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Liver disease affects millions of people worldwide and auto-immune disease in particular has unmet needs for improvement of non-invasive methods for risk-stratification. Especially in cases where clinical markers are inconclusive. In this study we develop novel imaging features for quantitative MRI and show that these features improve the differentiation of AIH from biliary disease in challenging cases, where including imaging features with clinical markers improved the AUROC from 0.76 to 0.85.

OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D intake from foods or supplements is a safe and attractive means to improve vitamin D status of populations. The aim of this study was to help identify population subgroups that would benefit most from efforts to increase intake. To do so, we investigated which personal characteristics are associated with vitamin D intake in an Australian population and modeled possible effects of expanded food fortification practices. METHODS: We investigated vitamin D intake in a population-based random sample of 785 adults, using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and assessed associations with personal and behavioral characteristics. We identified vitamin D food sources and modeled the hypothetical effects of blanket fortification of milk and breakfast cereals. RESULTS: Average total vitamin D intake was 4.4 (+/-4.0) mug/g and below adequate intake for most participants in all age and sex subgroups. Higher intake was associated with being female, having a serious medical condition, energy intake below the median, and vitamin D supplement use (all P < 0.05). The "meat, fish, and eggs" food group contributed most to total vitamin D intake (51%), followed by dairy products and related foods (43%). If all milk and breakfast cereals were to be fortified with vitamin D, the average intake of vitamin D from foods would increase from 3.6 (+/-2.4) mug/d to 6.3 (+/-3.2) mug/d, with similar increases in all age and sex subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D intake in Australia is generally below recommended levels, and few personal characteristics help to identify subgroups with low intake. Blanket vitamin D fortification of milk and breakfast cereals would substantially increase average vitamin D intake in Australian adults of all ages.

OBJECTIVE: Claims have been made that sun protection may negatively affect vitamin D status, but very few data are available about whether this applies to people in uncontrolled settings. METHOD: In 1996 we measured 25(OH)-vitamin D concentrations in 1113 adults in Nambour, a subtropical community, who reported their concurrent sun protection behaviours in a skin cancer prevention trial. Estimates were adjusted for time outdoors, vitamin D intake and other factors known to affect vitamin D status. RESULTS: Persons who tended to stay in the shade had lower vitamin D levels than those who never stayed in the shade (62.5 vs. 68.8 nmol/L respectively, p=0.01), and this association remained in persons who spent less than 50% (p=0.02) but not in those who spent more than 50% of their time outdoors. Wearing a hat, long sleeves, sunglasses and use of sunscreen or umbrella were not associated with vitamin D status after adjustments, including after stratification by time outdoors. CONCLUSION: Sun protection behaviour to reduce the risk of skin cancer can be maintained without affecting vitamin D serum status, although consistently seeking shade when spending less than 50% of daytime outdoors is associated with lower vitamin D levels.