Association between serum vitamin E and bacterial vaginitis in women: a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Bacterial vaginitis (BV) is a common vaginal disease. Vitamin E has been shown to reduce BV by enhancing immune function, but no studies have analyzed the relationship between vitamin E and BV at different BMIs and ages. METHOD: This study used 2242 participants from four cycles of NHANES 1999-2006 in American. Participants' vitamin E levels were divided into four groups, and analyses such as study population description, stratified analysis, multiple logistic regression analysis, and curve fitting were performed. To perform data processing, the researchers used the statistical package R (The R Foundation; http://www.r-project.org ; version 3.6.3) and Empower Stats software ( www.empowerstats.net , X&Y solutions, Inc. Boston, Massachusetts). RESULT: The concentrations of serum vitamin E were negatively correlated with the risk of BV, especially when vitamin E were at 1198-5459ug/dL with (OR = -0.443, 95%CI = 0.447-0.923, P = 0.032) or without (OR = -0.521, 95%CI = 0.421-0.837, P = 0.006) adjustment for variables. At the same time, at lower levels, there was no significant association. Vitamin E supplementation may significantly reduce the risk of BV (p < 0.001). In addition, the risk of having BV decreased and then increased with increasing vitamin E concentrations at high BMI levels (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Vitamin E at moderate to high concentrations may significantly reduce BV risk, says the study, providing clinical evidence for the prevention and the treatment of BV.

An Unsupervised Deep Learning Approach for Dynamic-Exponential Intravoxel Incoherent Motion MRI Modeling and Parameter Estimation in the Liver.

BACKGROUND: Dynamic-exponential intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging is a potential technique for prediction, monitoring, and differential diagnosis of hepatic diseases, especially liver tumors. However, the use of such technique at voxel level is still limited. PURPOSE: To develop an unsupervised deep learning approach for voxel-wise dynamic-exponential IVIM modeling and parameter estimation in the liver. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. POPULATION: Ten healthy subjects (4 males; age 28 ± 6 years). FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: Single-shot spin-echo echo planar imaging (SE-EPI) sequence with monopolar diffusion-encoding gradients (12 b-values, 0-800 seconds/mm2 ) at 3.0 T. ASSESSMENT: The proposed deep neural network (DNN) was separately trained on simulated and in vivo hepatic IVIM datasets. The trained networks were compared to the approach combining least squares with Akaike information criterion (LSQ-AIC) in terms of dynamic-exponential modeling accuracy, inter-subject coefficients of variation (CVs), and fitting residuals on the simulated subsets and regions of interest (ROIs) in the left and right liver lobes. The ROIs were delineated by a radiologist (H.-X.Z.) with 7 years of experience in MRI reading. STATISTICAL TESTS: Comparisons between approaches were performed with a paired t-test (normality) or a Wilcoxon rank-sum test (nonnormality). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In simulations, DNN gave significantly higher accuracy (91.6%-95.5%) for identification of bi-exponential decays with respect to LSQ-AIC (79.7%-86.8%). For tri-exponential identification, DNN was also superior to LSQ-AIC despite not reaching a significant level (P = 0.08). Additionally, DNN always yielded comparatively low root-mean-square error for estimated parameters. For the in vivo IVIM measurements, inter-subject CVs (0.011-0.150) of DNN were significantly smaller than those (0.049-0.573) of LSQ-AIC. Concerning fitting residuals, there was no significant difference between the two approaches (P = 0.56 and 0.76) in both the simulated and in vivo studies. DATA CONCLUSION: The proposed DNN is recommended for accurate and robust dynamic-exponential modeling and parameter estimation in hepatic IVIM imaging. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.

Short-Term Repeatability of in Vivo Cardiac Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Tensor Imaging in Healthy Human Volunteers.

