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Prostate cancer (PCa) is a multifactorial disease influenced by genetic, environmental, and immunological factors. Genetic polymorphisms in the interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene have been implicated in PCa susceptibility, development, and progression. This study aims to assess the contributions of three IL-10 promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), A-1082G (rs1800896), T-819C (rs3021097), and A-592C (rs1800872), to the risk of PCa in Taiwan. The three IL-10 genotypes were determined using PCR-RFLP methodology and were evaluated for their contributions to PCa risk among 218 PCa patients and 436 non-PCa controls. None of the three IL-10 SNPs were significantly associated with the risks of PCa (p all > 0.05) in the overall analyses. However, the GG at rs1800896 combined with smoking behavior was found to significantly increase the risk of PCa by 3.90-fold (95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.28–11.89, p = 0.0231). In addition, the rs1800896 AG and GGs were found to be correlated with the late stages of PCa (odds ratio [OR] = 1.90 and 6.42, 95% CI = 1.05–3.45 and 2.30–17.89, p = 0.0452 and 0.0003, respectively). The IL-10 promoter SNP, A-1082G (rs1800896), might be a risk factor for PCa development among smokers and those at late stages of the disease. These findings should be validated in larger and more diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer (LC) stands as the foremost cause of cancer-related fatality rates worldwide. Early diagnosis significantly enhances patient survival rate. Nowadays, low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) is widely employed on the chest as a tool for large-scale lung cancer screening. Nonetheless, a large amount of chest radiographs creates an onerous burden for radiologists. Some computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) tools can provide insight to the use of medical images for diagnosis and can augment diagnostic speed. However, due to the variation in the parameter settings across different patients, substantial discrepancies in image voxels persist. We found that different voxel sizes can create a compromise between model generalization and diagnostic efficacy. This study investigates the performance disparities of diagnostic models trained on original images and LDCT images reconstructed to different voxel sizes while making isotropic. We examined the ability of our method to differentiate between benign and malignant nodules. Using 11 features, a support vector machine (SVM) was trained on LDCT images using an isotropic voxel with a side length of 1.5 mm for 225 patients in-house. The result yields a favorable model performance with an accuracy of 0.9596 and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC/AUC) of 0.9855. In addition, to furnish CAD tools for clinical application, future research including LDCT images from multi-centers is encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Systematic aerobe training has positive effects on the compliance of dedicated arterial walls. The adaptations of the arterial structure and function are associated with the blood flow-induced changes of the wall shear stress which induced vascular remodelling via nitric oxide delivered from the endothelial cell. In order to assess functional changes of the common carotid artery over time in these processes, a precise measurement technique is necessary. Before this study, a reliable, precise, and quick method to perform this work is not present. Methods We propose a fully automated algorithm to analyze the cross-sectional area of the carotid artery in MR image sequences. It contains two phases: (1) position detection of the carotid artery, (2) accurate boundary identification of the carotid artery. In the first phase, we use intensity, area size and shape as features to discriminate the carotid artery from other tissues and vessels. In the second phase, the directional gradient, Hough transform, and circle model guided dynamic programming are used to identify the boundary accurately. Results We test the system stability using contrast degraded images (contrast resolutions range from 50% to 90%). The unsigned error ranges from 2.86% ± 2.24% to 3.03% ± 2.40%. The test of noise degraded images (SNRs range from 16 to 20 dB) shows the unsigned error ranging from 2.63% ± 2.06% to 3.12% ± 2.11%. The test of raw images has an unsigned error 2.56% ± 2.10% compared to the manual tracings. Conclusions We have proposed an automated system which is able to detect carotid artery cross sectional boundary in MRI sequences during heart cycles. The accuracy reaches 2.56% ± 2.10% compared to the manual tracings. The system is stable, reliable and results are reproducible.

Background: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is often misdiagnosed, and can lead to severe complications. Conventional MR sequences show a limited ability to aid in this diagnosis. MR-based intracranial pressure (MR-ICP) may be able to detect changes of intracranial elastance and pressure.Purpose: To determine whether MR-ICP is able to differentiate SIH patients from normal subjects, improve diagnostic sensitivity, and provide an insight into the pathophysiology.Study Type: Prospective.Subjects: Twenty-eight SIH cases with orthostatic headache and 20 healthy volunteers.Field Strength/sequence: Cine phase-contrast MRI on a 1.5T scanner.Assessment: Intracranial elastance (IE) was derived from the ratio of the peak-to-peak cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure gradient (PGcsf-pp ) and intracranial volume change, obtained by summing all flows before each sequential cardiac frame.Statistical Tests: Student's t-test was used to compare the MR-ICP indexes and flow parameters between SIH patients and healthy volunteers (P < 0.01).Results: The SIH patients with cervical epidural venous dilatation (EVD) had an IE of 0.121 ± 0.027 mmHg/cm/ml, significantly higher than that of the normal volunteers (0.085 ± 0.027 mmHg/cm/ml; P = 0.002). In contradistinction, the EVD-negative SIH patients, including four with no sign of CSF leaks, had significantly lower IE (0.055 ± 0.012 mmHg/cm/ml) compared with the normal volunteers and the EVD-positive group (P = 0.001, P < 0.001). The EVD-negative patients had significantly lower PGcsf-pp (0.024 ± 0.007 mmHg/cm) compared with the normal volunteers and the EVD-positive group (0.035 ± 0.011 mmHg/cm, 0.040 ± 0.010 mmHg/cm; P = 0.003, P < 0.001). Additionally, the MRI flow study showed a significant decrease in transcranial inflow and outflow of SIH patients (P < 0.01).Data Conclusion: We found that the MR-ICP method is potentially more sensitive than morphological MRI in the early diagnosis of SIH. Also, contrary to common belief, our results suggest that an abnormal craniospinal elastance might be the cause of SIH, instead of CSF leak.Level Of Evidence: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:1255-1263. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]