Second and third lumbar vertebral parameters for prediction of sex, height, and age in the Iranian population.

In this study, we aimed to assess the association between different parameters of the second and third lumbar vertebra with age, sex, and height in the Iranian population. A total of 14 parameters of the L2 and L3 vertebra were measured from three-dimensional lumbar topography. The measured parameters included vertebral length, foramen diameter, foramen width, endplate depth, endplate width, spinal process height, spinal process length, transverse process distance, the height of the vertebral body, articular process height inferior, articular process height superior, pedicle height, pedicle width, and maximum distance between articular processes. A total of 100 patients, including 46 males (46%) and 54 females (54%), were enrolled in this study. Our findings showed that most L2 and L3 parameters could differentiate males from females, with the area under the curve between 0.620 and 0.888. The majority of L2 and L3 parameters were positively associated with height in both males and females. Regarding age, there was a significant positive association between the spinal process length of L2 and vertebral length, spinal process height, and spinal process length of L3 with age in males. Also, several parameters of L2 and L3 were associated with age in females. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the parameters of the second and third lumbar vertebra could be valuable in the determination of the age, height, and sex of the Iranian population. Our results could have practical implications in forensic anthropology in serious events like earthquakes.

Comparison of Volumetric and 2D Measurements and Longitudinal Trajectories in the Response Assessment of BRAF V600E-Mutant Pediatric Gliomas in the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Response on imaging is widely used to evaluate treatment efficacy in clinical trials of pediatric gliomas. While conventional criteria rely on 2D measurements, volumetric analysis may provide a more comprehensive response assessment. There is sparse research on the role of volumetrics in pediatric gliomas. Our purpose was to compare 2D and volumetric analysis with the assessment of neuroradiologists using the Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) in BRAF V600E-mutant pediatric gliomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Manual volumetric segmentations of whole and solid tumors were compared with 2D measurements in 31 participants (292 follow-up studies) in the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium 002 trial (NCT01748149). Two neuroradiologists evaluated responses using BT-RADS. Receiver operating characteristic analysis compared classification performance of 2D and volumetrics for partial response. Agreement between volumetric and 2D mathematically modeled longitudinal trajectories for 25 participants was determined using the model-estimated time to best response. RESULTS: Of 31 participants, 20 had partial responses according to BT-RADS criteria. Receiver operating characteristic curves for the classification of partial responders at the time of first detection (median = 2 months) yielded an area under the curve of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.69-0.99) for 2D area, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.80-1.00) for whole-volume, and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.82-1.00) for solid volume change. There was no significant difference in the area under the curve between 2D and solid (P = .34) or whole volume (P = .39). There was no significant correlation in model-estimated time to best response (ρ = 0.39, P >.05) between 2D and whole-volume trajectories. Eight of the 25 participants had a difference of ≥90 days in transition from partial response to stable disease between their 2D and whole-volume modeled trajectories. CONCLUSIONS: Although there was no overall difference between volumetrics and 2D in classifying partial response assessment using BT-RADS, further prospective studies will be critical to elucidate how the observed differences in tumor 2D and volumetric trajectories affect clinical decision-making and outcomes in some individuals.

A large open access dataset of brain metastasis 3D segmentations on MRI with clinical and imaging information.

Resection and whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) are standard treatments for brain metastases (BM) but are associated with cognitive side effects. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) uses a targeted approach with less side effects than WBRT. SRS requires precise identification and delineation of BM. While artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have been developed for this, their clinical adoption is limited due to poor model performance in the clinical setting. The limitations of algorithms are often due to the quality of datasets used for training the AI network. The purpose of this study was to create a large, heterogenous, annotated BM dataset for training and validation of AI models. We present a BM dataset of 200 patients with pretreatment T1, T1 post-contrast, T2, and FLAIR MR images. The dataset includes contrast-enhancing and necrotic 3D segmentations on T1 post-contrast and peritumoral edema 3D segmentations on FLAIR. Our dataset contains 975 contrast-enhancing lesions, many of which are sub centimeter, along with clinical and imaging information. We used a streamlined approach to database-building through a PACS-integrated segmentation workflow.

