Detection of Active Sacroiliitis with Ankylosing Spondylitis through Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Diffusion-Weighted MR Imaging.

OBJECTIVE: To confirm feasibility and assess intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) to differentiate active sacroiliitis and ankylosing spondylitis.. METHODS: Forty-one patients were divided into two groups, an active group (n = 20) and a chronic group (n = 21), according to the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and laboratory parameters. In addition, 21 healthy volunteers were chosen as the control group. Tissue diffusivity (Dslow), perfusion fraction (f), and pseudo-diffusion coefficient (Dfast) values were obtained for all three groups. One-way analysis of variance and receiver operating characteristic analysis were performed for all parameters. RESULTS: There was good interobserver agreement on the measurements between the two observers. The optimal cut-off values (with respective AUC, sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio) between active and chronic groups were Dslow = 0.53 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s (0.976, 90%, 95.2%, 18.9, 0.10) and f = 0.09 (0.545, 20%, 95.5%, 4.2, 0.84), and between chronic and control groups were Dslow = 0.22 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s (0.517, 9.52%, 100%, no number, 0.9) and f = 0.09 (0.935, 95.24%, 80.95%, 5, 0.059). CONCLUSION: Dslow and f of IVIM diffusion-weighted (DW)-MRI in AS show a significant difference in the values of diffusion of water molecules and fractional perfusion-related volume among the three groups. KEY POINTS: • D slow can be used to differentiate the activity of AS. • With perfusion fraction, the sensitivity of differentiating the AS activity is improved. • IVIM DWI plays an important role in detecting the activity in patients with AS.

Comparison of the Chemical Composition and Bioactive Components of Fruiting Bodies and Submerged Cultured Mycelia of the Willow Bracket Medicinal Mushroom, Phellinus igniarius (Agaricomycetes).

Chemical compositions and bioactive ingredients of dried fruiting bodies from Phellinus igniarius (CGMCC no. 50095) (P1) and submerged culture of Ph. igniarius dried mycelia (P2) were investigated in this study. It was found that glutamic acid was regarded as a major amino acid in P1 (1.20%) and was approximately 2.55-fold higher than that in P2 (0.47%). Total amino acids in P1 (5.36%) were slightly higher than in P2 (4.09%). The amounts of iron, zinc, copper, and manganese in P1 were 1.96-3.42 times as high as those in P2, whereas potassium, sodium, and magnesium in P2 were almost 2.94-6.88 times lower than in P1. Lead, mercury, and cadmium in P1 were significantly lower than in P2. The levels of polysaccharides and total triterpenoids in PI amounted to 0.29% and 2.3%, respectively, which are considerably higher values than those in P1 (7.72% and 6.88%, respectively). Galactosamine was only detected in the crude polysaccharide of P2. Other monosaccharides, except for galactose, were significantly different between the 2 samples. Crude polysaccharide of P2 was separated into 4 polysaccharides with different molecular weights, but crude polysaccharide in P1 was distributed between 2 different molecular weights. Major polysaccharides in P1 (93.78%) were distributed at about 205,212 Da, whereas the main polysaccharides of P2 (65.98%) were found at about 33,064 Da. The results indicated that submerged cultured mycelia from Ph. igniarius supplemented by its fruiting bodies can be used in medicinal applications.

Role of Diffusion-weighted and Contrast-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Differentiating Activity of Ankylosing Spondylitis / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Previous studies showed that combining apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value with the Spondyloarthritis Research Consortium of Canada (SPARCC) index value might provide a reliable evaluation of the activity of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and that contrast-enhanced (CE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unnecessary. However, the results were based on confirming only a small random sample. This study aimed to assess the role of CE-MRI in differentiating the disease activity of AS by comparing ADC value with a large sample.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 115 patients with AS were enrolled in accordance with Bath AS Disease Activity Index and laboratory indices, and 115 patients were divided into two groups, including active group (n = 69) and inactive group (n = 46). SPARCC, ΔSI, and ADC values were obtained from the short tau inversion recovery (STIR), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and CE-MRI, respectively. One-way analysis of variance and receiver operating characteristic analysis were performed for all parameters.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The optimal cutoff values (with sensitivity, specificity, respective area under the curve, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio) for the differentiation between active and inactive groups are as follows: SPARCC = 6 (72.06%, 82.61%, 0.836, 4.14, 0.34); ΔSI (%) = 153 (80.6%, 84.78%, 0.819, 5.3, 0.23); ADC value = 1.15 × 10-3 mm2/s (72.73%, 81.82%, 0.786, 4, 0.33). No statistical differences were found among the predictive values of SPARCC, ΔSI, and ADC. Multivariate analysis showed no significant difference between the combination of SPARCC and ADC values with and without ΔSI.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Using large sample, we concluded that the combination of STIR and DWI would play significant roles in assessing the disease activity, and CE-MRI sequence is not routinely used in imaging of AS to avoid renal fibrosis and aggravation of kidney disease.</p>