Long-term Survival in Breast Cancer Patients Is Associated with Contralateral Parenchymal Enhancement at MRI: Outcomes of the SELECT Study.

Background Several single-center studies found that high contralateral parenchymal enhancement (CPE) at breast MRI was associated with improved long-term survival in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer. Due to varying sample sizes, population characteristics, and follow-up times, consensus of the association is currently lacking. Purpose To confirm whether CPE is associated with long-term survival in a large multicenter retrospective cohort, and to investigate if CPE is associated with endocrine therapy effectiveness. Materials and Methods This multicenter observational cohort included women with unilateral ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer (tumor size ≤50 mm and ≤three positive lymph nodes) who underwent MRI from January 2005 to December 2010. Overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and distant RFS (DRFS) were assessed. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to investigate differences in absolute risk after 10 years, stratified according to CPE tertile. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to investigate whether CPE was associated with prognosis and endocrine therapy effectiveness. Results Overall, 1432 women (median age, 54 years [IQR, 47-63 years]) were included from 10 centers. Differences in absolute OS after 10 years were stratified according to CPE tertile as follows: 88.5% (95% CI: 88.1, 89.1) in tertile 1, 85.8% (95% CI: 85.2, 86.3) in tertile 2, and 85.9% (95% CI: 85.4, 86.4) in tertile 3. CPE was independently associated with OS, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.17 (95% CI: 1.0, 1.36; P = .047), but was not associated with RFS (HR, 1.11; P = .16) or DRFS (HR, 1.11; P = .19). The effect of endocrine therapy on survival could not be accurately assessed; therefore, the association between endocrine therapy efficacy and CPE could not reliably be estimated. Conclusion High contralateral parenchymal enhancement was associated with a marginally decreased overall survival in patients with estrogen receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative breast cancer, but was not associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS) or distant RFS. Published under a CC BY 4.0 license. Supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Honda and Iima in this issue.

Metabolic syndrome and cognition in patients with manifest atherosclerotic disease: the SMART study.

BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether the metabolic syndrome (MetS) increases risk of cognitive dysfunction beyond the level expected from its individual components. We examined the association of MetS with cognitive dysfunction and assessed whether MetS increased risk of cognitive dysfunction more than that of the sum of its individual components. METHODS: Data on 823 participants were used from the SMART-study, a cohort study among patients with atherosclerotic disease. MetS was defined according to the NCEP-ATPIII-criteria. Neuropsychological tests assessing memory, executive, and visuospatial functioning were performed. Regression analyses were performed to assess the association of MetS and its individual components with cognitive dysfunction. To examine whether MetS increased risk of cognitive dysfunction beyond its individual components we tested whether there was interaction on an additive scale by calculating the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI). RESULTS: MetS was associated with increased risk of memory (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1-3.3) and visuospatial dysfunction (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.4-2.7) but not with executive dysfunction. However, risk of memory and visuospatial dysfunction for having all MetS components was not greater than that of the sum of the individual components (RERI 0.2 and -0.9). CONCLUSIONS: In this population, MetS is related to increased risk of cognitive dysfunction but not more than that of the sum of its individual components.

Determinants of Difficulty and Discriminating Power of Image-based Test Items in Postgraduate Radiological Examinations.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The psychometric characteristics of image-based test items in radiological written examinations are not well known. In this study, we explored difficulty and discriminating power of these test items in postgraduate radiological digital examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed test items of seven Dutch Radiology Progress Tests (DRPTs) that were taken from October 2013 to April 2017. The DRPT is a semiannual formative examination, required for all Dutch radiology residents. We assessed several stimulus and response characteristics of test items. The response format of test items included true or false, single right multiple choice with 2, 3, 4, or ≥5 answer options, pick-N multiple-choice, drag-and-drop, and long-list-menu formats. We calculated item P values and item-rest-correlation (Rir) values to assess difficulty and discriminating power. We performed linear regression analysis in image-based test items to investigate whether P and Rir values were significantly related to stimulus and response characteristics. Also, we compared psychometric indices between image-based test items and text-alone items. RESULTS: P and Rir values of image-based items (n = 369) were significantly related to the type of response format (P < .001), and not to which of the seven DRPTs the item was obtained from, radiological subspecialty domain, nonvolumetric or volumetric character of images, or context-rich or context-free character of the stimulus. When accounted for type of response format, difficulty and discriminating power of image-based items did not differ significantly from text-alone items (n = 881). Test items with a relatively large number of answer options were generally more difficult, and discriminated better among high- and low-performing candidates. CONCLUSION: In postgraduate radiological written examinations, difficulty and discriminating power of image-based test items are related to the type of response format and are comparable to those of text-alone items. We recommend a response format with a relatively large number of answer options to optimize psychometric indices of radiological image-based test items.