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This study compares the readout-segmented echo-planar imaging (rsEPI) from the conventional single-shot EPI (ssEPI) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for the discrimination of patients with clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) within the peripheral zone (PZ) using apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps and pathology report from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted biopsy. We queried a retrospective monocentric database of patients with targeted biopsy. csPCa patients were defined as an International Society of Urological Pathology grade group ≥ 2. Group-level analyses and diagnostic accuracy of mean ADC values (ADCmean) within the tumor volume were assessed from Kruskal–Wallis tests and receiving operating characteristic curves, respectively. Areas under the curve (AUC) and optimal cut-off values were calculated. 159 patients (105 rsEPI, 54 ssEPI; mean age ± standard deviation: 65 ± 8 years) with 3T DWI, PZ lesions and targeted biopsy were selected. Both DWI sequences showed significantly lower ADCmean values for patients with csPCa. The rsEPI sequence better discriminates patients with csPCa (AUCrsEPI = 0.84, AUCssEPI = 0.68, p < 0.05) with an optimal cut-off value of 1232 μm2/s associated with a sensitivity–specificity of 97%-63%. Our study showed that the rsEPI DWI sequence enhances the discrimination of patients with csPCa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aims of this retrospective study were to report the short‐ and long‐term outcome in cats treated for pyothorax and to identify prognostic indicators as well as determine recurrence rate. Methods: Medical records from April 2009 to August 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Cases were included if a diagnosis of pyothorax was confirmed via cytology and/or culture of pleural fluid. Cats diagnosed with or suspected of having other thoracic diseases and cats with no evidence of pleural effusion were excluded from the study. Results: Fifty‐five cats met the inclusion criteria. Eighty five percent (n=47) cats underwent medical management with thoracostomy tubes, pleural lavage and broad‐spectrum antibiotics. Fifteen percent (n=5) cases failed medical treatment and underwent thoracotomy. Twenty eight percent (n=13) did not survive to hospital discharge. Short‐term survival (14 days) was achieved in 72% (n=34). Long‐term follow‐up was available for 31 of 34 with a long‐term survival rate of 68% (n=30). The recurrence rate was 6% (n=2). Conclusion: For cats with pyothorax that survive to discharge the prognosis is excellent and the condition is associated with a low recurrence rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: We aim to compare machine learning with neural network performance in predicting R0 resection (R0), length of stay > 14 days (LOS), major complication rates at 30 days postoperatively (COMP) and survival greater than 1 year (SURV) for patients having pelvic exenteration for locally advanced and recurrent rectal cancer. Method: A deep learning computer was built and the programming environment was established. The PelvEx Collaborative database was used which contains anonymized data on patients who underwent pelvic exenteration for locally advanced or locally recurrent colorectal cancer between 2004 and 2014. Logistic regression, a support vector machine and an artificial neural network (ANN) were trained. Twenty per cent of the data were used as a test set for calculating prediction accuracy for R0, LOS, COMP and SURV. Model performance was measured by plotting receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and calculating the area under the ROC curve (AUROC). Results: Machine learning models and ANNs were trained on 1147 cases. The AUROC for all outcome predictions ranged from 0.608 to 0.793 indicating modest to moderate predictive ability. The models performed best at predicting LOS > 14 days with an AUROC of 0.793 using preoperative and operative data. Visualized logistic regression model weights indicate a varying impact of variables on the outcome in question. Conclusion: This paper highlights the potential for predictive modelling of large international databases. Current data allow moderate predictive ability of both complex ANNs and more classic methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: At presentation, 15–20% of patients with rectal cancer already have synchronous liver metastases. The aim of this study was to determine the surgical and survival outcomes in patients with advanced rectal cancer who underwent combined pelvic exenteration and liver (oligometastatic) resection. Method: Data from 20 international institutions that performed simultaneous pelvic exenteration and liver resection between 