BACKGROUND: Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) tensor imaging is a promising technique for diagnosis and monitoring of cardiovascular diseases. Knowledge about measurement repeatability, however, remains limited. PURPOSE: To evaluate short-term repeatability of IVIM tensor imaging in normal in vivo human hearts. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. POPULATION: Ten healthy subjects without history of heart diseases. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: Balanced steady-state free-precession cine sequence and single-shot spin-echo echo planar IVIM tensor imaging sequence (9 b-values, 0-400 seconds/mm2 and six diffusion-encoding directions) at 3.0 T. ASSESSMENT: Subjects were scanned twice with an interval of 15 minutes, leaving the scanner between studies. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was evaluated in anterior, lateral, septal, and inferior segments of the left ventricle wall. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), mean fraction (MF), and helix angle (HA) in the four segments were independently measured by five radiologists. STATISTICAL TESTS: IVIM tensor indexes were compared between observers using a one-way analysis of variance or between scans using a paired t-test (normal data) or a Wilcoxon rank-sum test (non-normal data). Interobserver agreement and test-retest repeatability were assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), within-subject coefficient of variation (WCV), and Bland-Altman limits of agreements. RESULTS: SNR of inferior segment was significantly lower than the other three segments, and inferior segment was therefore excluded from repeatability analysis. Interobserver repeatability was excellent for all IVIM tensor indexes (ICC: 0.886-0.972; WCV: 0.62%-4.22%). Test-retest repeatability was excellent for MD of the self-diffusion tensor (D) and MF of the perfusion fraction tensor (fp ) (ICC: 0.803-0.888; WCV: 1.42%-9.51%) and moderate for FA and MD of the pseudo-diffusion tensor (D* ) (ICC: 0.487-0.532; WCV: 6.98%-10.89%). FA of D and fp and HA of D presented good test-retest repeatability (ICC: 0.732-0.788; WCV: 3.28%-8.71%). DATA CONCLUSION: The D and fp indexes exhibited satisfactory repeatability, but further efforts were needed to improve repeatability of D* indexes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.

Association between single-point insulin sensitivity estimator and heart failure in older adults: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a condition caused by a malfunction of the heart's pumping function. The single-point insulin sensitivity estimator (SPISE) index is a novel indicator for assessing insulin resistance in humans. However, the connection between the SPISE index and the risk of HF in the elderly is unknown. Therefore, our study aims to evaluate the connection between the SPISE index and HF in older adults. METHODS: The study was based on data collected from the 1999-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database and included 6165 participants aged ≥60 years. The multivariable linear regression model and the smooth fitting curve model were applied to investigate the connection between the SPISE index and HF in the elderly. Furthermore, the subgroup analysis was performed to investigate the interactive factors. RESULTS: In this study, the mean age of the population was 69.38 years. After adjusting for all covariates, we observed that the SPISE index was inversely related to the prevalence of HF (OR = 0.87, 95 % CI = 0.80-0.94, P < 0.001) in older adults. The interaction analysis showed that the association might be affected by diabetes mellitus and smoking status. Additionally, an inflection point between the SPISE index and HF was found among older women. CONCLUSIONS: An inverse correlation was detected between the SPISE index and HF in the elderly. This could provide new insight into the prevention and management of HF in the elderly population.

Effect of oil on emulsion characteristics: manipulating the interfacial domain.

In this paper, two ternary systems (water, Triton X-100, and octane or tetradecane) were investigated using freeze-fracture transmission electron microscopy, rheology, laser diffraction particle sizing, and pulse field gradient NMR (PFG-NMR). Oil-in-water dispersed droplet emulsions were prepared for Triton X-100 concentrations of 8-12 wt % while maintaining a surfactant-to-oil weight ratio of 1:5. The stability of the emulsions significantly increased with both the surfactant concentration and the chain length of the oil component. The PFG-NMR results could be explained as a superposition of three different types of diffusion: restricted diffusion of the oil in the droplets and free and restricted diffusion of the droplets themselves. The PFG-NMR results were correlated with the electron microscopy images and the particle-sizing data. Moreover, to gain a greater understanding of the role of the oil-surfactant interactions, in particular, the present investigations were placed in context with an earlier publication where toluene was used as the oil with the same emulsifier. The change from the aromatic oil, which is a better solvent for the surfactant, to an alkane-based oil dramatically changed the characteristics of the interfacial domain. On one hand, the concentration range for the formation of emulsions and the variety of microstructures realized were severely restricted and reduced when using the alkanes as compared with toluene. On the other hand, the interfacial film was much more stable leading to an extremely reduced rate of droplet coalescence.