Assessment of lung deformation in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with elastic registration technique on pulmonary three-dimensional ultrashort echo time MRI.

OBJECTIVE: To assess lung deformation in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) using with elastic registration algorithm applied to three-dimensional ultrashort echo time (3D-UTE) MRI and analyze relationship of lung deformation with the severity of IPF. METHODS: Seventy-six patients with IPF (mean age: 62 ± 6 years) and 62 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (mean age: 58 ± 4 years) were prospectively enrolled. End-inspiration and end-expiration images acquired with a single breath-hold 3D-UTE sequence were registered using elastic registration algorithm. Jacobian determinants were calculated from deformation fields and represented on color maps. Jac-mean (absolute value of the log means of Jacobian determinants) and the Dice similarity coefficient (Dice) were compared between different groups. RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls, the Jac-mean of IPF patients significantly decreased (0.21 ± 0.08 vs. 0.27 ± 0. 07, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the Jac-mean and Dice correlated with the metrics of pulmonary function tests and the composite physiological index. The lung deformation in IPF patients with dyspnea Medical Research Council (MRC) ≥ 3 (Jac-mean: 0.16 ± 0.03; Dice: 0.06 ± 0.02) was significantly lower than MRC1 (Jac-mean: 0. 25 ± 0.03, p < 0.001; Dice: 0.10 ± 0.01, p < 0.001) and MRC 2 (Jac-mean: 0.22 ± 0.11, p = 0.001; Dice: 0.08 ± 0.03, p = 0.006). Meanwhile, Jac-mean and Dice correlated with health-related quality of life, 6 min-walk distance, and the extent of pulmonary fibrosis. Jac-mean correlated with pulmonary vascular-related indexes on high-resolution CT. CONCLUSION: The decreased lung deformation in IPF patients correlated with the clinical severity of IPF patients. Elastic registration of inspiratory-to-expiratory 3D UTE MRI may be a new morphological and functional marker for non-radiation and noninvasive evaluation of IPF. CRITICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: This prospective study demonstrated that lung deformation decreased in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients and correlated with the severity of IPF. Elastic registration of inspiratory-to-expiratory three-dimensional ultrashort echo time (3D UTE) MRI may be a new morphological and functional marker for non-radiation and noninvasive evaluation of IPF. KEY POINTS: • Elastic registration of inspiratory-to-expiratory three-dimensional ultrashort echo time (3D UTE) MRI could evaluate lung deformation. • Lung deformation significantly decreased in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients, compared with the healthy controls. • Reduced lung deformation of IPF patients correlated with worsened pulmonary function and the composite physiological index (CPI).

Construction and characterization of a temperature-responsive nanocarrier for imidacloprid based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles.

Nanopesticides have great potential applications due to their stability enhancement, sustained release and target affinity. In this work, a temperature-responsive nanocarrier for imidacloprid (IMI) was constructed using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) as the core and paraffin wax (PW) as the outer layer. IMI was loaded into MSNs by screening the drug/carrier mass ratios to obtain the optimized IMI/MSNs formulation with a high drug loading (27.47 %). IMI/MSNs were functionalized with octadecyltrimethoxysilane (C18TMS) and further coated with a temperature-responsive trigger (PW) through hydrophobic interactions. Thus, a temperature-responsive nanocarrier for IMI (PW/IMI/MSNs) was constructed. Fourier transforms infrared (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm measurements confirmed the successful loading of IMI into MSNs and the coating of PW on the surface of the IMI/MSNs. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses indicated that PW/IMI/MSNs with diameters approximately 100 nm had an ordered hexagonal mesoporous structure with a surface coating of approximately 6 nm. In addition, an in vitro release experiment showed that PW/IMI/MSNs displayed a temperature-responsive sustained release property. Correspondingly, the bioactivity assay of the PW/IMI/MSNs showed that the insecticidal activity greatly increased with temperature. This formulation is expected to have potential applications in some high-temperature areas, such as Turpan in Xinjiang Province, for improving the utilization efficiency of IMI.

Eco-friendly Water-Based λ-Cyhalothrin Polydopamine Microcapsule Suspension with High Adhesion on Leaf for Reducing Pesticides Loss.

Recently, innovations of nano/microcarrier formulations have been focused on improving application efficiencies and retention time. In this study, a water-based 2.5% λ-cyhalothrin (LC) microcapsule suspension (CS) was developed by orthogonal test with biodegradable and adhesive polydopamine (PDA) microcapsules (MCs) as carriers. The obtained LC-PDA CS had good suspension properties, flow behavior, storage stability, and rheological properties. LC-PDA CS had higher retention, wettability, and decreased rainwater washing out on the leaves than commercial CS. LC-PDA CS displayed higher insecticidal activity against Lipaphis erysimi compared to commercial CS. LC-PDA CS reduced the toxicity of LC to the aquatic organism Danio rerio compared to LC. The above results demonstrated that LC-PDA CS would be eco-friendly water-based pesticides carrier system for prolonging the retention time on target leaf and reducing toxicity to aquatic organisms.