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Background Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease in which cerebral structural impairment is a consistent feature. Purpose To investigate cerebral microstructural changes in ALS using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) for the first time. Study type Prospective. Subjects Eighteen ALS patients and 20 healthy controls. Field strength/sequence DKI images were obtained by a spin-echo echo-planar imaging sequence on a 3T MRI scanner, with three b-values (0, 1000, and 2000 s/mm2 ) and 64 diffusion encoding directions. Assessment The revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) was administered to assess disease severity, and the symptom duration and disease progression rate were also recorded. Voxel-based analysis was applied to examine the alteration of DKI metrics (ie, mean kurtosis metrics [MK], axial kurtosis [AK], and radial kurtosis [RK]) and the conventional diffusion metrics (ie, fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity). Statistical tests Student's t-test, chi-square test, and Pearson correlation analysis. Results ALS patients showed MK reductions in gray matter areas, including the bilateral precentral gyrus, bilateral paracentral lobule, and left anterior cingulate gyrus; they also showed decreased MK values in white matter (WM) in the bilateral precentral gyrus, bilateral corona radiata, bilateral middle corpus callosum, left occipital lobe, and right superior parietal lobule. The spatial distribution of the regions with reduced RK was similar to those with decreased MK. No significant AK difference was found between groups. The correlation analysis revealed significant associations between DKI metrics and clinical assessments such as ALSFRS-R score and disease duration. Additionally, several WM regions showed between-group differences in conventional diffusion metrics; but the spatial extent was smaller than that with reduced DKI metrics. Data conclusion The reduction in DKI metrics indicates decreased microstructural complexity in ALS, involving both motor-related areas and extramotor regions. DKI metrics can serve as potential biomarkers for assessing disease severity. Level of evidence 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2020;51:554-562.

Background Atherosclerosis is a chronical inflammatory disease in arterial walls, which is involved in oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. Aromatherapy is one of the complementary therapies that use essential oils as the major therapeutic agents to treat several diseases. Citronellal (CT) is a monoterpene predominantly formed by the secondary metabolism of plants, producing antithrombotic, antiplatelet, and antihypertensive activities. Aim The aim of the present study is to explore whether aromatherapy with CT improves endothelial function to prevent the formation of atherosclerotic plaque in vivo. Methods An AS model in carotid artery was induced by balloon injury and vitamin D3 injection in rats fed with a high-fat diet. The size of the carotid atherosclerotic plaque was determined by ultrasound, oil red, and hematoxylin-eosin staining. Endothelial function was assessed by measuring acetylcholine-induced vessel relaxation in an organ chamber. Results Administrations of CT (50, 100, and 150 mg/kg) as well as lovastatin dramatically reduced the size of carotid atherosclerotic plaque in rats in a dose-dependent manner, compared with atherosclerotic rats fed with a high-fat diet plus balloon injury and vitamin D3. Mechanically, CT improved endothelial dysfunction, increased cell migration, and suppressed oxidative stress and inflammation in vascular endothelium in rats feeding on the high-fat diet plus balloon injury. Further, CT downregulated the protein levels of sodium-hydrogen exchanger 1 in rats with atherosclerosis. Conclusion CT improves endothelial dysfunction and prevents the growth of atherosclerosis in rats by reducing oxidative stress. Clinically, CT is potentially considered as a medicine to treat patients with atherosclerosis.

Acoustic holograms have promising applications in sound-field reconstruction, particle manipulation, ultrasonic haptics and therapy. This paper reports on the theoretical, numerical, and experimental investigation of multiplexed acoustic holograms at both audio and ultrasonic frequencies via a rationally designed transmission-type acoustic metamaterial. The proposed meta-hologram is composed of two Fabry-Perot resonant channels per unit cell, which enables the simultaneous modulation of the transmitted amplitude and phase at two desired frequencies. In contrast to conventional acoustic metamaterial-based holograms, the design strategy proposed here, provides a new degree of freedom (frequency) that can actively tailor holograms that are otherwise completely passive and hence significantly enhances the information encoded in acoustic metamaterials. To demonstrate the multiplexed acoustic metamaterial, we first show the projection of two different high-quality meta-holograms at 14 kHz and 17 kHz, with the patterns of the letters, N and S. We then demonstrate two-channel ultrasound focusing and annular beams generation for the incident ultrasonic frequencies of 35 kHz and 42.5 kHz. These multiplexed acoustic meta-holograms offer a technical advance to tackle the rising challenges in the fields of acoustic metamaterials, architectural acoustics, and medical ultrasound.

The integration of an injectable insulin-encapsulated nano-network with a focused ultrasound system (FUS) can remotely regulate insulin release both in vitro and in vivo. A single subcutaneous injection of the nano-network with intermittent FUS administration facilitates reduction of the blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetic mice for up to 10 d.

MR thermometry can be a very challenging application, as good resolution may be needed along spatial, temporal, and temperature axes. Given that the heated foci produced during thermal therapies are typically much smaller than the anatomy being imaged, much of the imaged field-of-view is not actually being heated and may not require temperature monitoring. In this work, many-fold improvements were obtained in terms of temporal resolution and/or 3D spatial coverage by sacrificing some of the in-plane spatial coverage. To do so, three fast-imaging approaches were jointly implemented with a spoiled gradient echo sequence: (1) two-dimensional spatially selective RF excitation, (2) unaliasing by Fourier encoding the overlaps using the temporal dimension (UNFOLD), and (3) parallel imaging. The sequence was tested during experiments with focused ultrasound heating in ex vivo tissue and a tissue-mimicking phantom. Temperature maps were estimated from phase-difference images based on the water proton resonance frequency shift. Results were compared to those obtained from a spoiled gradient echo sequence sequence, using a t-test. Temporal resolution was increased by 24-fold, with temperature uncertainty less than 1°C, while maintaining accurate temperature measurements (mean difference between measurements, as observed in gel = 0.1°C ± 0.6; R = 0.98; P > 0.05).

A metal-free oxyoximation of allyloximes using tBuONO as the NO-source is developed to yield a variety of isoxazoline substituted aldoximes and ketoximes.