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Abstract Objectives To investigate the feasibility of a deep learning-constrained compressed sensing (DL-CS) method in non-contrast-enhanced modified DIXON (mDIXON) coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and compare its diagnostic accuracy using coronary CT angiography (CCTA) as a reference standard. Methods Ninety-nine participants were prospectively recruited for this study. Thirty healthy subjects (age range: 20–65 years; 50% female) underwent three non-contrast mDIXON-based coronary MRA sequences including DL-CS, CS, and conventional sequences. The three groups were compared based on the scan time, subjective image quality score, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). The remaining 69 patients suspected of coronary artery disease (CAD) (age range: 39–83 years; 51% female) underwent the DL-CS coronary MRA and its diagnostic performance was compared with that of CCTA. Results The scan time for the DL-CS and CS sequences was notably shorter than that of the conventional sequence (9.6 ± 3.1 min vs 10.0 ± 3.4 min vs 13.0 ± 4.9 min; p

PurposeTo compare the ability of diffusion parameters obtained by stretched-exponential and kurtosis models of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to distinguish between patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) and healthy controls (HCs) in renal assessment.Materials and methodsA total of 44 participants (22 patients and 22 HCs) underwent renal MRI with an 11 b-value DWI sequence and a 3 b-value diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) sequence from June 2021 to April 2022. Binary logistic regression was used to construct regression models combining different diffusion parameters. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and comparisons were used to evaluate the ability of single diffusion parameters and combined diffusion models to distinguish between the two groups.ResultsA total of six diffusion parameters (including the cortical anomalous exponent term [α_Cortex], medullary fractional anisotropy [FA_Medulla], cortical FA [FA_Cortex], cortical axial diffusivity [Da_Cortex], medullary mean diffusivity [MD_Medulla] and medullary radial diffusivity [Dr_Medulla]) were included, and 10 regression models were studied. The area under the curve (AUC) of Dr_Medulla was 0.855, comparable to that of FA_Cortex and FA_Medulla and significantly higher than that of α_Cortex, Da_Cortex and MD_Medulla. The AUC of the Model_all parameters was 0.967, comparable to that of Model_FA (0.946) and Model_DKI (0.966) and significantly higher than that of the other models. The sensitivity and specificity of Model_all parameters were 87.2% and 95%, respectively.ConclusionThe Model_all parameters, Model_FA and Model_DKI were valid for differentiating between PA patients and HCs with similar differentiation efficacy and were superior to single diffusion parameters and other models.

Microplastic pollution in soil and its toxicological effects have attracted increasing attention from researchers, but the mechanisms of microplastics affecting crop growth and physiology remain unclear. A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the impacts of various mass concentrations (0%, 0.2%, 5%, and 10%) of low-density polyethylene microplastics (LDPE MPs) on the germination rate, photosynthetic pigment content, biomass, antioxidant enzyme activity, soluble protein, and soluble sugar content of water spinach ( Ipomoea aquatica Forsk). The results showed that LDPE MPs significantly inhibited ( P <0.05) the seed vigor of water spinach, and the inhibitory effect increased with increasing concentration of LDPE MPs. However, the 5% LDPE MPs significantly promoted the aboveground biomass of water spinach. The 0.2% and 10% LDPE MPs significantly improved the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) activities, respectively. Further, malondialdehyde (MDA) content decreased with increasing concentration of LDPE MPs, and the reductions reached 15.53%-27.39% in comparison to that in the control. The LDPE MPs also significantly increased the soluble sugar content of water spinach leaves. In summary, LDPE MPs could inhibit the seed vigor and promote biomass accumulation in water spinach. Water spinach could relieve the oxidative stress caused by LDPE MPs by regulating antioxidant enzyme activity and soluble protein content. Therefore, this study may provide basic information for assessing the influences of microplastics on vegetables.