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Prostate volume estimation in MR images for epidemiological and clinical studies – new methods
(2014)
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is one of the most widespread diseases among men older than 50 years. The literature provides various cut-off values for pathological enlargement of the prostate. Prostate volume (PV) measurement in large population-based studies would allow deriving more objective reference values and a more valid early BPH diagnosis. A fully automated method is therefore required. In the clinical context, the measurement of the PV is important for treatment response monitoring in the clinical applications for BPH management research, and an accurate method for PV is essential. Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used for PV estimation. Two methods based on the Support Vector Machines (SVM) were developed: the binary Support Vector Machines (C SVM)-based method for epidemiological studies and the single-class Support Vector Machines (S SVM)-based method for clinical studies. The second method was additionally compared to the ellipsoid formula for PV estimation, which is widespread in the clinic. The comparison between volume measurement of the C SVM-based method and manual delineation of observers A and B yielded a strong correlation (Spearmans rank correlation coefficients ñ of 0.936 [p < 0.001] and 0.859 [p < 0.001], respectively). Comparing the C SVM-based method and the two manual delineations by observers A and B shows an agreement with a mean difference of 3.0 ml (95% confidence interval of -3.1 to +9.2 ml) and 1.9 ml (95% confidence interval of −7.1 to +10.8 ml), respectively. The S SVM-based method and the reference PV (manual delineation of observer A) show excellent correlation (Spearmans rank correlation coefficient ñ = 0.965, p < 0.001), while the ellipsoid formula is less well correlated with the reference PV (Spearmans rank correlation coefficient ñ = 0.873, p < 0.001). The mean difference between S SVM and the reference PV was −0.05 ml (95% confidence interval of −3.8 to +3.7 ml); on the other hand, the mean difference between the ellipsoid formula and the reference PV was much greater, with 8.6 ml (95% confidence interval of +1 to +16.2 ml). The C SVM-based method has considerable potential for integration in epidemiological studies. The prostate volumes obtained by the S SVM-based method agreed excellently with the reference and would be clinically useful for urologists in prostate volumetric analysis.
Brain aging even in healthy older adults is characterized by a decline in cognitive functions including memory, learning and attention. Among others, memory is one of the major cognitive functions affected by aging. Understanding the mechanisms underlying age-related memory decline may help pave the road for novel treatment strategies. Here, we tried to elucidate the neural correlates associated with memory decline using structural and functional neuroimaging and neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).
Over the course of three studies, we investigated 1) the influence of white matter integrity and grey matter volume on memory performance in healthy older adults, 2) the role of functional coupling within the memory network in predicting memory performance and the impact of tDCS in modulating retrieval performance in healthy older adults, 3) the effect of tDCS over the sensorimotor cortex on cognitive performance in young adults.
MRI was used to study associations of cognitive performance with white matter integrity and grey matter volume, and examine their causal relationship in the course of aging. White matter integrity was assessed by acquiring diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and performing deterministic tractography based on constrained spherical deconvolution. Grey matter volume was estimated using fully automated segmentation. Both white matter integrity and grey matter volume were correlated with behavioral data of a verbal episodic memory task. Percentage of correct answers at retrieval was used to measure memory performance (Manuscript 1). In addition, anodal tDCS (atDCS) (1 mA, 20 min) was applied over CP5 (left temporoparietal cortex) to modulate memory formation in healthy older adults. Participants underwent resting-state fMRI before the stimulation. Functional connectivity analysis was performed to determine whether functional coupling within the memory network predicted initial memory performance, and to examine its association to tDCS-induced enhancement effect (Manuscript 2). Finally, atDCS (1 mA, 20 min) was applied over C3 (left sensorimotor cortex) to explore the effect of tDCS over the sensorimotor cortex on cognitive performance in young adults. During the stimulation, participants performed three tasks; gestural task, attentional load task and simple reaction time task (Manuscript 3).
