Are ADC values of readout-segmented echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging (RESOLVE) correlated with pathological prognostic factors in rectal adenocarcinoma?

BACKGROUND: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values as imaging biomarkers of rectal cancer are currently a hot research spot. The use of ADC values for preoperative judgment of pathological features in rectal cancer has been generally accepted. The image quality evaluation of conventional diffusion is severe deformation, and the measurement of ADC values can easily lead to bias. Readout-segmented echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging (RESOLVE) provides high signal-to-noise ratio images and significantly reduces distortions caused by magnetosensitive effects. The purpose of this study was to explore the correlations between ADC values of RESOLVE and pathological prognostic factors in rectal adenocarcinoma. METHODS: We collected pathological data of 89 patients with pathologically confirmed rectal adenocarcinoma who directly underwent surgical resection without receiving adjuvant therapy. The patients were grouped according to the pathologic type, gross classification, degree of differentiation, TN stage, and immunohistochemical expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). RESULTS: RESOLVE ADC values of rectal cancer were measured at b = 800, and correlations between the RESOLVE ADC values obtained in different groups were analysed. We found that RESOLVE ADC values in the ulcer-type group were significantly higher than those in the eminence-type group. CONCLUSION: RESOLVE ADC values in different pathologic types of rectal cancer were significantly different. RESOLVE ADC values in the EGFR-positive group were significantly lower than those in the EGFR-negative group. There was no significant difference in RESOLVE ADC values between different degrees of pathologic differentiation, TN stages, and positive or negative lymph nodes. The quantitative description of RESOLVE ADC values could be used to assess the biological behaviour of rectal adenocarcinoma.

Determination of gamithromycin in an injection by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

In this study, a sensitive and precise method was developed for the determination of gamithromycin in an injection using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) and the results were compared with a similar analysis for the ion fragments of gamithromycin in MS/ MS. The sample was dissolved in methanol then filtered and separated on a C18 column using acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid (containing 2 mmol/L ammonium acetate) as the mobile phase. The flow rate was 0.4 mL/min and the column temperature was 40 °C. The mass spectrometry conditions were electrospray ionization (ESI) operated in positive ion full scan mode and quantified using external calibration. Subsequently, ion fragments of the MS/MS were compared and analyzed. The linear range was 10 ∼ 200 µg/L with a correlation coefficient of 0.9992. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.77 µg/L and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 2.55 µg/L. The average recoveries of the intra-assay were 98.8%-105.6% with a relative standard deviation ranging from 1.79% to 2.38% and the inter-assay were 89.3%-110.7% with a relative standard deviation ranging from 4.93% to 6.27%. After the comparative analysis of the fragments with a Molecular Structure Correlator, the score of the total matching degree reached 83.19 and the scores of each ion fragment matching degree were all greater than 90, which supplied the basis for the confirmation of gamithromycin. The results indicated that the method was simple, sensitive and precise and could be applied in the determination of gamithromycin in real samples.