No Arabic abstract
Estimating early postmortem interval EPI is a difficult task in daily forensic activity due to limitations of accurate and reliable methods. The aim of the present work is to describe a novel approach in the estimation of EPI based on quantitative magnetic resonance molecular imaging qMRMI using a pig phantom since post mortem degradation of pig meat is similar to that of human muscles. On a pig phantom maintained at 20 degree, using a 1.5 T MRI scanner we performed 10 scans, every 4 hours, monitoring apparent diffusion coefficient ADC, fractional anisotropy FA, magnetization transfer ration MTR, tractography and susceptibility weighted changes in muscles until 36 hours after death. Cooling of the phantom during the experiment was recorded. Histology was also obtained. Pearsons Test was carried out for statistical correlation. We found a significative statistical inverse correlation between ADC, FA, MT and PMI. Our preliminary data shows that post mortem qMRMI is a potential powerful tool in accurately determining EPI and is worth of further investigation.
We propose deterministic and stochastic models for studying the pharmacokinetics of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), upon administration of IFN-$alpha$ (the traditional treatment for CML), TKI (the current frontline medication for CML) and Wnt/$beta$-catenin signaling (the state-of-the art therapeutic breakthrough for CML). To the best of our knowledge, no mathematical model incorporating all these three therapeutic protocols are available in literature. Further, this work introduces a stochastic approach in the study of CML dynamics. The key contributions of this work are: (1) Determination of the patient condition, contingent upon the patient specific model parameters, which leads to prediction of the appropriate patient specific therapeutic dosage. (2) Addressing the question of how the dual therapy of TKI and Wnt/$beta$-catenin signaling or triple combination of all three, offers potentially improved therapeutic responses, particularly in terms of reduced side effects of TKI or IFN-$alpha$. (3) Prediction of the likelihood of CML extinction/remission based on the level of CML stem cells at detection.
How do you use imaging to analyse the development of the heart, which not only changes shape but also undergoes constant, high-speed, quasi-periodic changes? We have integrated ideas from prospective and retrospective optical gating to capture long-term, phase-locked developmental time-lapse videos. In this paper we demonstrate the success of this approach over a key developmental time period: heart looping, where large changes in heart shape prevent previous prospective gating approaches from capturing phase-locked videos. We use the comparison with other approaches to in vivo heart imaging to highlight the importance of collecting the most appropriate data for the biological question.
A significant challenge in Glioblastoma (GBM) management is identifying pseudo-progression (PsP), a benign radiation-induced effect, from tumor recurrence, on routine imaging following conventional treatment. Previous studies have linked tumor lobar presence and laterality to GBM outcomes, suggesting that disease etiology and progression in GBM may be impacted by tumor location. Hence, in this feasibility study, we seek to investigate the following question: Can tumor location on treatment-naive MRI provide early cues regarding likelihood of a patient developing pseudo-progression versus tumor recurrence? In this study, 74 pre-treatment Glioblastoma MRI scans with PsP (33) and tumor recurrence (41) were analyzed. First, enhancing lesion on Gd-T1w MRI and peri-lesional hyperintensities on T2w/FLAIR were segmented by experts and then registered to a brain atlas. Using patients from the two phenotypes, we construct two atlases by quantifying frequency of occurrence of enhancing lesion and peri-lesion hyperintensities, by averaging voxel intensities across the population. Analysis of differential involvement was then performed to compute voxel-wise significant differences (p-value<0.05) across the atlases. Statistically significant clusters were finally mapped to a structural atlas to provide anatomic localization of their location. Our results demonstrate that patients with tumor recurrence showed prominence of their initial tumor in the parietal lobe, while patients with PsP showed a multi-focal distribution of the initial tumor in the frontal and temporal lobes, insula, and putamen. These preliminary results suggest that lateralization of pre-treatment lesions towards certain anatomical areas of the brain may allow to provide early cues regarding assessing likelihood of occurrence of pseudo-progression from tumor recurrence on MRI scans.
A to-date unsolved and highly limiting safety concern for Ultra High-Field (UHF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the deposition of radiofrequency (RF) power in the body, quantified by the specific absorption rate (SAR), leading to dangerous tissue heating/damage in the form of local SAR hotspots that cannot currently be measured/monitored, thereby severely limiting the applicability of the technology for clinical practice and in regulatory approval. The goal of this study has been to show proof of concept of an artificial intelligence (AI) based exam-integrated real-time MRI safety prediction software (MRSaiFE) facilitating the safe generation of 3T and 7T images by means of accurate local SAR-monitoring at sub-W/kg levels. We trained the software with a small database of image as a feasibility study and achieved successful proof of concept for both field strengths. SAR patterns were predicted with a residual root mean squared error (RSME) of <11% along with a structural similarity (SSIM) level of >84% for both field strengths (3T and 7T).
The CVS is composed of numerous interacting and dynamically regulated physiological subsystems which each generate measurable periodic components such that the CVS can itself be presented as a system of weakly coupled oscillators. The interactions between these oscillators generate a chaotic blood pressure waveform signal, where periods of apparent rhythmicity are punctuated by asynchronous behaviour. It is this variability which seems to characterise the normal state. We used a standard experimental data set for the purposes of analysis and modelling. Arterial blood pressure waveform data was collected from conscious mice instrumented with radiotelemetry devices over $24$ hours, at a $100$ Hz and $1$ kHz time base. During a $24$ hour period, these mice display diurnal variation leading to changes in the cardiovascular waveform. We undertook preliminary analysis of our data using Fourier transforms and subsequently applied a series of both linear and nonlinear mathematical approaches in parallel. We provide a minimalistic linear and nonlinear coupled oscillator model and employed spectral and Hilbert analysis as well as a phase plane analysis. This provides a route to a three way synergistic investigation of the original blood pressure data by a combination of physiological experiments, data analysis viz. Fourier and Hilbert transforms and attractor reconstructions, and numerical solutions of linear and nonlinear coupled oscillator models. We believe that a minimal model of coupled oscillator models that quantitatively describes the complex physiological data could be developed via such a method. Further investigations of each of these techniques will be explored in separate publications.