirmed by histology or clinical follow-up, distant metastasis was confirmed. The differences in the sensitivity and NPV between CECT and PET/CECT in detecting distant metastasis were statistically significant (P < 0.05 for each). CONCLUSION: Cross-modality image fusion of PET/CT and CECT is a convenient and effective method that can be used to diagnose and stage PC, compensating for the defects of PET/CT and CECT when they are conducted individually.

[Determination of prometryne residue in shellfish by gas chromatography].

OBJECTIVE: To develop a method of gas chromatography (GC) for determining residues of promtryne in shellfish. METHODS: The sample was extracted with ethyl acetate, and cleaned-up with Envi-Carb SPE cartridge, alumina-N SPE cartridge, and determined by GC-FPD with DB - 1701 capillary chromatographic column (30 m x0.53 .mm x 0.5µm). RESULTS: Good linear was obtained in the concentration range of 0.10-0.96µg/ml with a correlation coefficient of 0. 999. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.0037 mg/kg and limit of quantity (LOQ) was 0.010 mg/kg. The average recoveries was 83. 7% - 102. 0% and relative standard deviations (RSD) was 0. 54% - 8.14% CONCLUSION: The method is simple, fast and credible, so it can be applied to determination of prometryne in shellfish.