2007 and 2017 were accumulated. Primarily, we examined perioperative outcomes, morbidity and mortality. We also assessed the impact that margin status had on survival. Results: Of 128 patients, 72 (56.2%) were men with a median age of 60 years [interquartile range (IQR) 15 years]. The median size of the liver oligometastatic deposits was 2 cm (IQR 1.8 cm). The median duration of surgery was 406 min (IQR 240 min), with a median blood loss of 1090 ml (IQR 2010 ml). A negative resection margin (R0 resection) was achieved in 73.5% of pelvic exenterations and 66.4% of liver resections. The 30‐day mortality rate was 1.6%, and 32% of patients had a major postoperative complication. The 5‐year overall survival for patients in whom an R0 resection of both primary and metastatic disease was achieved was 54.6% compared with 20% for those with an R1/R2 resection (P = 0.006). Conclusion: Simultaneous pelvic exenteration and liver resection is feasible, with acceptable morbidity and mortality. Simultaneous resection should only be performed where an R0 resection of both pelvic and hepatic disease is anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic pancreatitis is an inflammatory process of the pancreas characterized by progressive parenchyma destruction, resulting in pain and exocrine and endocrine insufficiency. In the advanced stages the diagnosis by imaging is usually straightforward, while in the early phases of the disease there can be a paucity of findings at imaging, thus making an early diagnosis challenging. Different imaging modalities can have a role in the initial diagnosis and in the longitudinal follow-up of patients affected by chronic pancreatitis, also enabling to assess the complications of the disease. Radiography, Ultrasonography, CT and MRI can all provide morphological information, and MRI with the administration of secretin can also provide functional information. The use of an appropriate technique is fundamental for optimizing the examination to the clinical question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To develop a consensus and provide updated recommendations on liver MR imaging and the clinical use of liver-specific contrast agents.Methods: The European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) formed a multinational European panel of experts, selected on the basis of a literature review and their leadership in the field of liver MR imaging. A modified Delphi process was adopted to draft a list of statements. Descriptive and Cronbach's statistics were used to rate levels of agreement and internal reliability of the consensus.Results: Three Delphi rounds were conducted and 76 statements composed on MR technique (n = 17), clinical application of liver-specific contrast agents in benign, focal liver lesions (n = 7), malignant liver lesions in non-cirrhotic (n = 9) and in cirrhotic patients (n = 18), diffuse and vascular liver diseases (n = 12), and bile ducts (n = 13). The overall mean score of agreement was 4.84 (SD ±0.17). Full consensus was reached in 22 % of all statements in all working groups, with no full consensus reached on diffuse and vascular diseases.Conclusions: The consensus provided updated recommendations on the methodology, and clinical indications, of MRI with liver specific contrast agents in the study of liver diseases.Key Points: • Liver-specific contrast agents are recommended in MRI of the liver. • The hepatobiliary phase improves the detection and characterization of hepatocellular lesions. • Liver-specific contrast agents can improve the detection of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metal pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems nowadays. The removal of heavy metals from wastewaters has attracted a considerable attention because of their adverse effects on public health and ecosystems. The main objective of this work was to investigate the efficiency of the coupling of infiltration-percolation process with adsorption on activated carbon in the removal of heavy metals contained in urban wastewater effluents. The adsorption of heavy metals on a commercial sample of activated carbon was studied in a static mode. Several laboratory experiments made it possible to distinguish the optimum quantity of powdered activated carbon necessary to remove a large range of heavy metals. Results showed that the equilibrium of the adsorption was reached very quickly for cadmium (Cd2+), i.e., after 15 min of contact with the activated carbon. On the other hand, the equilibrium of zinc (Zn2+), lead (Pb2+) and copper (Cu2+) was achieved after 45 min. The withdrawal rates were 70.77% for Zn2+, 64.75% for Pb2+, 67.07% for Cu2+ and 78.42% for Cd2+. The adsorption isotherms determined for Zn2+, Pb2+, Cu2+ were of type I, while the shape of the Cd2+ curve showed a type II isotherm. These