Comparison of volumetric and 2D-based response methods in the PNOC-001 pediatric low-grade glioma clinical trial.

Background: Although response in pediatric low-grade glioma (pLGG) includes volumetric assessment, more simplified 2D-based methods are often used in clinical trials. The study's purpose was to compare volumetric to 2D methods. Methods: An expert neuroradiologist performed solid and whole tumor (including cyst and edema) volumetric measurements on MR images using a PACS-based manual segmentation tool in 43 pLGG participants (213 total follow-up images) from the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC-001) trial. Classification based on changes in volumetric and 2D measurements of solid tumor were compared to neuroradiologist visual response assessment using the Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) criteria for a subset of 65 images using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Longitudinal modeling of solid tumor volume was used to predict BT-RADS classification in 54 of the 65 images. Results: There was a significant difference in ROC area under the curve between 3D solid tumor volume and 2D area (0.96 vs 0.78, P = .005) and between 3D solid and 3D whole volume (0.96 vs 0.84, P = .006) when classifying BT-RADS progressive disease (PD). Thresholds of 15-25% increase in 3D solid tumor volume had an 80% sensitivity in classifying BT-RADS PD included in their 95% confidence intervals. The longitudinal model of solid volume response had a sensitivity of 82% and a positive predictive value of 67% for detecting BT-RADS PD. Conclusions: Volumetric analysis of solid tumor was significantly better than 2D measurements in classifying tumor progression as determined by BT-RADS criteria and will enable more comprehensive clinical management.

The Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) Challenge 2023: Focus on Pediatrics (CBTN-CONNECT-DIPGR-ASNR-MICCAI BraTS-PEDs).

Pediatric tumors of the central nervous system are the most common cause of cancer-related death in children. The five-year survival rate for high-grade gliomas in children is less than 20%. Due to their rarity, the diagnosis of these entities is often delayed, their treatment is mainly based on historic treatment concepts, and clinical trials require multi-institutional collaborations. The MICCAI Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) Challenge is a landmark community benchmark event with a successful history of 12 years of resource creation for the segmentation and analysis of adult glioma. Here we present the CBTN-CONNECT-DIPGR-ASNR-MICCAI BraTS-PEDs 2023 challenge, which represents the first BraTS challenge focused on pediatric brain tumors with data acquired across multiple international consortia dedicated to pediatric neuro-oncology and clinical trials. The BraTS-PEDs 2023 challenge focuses on benchmarking the development of volumentric segmentation algorithms for pediatric brain glioma through standardized quantitative performance evaluation metrics utilized across the BraTS 2023 cluster of challenges. Models gaining knowledge from the BraTS-PEDs multi-parametric structural MRI (mpMRI) training data will be evaluated on separate validation and unseen test mpMRI dataof high-grade pediatric glioma. The CBTN-CONNECT-DIPGR-ASNR-MICCAI BraTS-PEDs 2023 challenge brings together clinicians and AI/imaging scientists to lead to faster development of automated segmentation techniques that could benefit clinical trials, and ultimately the care of children with brain tumors.

A multi-institutional meningioma MRI dataset for automated multi-sequence image segmentation.

Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumors and can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Radiologists, neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, and radiation oncologists rely on brain MRI for diagnosis, treatment planning, and longitudinal treatment monitoring. However, automated, objective, and quantitative tools for non-invasive assessment of meningiomas on multi-sequence MR images are not available. Here we present the BraTS Pre-operative Meningioma Dataset, as the largest multi-institutional expert annotated multilabel meningioma multi-sequence MR image dataset to date. This dataset includes 1,141 multi-sequence MR images from six sites, each with four structural MRI sequences (T2-, T2/FLAIR-, pre-contrast T1-, and post-contrast T1-weighted) accompanied by expert manually refined segmentations of three distinct meningioma sub-compartments: enhancing tumor, non-enhancing tumor, and surrounding non-enhancing T2/FLAIR hyperintensity. Basic demographic data are provided including age at time of initial imaging, sex, and CNS WHO grade. The goal of releasing this dataset is to facilitate the development of automated computational methods for meningioma segmentation and expedite their incorporation into clinical practice, ultimately targeting improvement in the care of meningioma patients.