Results showed that volumes of the left dentate gyrus (DG) and tractography-based fractional anisotropy (FA) of individual fornix pathways were positively related to memory retrieval in older adults. Brain-behavior associations were observed for correct rejections rather than hits of memory performance, indicating specificity of memory network functioning for detecting false associations. Thus, the data suggested a particular role of neural integrity that promotes successful memory retrieval in older adults. Subsequent mediation analysis showed that left DG volume mediated the effect of fornix FA on memory performance (48%), corrected for age, revealing a crucial role of hippocampal pathway microstructure in modulating memory performance in older adults (Manuscript 1). tDCS results showed that atDCS led to better retrieval performance and increasing learning curves, indicating that brain stimulation can induce plasticity of episodic memory processes in older adults. Combining tDCS and fMRI, hippocampo-temporoparietal functional connectivity was positively associated with initial memory performance in healthy older adults and was positively correlated with the magnitude of individual tDCS-induced enhancement, suggesting that individual tDCS responsiveness may be determined by intrinsic network coupling (Manuscript 2). Finally, our findings suggested that atDCS over left sensorimotor cortex reduced reaction times in the gestural-verbal integration task, specifically for incongruent pairs of gestures and verbal expressions, indicating the role of sensorimotor cortex in gestural-verbal integration in young adults (Manuscript 3).
The results of all three studies may help to elucidate age-related structural deterioration and functional coupling network underlying cognitive processes in healthy adults. Furthermore, these studies emphasized the importance of interventions like tDCS in modulating cognitive performance, specifically episodic verbal memory and gestural-verbal integration. By unveiling the specific role of brain structures and functional network coupling as well as the role of tDCS in modulating cognitive performance, our results contribute to a better understanding of brain-behavior associations, and may help to develop clinical interventional approaches, tailored for specific cognitive functions in aging.
Zielstellung: Nichtinvasive Quantifizierung des Leberfettgehalts (HFC) mit der Drei-Echo- Dixon-Technik (MRT) und Korrektur für T2*-Relaxationseffekte im Vergleich zur Leberbiopsie. Material und Methoden: Einhundert Patienten (50 männlich, 50 weiblich, mittleres Alter 57,7 ± 14.2 Jahre) wurden einer klinisch indizierten Leberbiopsie (102 Gewebeproben) unterzogen. 24 - 72 Stunden später erfolgte die MRT-Untersuchung. Die MRT wurde mit einem 1,5 T (Magnetom Avanto, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) unter Verwendung einer Dixon-Bildgebung mit T2*-Korrektur (work-in-progress, Siemens Healtcare) durchgeführt. Eine 3D-Gradientenechosequenz (VIBE) mit TR/TE1/TE2/TE3 von 11/2,4/4,8/9,6 ms und einer Inline-Berechnung der T2*-korrigierten Wasser-, Fett-, und Fettgehaltskarte wurde in Atemanhaltetechnik durchgeführt. Es erfolgte der Abgleich der Signalintensitäten der errechneten T2*-korrigierten Fettgehaltskarte (SIF A T) mit den histologisch bestimmten Leberfettgehalten (HFC(Path)). Die Korrelation nach Spearman für HFC(Path) und SIF A T wurde bestimmt. Der Einfluss von Fibrosegrad, Zirrhosegrad, hepatischem Eisengehalt und mikroskopischem Muster der Fetteinlagerung (makrovesikulär, mikrovesikulär, gemischt makro- und mikrovesikulär) auf die Genauigkeit der nichtinvasiven Fettquantifizierung wurde analysiert. Ergebnisse: Die Korrelation zwischen SIFAT und HFC(Path) war rspearman = 0.89. Die Übereinstimmung zwischen dem durch MRT berechneten HFC und dem HFC(Path) wurde mit einem nichtlinearen Saturation-Growth-Model bestimmt. Die Korrelation betrug rspearman = 0.89. Ein Kruskal-Wallis-Test zeigte keine signifikanten Unterschiede der SIFAT für unterschiedliche Fibrosegrade (p = 0,90) und unterschiedliche Eisengehalte der Leber (p = 0.76). Die mikrovesikuläre Fetteinlagerung zeigte signifikant niedrigere Signalintensitäten als makrovesikuläre oder gemischt makro- und mikrovesikuläre Fetteinlagerungen (p = 0,01). Schlussfolgerung: Die Drei-Punkt-Dixon-MRT mit adjustierten T2*-Effekten ist eine geeignete, nichtinvasive Methode zur Beurteilung und Quantifizierung des Leberfettgehalts ohne zuvor publizierte Limitationen durch Siderose und Zirrhose.