isotherms confirm the capacity of the powdered activated carbon to adsorb cadmium better than the other studied heavy metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of sand/granular activated charcoal mixture medium to treat urban wastewater effluents. Several laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the best combination ratio of sand/activated charcoal which would allow the optimum water purification. A comparative study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of the addition of activated charcoal on infiltration-percolation efficiency. Experiments demonstrated that fortifying sand medium with granular activated charcoal improved the pollutants removal efficiencies. Results showed that a combination ratio of 3:1 (by volume) of sand and granular activated charcoal gave the best depuration efficiency regarding organic matter, nitrogen and orthophosphorous. The mean removal rates of COD, NH-N and PO-P were 83.29, 95.85 and 65.21%, respectively. Furthermore, experiments demonstrated that a mixture of sand/activated charcoal in a 3:1 ratio resulted in the optimum oxidation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The launch of ENVISAT in 2002 and the launch of MetTop-A in 2006 put two highly accurate instruments in space to measure Top of Atmosphere (TOA) radiances. These instruments are the AATSR and IASI. While the AATSR, by design is a climate accurate (i.e. accuracy within 0.1 K and stability within 0.05 Kdec-1) instrument, the IASI is a hyperspectral instrument that has a stated accuracy of within 0.5 K. This accuracy and stability are used in producing climate CDR's from these instruments and also aids in using these instruments as benchmarks for inter-comparison studies that aim at measuring stability and accuracy of instruments that are concurrently flying with them. The GSICS (Global Space Based Inter-Calibration System) has extensively exploited the IASI by comparing its measurements with Polar as well as Geostationary satellite instruments and measuring the in-orbit stability and accuracy of these instruments. More recent re-calibration efforts, such as the NOAA CDR project that is aimed at recalibrating the AVHRR uses the IASI and the AATSR as references. However to trust the recalibrated radiances it is vital that the in-orbit accuracy of the reference sources is known and critical issues such as scan angle dependence, and temporal variation of the accuracy are fully evaluated across a large temperature range (200-300 K). In order to better understand the accuracy and asses the trustworthiness of these references we present here a comprehensive analysis of the AATSR-IASI bias derived from their collocated pixels, over the period January 2008 through March 2011. Our analysis indicates that generally the AATSR (Nadir View) and IASI can act as good reference instruments and IASI is much more accurate than its design specification. In fact, taking into account a small bias the AATSR-IASI bias is close to the AATSR pre-launch bias implying that IASI can get close to pre-launch levels of accuracy. We also examine temperature dependent bias in the AATSR at low (< 240 K) temperatures which seems to appear after orbit was lowered of the ENVISAT satellite and its inclination control was discontinued. In addition, a very small scan angular dependence of AATSR-IASI bias indicates that the AVHRR has a scan angle dependent bias. We also examine the bias problem with the 12 μm channel of the AATSR in detail. We show that this bias not only has a temperature dependence (it grows up to 0.4 K at low temperatures) but also has a seasonal dependence in the SST (265-300 K) temperature range and is highly correlated to instrument temperature in the cold temperature range. We then discuss a possible method to correct the 11 and the 12 μm bias so as to use the corrected radiances for re-calibration of AVHRR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrological Sciences Journal/Journal des Sciences Hydrologiques is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is a popular laboratory animal and is used in a multitude of behavioural studies. However, it has been shown that it suffers from different forms of hereditary hydrocephalus, which may result in behavioural changes. This prospective study was designed to look into the usefulness of electroencephalography (EEG) measurements in the diagnosis of hydrocephalus in hamsters. The EEGs of the hydrocephalic hamsters were evaluated double-blind and showed a high-voltage slow wave activity, with a fast activity superimposed onto it. This pattern has already been well described in other hydrocephalic species and differed significantly from the EEGs that were obtained from the normal hamsters. It was concluded from our study that a background activity with an amplitude over 