From classroom to clinic: Biochemistry lab for pre-health majors.

Undergraduate laboratory courses are vital for both enhancing student learning and preparing students for their future careers. Despite their importance, laboratory courses are often met with a lack of enthusiasm from students. For pre-health students specifically, laboratory courses are commonly seen as part of a check-list that needs to be completed in order to achieve future education or a career, instead of seeing the information that is taught in laboratories as essential preparation. A one-semester biochemistry laboratory module was designed to demonstrate the real-life applications of experimental techniques. This laboratory module introduced students to common clinical measurements and included learning metabolite analysis through hands-on experiments, connections to simulated patient visits, generation of a research question, and implementation of a student-designed independent experiment. Surveys indicate that this approach was helpful in creating a greater understanding of the applicability of undergraduate laboratory concepts appealing specifically to pre-health students. Additionally, students found this module to provide a variety of gained benefits, knowledge, and confidence in performing scientific techniques. The outcomes of this laboratory module indicate its success and potential to be used in curricula as an effective way to engage pre-health students in an undergraduate biochemistry laboratory.

Dependence of Water-equivalent Diameter and Size-specific Dose Estimates on CT Tube Potential.

Background The size-specific dose estimate (SSDE) is a patient-focused CT dose metric. However, published size-dependent conversion factors (fsize) used to calculate SSDE were determined primarily by using phantoms; only eight to 15 patient data sets were used, all at 120 kV. Purpose To determine the effect of different tube potentials on the water-equivalent diameter (WED) and SSDE for patient CT scans of the head, chest, and abdomen. Materials and Methods This retrospective study used 250 noncontrast CT scans acquired between March 2013 and June 2017. Bony structures were segmented, and their CT numbers were modified to reflect bone attenuation at 70, 90, 110, 130, and 150 kV. Soft-tissue CT numbers were unchanged because of negligible energy dependence. fsize was measured in anthropomorphic phantoms for each tube potential and fit to an exponential function. WED and SSDE were determined for each patient at all tube potentials, regression analysis was performed relative to the WED and SSDE at 120 kV, and mean differences relative to 120 kV were calculated. Results In 250 patients (median age, 21.5 years; interquartile range, 44 years; 130 women), WED for all tube potentials was linearly related to the WED at 120 kV in all body regions (R2 = 0.995-1.000). The effect of tube potential on WED was negligible for torso examinations (Cohen d < 0.05). In the head, a medium effect size was observed at 70 kV; however, the mean absolute difference in WED was small (-0.49 cm ± 0.08 [standard deviation]; P < .001). For commonly used combinations of tube potential and patient size, the mean differences in SSDE at alternative tube potentials relative to SSDE at 120 kV were less than 5%. Conclusion At noncontrast CT, published size-dependent conversion factors accurately determined size-specific dose estimates on 250 patient scans at five tube potentials other than 120 kV. © RSNA, 2022 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Boone in this issue.

Reducing radiation dose for multi-phase contrast-enhanced dual energy renal CT: pilot study evaluating prior iterative reconstruction.

PURPOSE: Prior iterative reconstruction (PIR) uses spatial information from one phase of enhancement to reduce image noise in other phases. We sought to determine if PIR could reduce radiation dose while preserving observer performance and CT number at multi-phase dual energy (DE) renal CT. METHODS: CT projection data from multi-phase DE renal CT examinations were collected. Images corresponding to 40% radiation dose were reconstructed using validated noise insertion and PIR. Three genitourinary radiologists examined routine and 40% dose PIR images. Probability of malignancy was assessed [from 0 to 100] with malignancy assumed at probability ≥ 75. Observer performance was compared on a per patient and per lesion level. CT number accuracy was measured. RESULTS: Twenty-three patients had 49 renal lesions (11 solid renal neoplasms). CT number was nearly identical between techniques (mean CT number difference: unenhanced 2 ± 2 HU; enhanced 4 ± 4 HU). AUC for malignancy was similar between multi-phase routine dose DE and lower dose PIR images [per patient: 0.950 vs. 0.916 (p = 0.356); per lesion: 0.931 vs. 0.884 (p = 0.304)]. Per patient sensitivity was also similar (78% routine dose vs. 82% lower dose [p ≥ 0.99]), as was specificity (91% routine dose vs. 93% lower dose PIR [p > 0.99]), with similar findings on a per lesion level. Subjective image quality was also similar (p = 0.34). CONCLUSIONS: Prior iterative reconstruction is a new reconstruction method for multi-phase CT examinations that promises to facilitate radiation dose reduction by over 50% for multi-phase DE renal CT exams without compromising CT number or observer performance.