Challenges of patients with multiple sclerosis in receiving health care services in Iran.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating, non-traumatic, neurological disorder in young adults and can reduce quality of life (QoL) by interfering with the ability to work, leisure activities, and routine living tasks. Various studies have shown the dissatisfaction of people with MS in different areas of care services. Regarding the patients' weakness with care and services, we sought to identify the challenges for patients with MS in receiving care and services in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016-2018 using a researcher-made questionnaire (designed by MS Specialists in an MS research center). The questionnaire examined the care challenges in four areas: 1) costs of medication, hospitalization, and rehabilitation services, 2) family support, insurance system, and job protection, 3) access to transportation system and treatment team, 4) quality of the provided care and services. Results: Completed questionnaires were received from 945 respondents. The mean age of responders was 35.92 years. In total, 731 (77.8) participants were women and 208 (22.2) were men. Academic education was reported among 615 (65.3) participants and 367 (40.2) were employed during the study, while 99 (10.5) of the subjects were not able to walk a minimum of 20 meters. The prioritization of care services challenges was as follows: the cost of pharmaceutical services (49.1), lack of telephone counseling (47.4), uninsured home rehabilitation (44.7), lack of qualified care centers (41.2), and rehabilitation costs (40.2). Conclusion: We found that patients who could not walk at least 20 meters and unemployed individuals had more problems and lower QoL. The patients who had non-academic education had more challenges with the cost of medication, transportation, and lack of familial support. This study shows the challenges of MS patients in receiving health care in Iran that vary in age, education, employment, and ability to walk. As the abovementioned challenges are of great importance in determining the QoL of people with MS, an appropriate solution is provided in this study to overcome these challenges.

A Large Open Access Dataset of Brain Metastasis 3D Segmentations with Clinical and Imaging Feature Information.

Resection and whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) are the standards of care for the treatment of patients with brain metastases (BM) but are often associated with cognitive side effects. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) involves a more targeted treatment approach and has been shown to avoid the side effects associated with WBRT. However, SRS requires precise identification and delineation of BM. While many AI algorithms have been developed for this purpose, their clinical adoption has been limited due to poor model performance in the clinical setting. Major reasons for non-generalizable algorithms are the limitations in the datasets used for training the AI network. The purpose of this study was to create a large, heterogenous, annotated BM dataset for training and validation of AI models to improve generalizability. We present a BM dataset of 200 patients with pretreatment T1, T1 post-contrast, T2, and FLAIR MR images. The dataset includes contrast-enhancing and necrotic 3D segmentations on T1 post-contrast and whole tumor (including peritumoral edema) 3D segmentations on FLAIR. Our dataset contains 975 contrast-enhancing lesions, many of which are sub centimeter, along with clinical and imaging feature information. We used a streamlined approach to database-building leveraging a PACS-integrated segmentation workflow.

The Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS-METS) Challenge 2023: Brain Metastasis Segmentation on Pre-treatment MRI.

Clinical monitoring of metastatic disease to the brain can be a laborious and timeconsuming process, especially in cases involving multiple metastases when the assessment is performed manually. The Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases (RANO-BM) guideline, which utilizes the unidimensional longest diameter, is commonly used in clinical and research settings to evaluate response to therapy in patients with brain metastases. However, accurate volumetric assessment of the lesion and surrounding peri-lesional edema holds significant importance in clinical decision-making and can greatly enhance outcome prediction. The unique challenge in performing segmentations of brain metastases lies in their common occurrence as small lesions. Detection and segmentation of lesions that are smaller than 10 mm in size has not demonstrated high accuracy in prior publications. The brain metastases challenge sets itself apart from previously conducted MICCAI challenges on glioma segmentation due to the significant variability in lesion size. Unlike gliomas, which tend to be larger on presentation scans, brain metastases exhibit a wide range of sizes and tend to include small lesions. We hope that the BraTS-METS dataset and challenge will advance the field of automated brain metastasis detection and segmentation.