50 μV in combination with a frequency of ≤5 Hz was highly indicative of hydrocephalus in young hamsters. We believe that the EEG could be a very useful diagnostic tool in the screening for hydrocephalus in hamsters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to quantify pancreatic exocrine function in normal subjects and in patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) before and after pancreatic duct drainage procedures (PDDP) with dynamic secretin-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) cholangiopancreatography (S-MRCP). Pancreatic exocrine secretions [quantified by pancreatic flow output (PFO) and total excreted volume (TEV)] were quantified twice in ten healthy volunteers and before and after treatment in 20 CP patients (18 classified as severe, one as moderate, and one as mild according to the Cambridge classification). PFO and TEV were derived from a linear regression between MR-calculated volumes and time. In all subjects, pancreatic exocrine fluid volume initially increased linearly with time during secretin stimulation. In controls, the mean PFO and TEV were 6.8 ml/min and 97 ml; intra-individual deviations were 0.8 ml/min and 16 ml. In 10/20 patients with impaired exocrine secretions before treatment, a significant increase of PFO and TEV was observed after treatment (P<0.05); 3/20 patients presented post-procedural acute pancreatitis and a reduced PFO. The S-MRCP quantification method used in the present study is reproducible and provides normal values for PFO and TEV in the range of those obtained from previous published intubation studies. The initial results in CP patients have demonstrated non-invasively a significant short-term improvement of PFO and TEV after PDDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have suggested an important role for the protein tyrosine kinase p56(lck)(Lck) in HIV infection; however, the exact nature of this role remains unclear. Using a series of well characterized Jurkat-derived cell lines having a wide range of Lck kinase activity, our results showed that, while the entry of HIV-1 into these cell lines was similar, the kinetics of virus production by these cells were very different. Cells expressing a kinase-inactive Lck showed accelerated viral replication, whereas, cells expressing Lck with normal or elevated enzymatic activity showed a delay in virus replication that was proportional to the initial level of endogenous Lck activity. The cell line having the highest initial Lck kinase activity showed the slowest rate of productive HIV-1 infection. Analysis of 2-LTR circles revealed that this inhibitory effect of Lck was not due to inhibition of reverse transcription of HIV-1 genome or migration of the proviral DNA into the nuclei. This affect of Lck was confirmed in additional studies that used either the S1T cell line lacking completely Lck or where the Lck activity was altered in Jurkat cells prior to infection. S1T cells showed a 3- to 12-fold increase in the level of infection compared to Jurkat cells despite similar CD4 and chemokine coreceptor expression and cell doubling times. Pretreatment of Jurkat with an antisenselck oligodeoxynucleotide inhibited the synthesis of functional Lck and facilitated the viral replication by the cells as did expressing a dominant-negative mutant Lck which increased the productive infection >3-fold. Conversely, whereas IL-16 had no affect on productive infection in S1T cells that lack Lck, IL-16 pretreatment of Jurkat cells resulted in an immediate (within 5 min) and sustained and gradual (over 5 h) increase in Lck activity that resulted in a reduction of HIV-1 replication that paralleled the increasing Lck kinase activity. These results show that the enzymatic activity of Lck... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Microchimica Acta is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We describe one patient with localized Castleman's disease (CD) of the mixed hyaline vascular and plasma cell type located at the mesentery of the small bowel, associated with systemic amyloidosis and nephrotic syndrome. A true nephrotic syndrome has rarely been reported in patients with CD. In the literature, it has been suggested that clinical and laboratory manifestations generally improved after surgical resection of the tumor. However, in our case, clinical and laboratory findings did not regress after operation followed by colchicine therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the problem of gastric perforation complication which arises due to direct current cardioversion. Electrical cardioversion is recommended in atrial flutter or fibrillation. A 79 year old woman developed gastric perforation after a unique external shock of 200 J for cardioversion of an atrial fibrillation. Computed tomography analysis was also done.