Novel measures for the diagnosis of hepatic steatosis using contrast-enhanced computer tomography images.

PURPOSE: Hepatic steatosis is often diagnosed non-invasively. Various measures and accompanying diagnostic thresholds based on contrast-enhanced CT and virtual non-contrast images have been proposed. We compare these established criteria to novel and fully automated measures. METHOD: CT data sets of 197 patients were analyzed. Regions of interest (ROIs) were manually drawn for the liver, spleen, portal vein, and aorta to calculate four established measures of liver-fat. Two novel measures capturing the deviation between the empirical distributions of HU measurements across all voxels within the liver and spleen were calculated. These measures were calculated with both manual ROIs and using fully automated organ segmentations. Agreement between the different measures was evaluated using correlational analysis, as well as their ability to discriminate between fatty and healthy liver. RESULTS: Established and novel measures of fatty liver were at a high level of agreement. Novel methods were statistically indistinguishable from the established ones when taking established diagnostic thresholds or physicians' diagnoses as ground truth and this high performance level persisted for automatically selected ROIs. CONCLUSION: Automatically generated organ segmentations led to comparable results as manual ROIs, suggesting that the implementation of automated methods can prove to be a valuable tool for incidental diagnosis. Differences in the distribution of HU measurements across voxels between liver and spleen can serve as surrogate markers for the liver-fat-content. Novel measures do not exhibit a measurable disadvantage over established methods based on simpler measures such as across-voxel averages in a population with low incidence of fatty liver.

Quantification and reduction of cross-vendor variation in multicenter DWI MR imaging: results of the Cancer Core Europe imaging task force.

OBJECTIVES: In the Cancer Core Europe Consortium (CCE), standardized biomarkers are required for therapy monitoring oncologic multicenter clinical trials. Multiparametric functional MRI and particularly diffusion-weighted MRI offer evident advantages for noninvasive characterization of tumor viability compared to CT and RECIST. A quantification of the inter- and intraindividual variation occurring in this setting using different hardware is missing. In this study, the MRI protocol including DWI was standardized and the residual variability of measurement parameters quantified. METHODS: Phantom and volunteer measurements (single-shot T2w and DW-EPI) were performed at the seven CCE sites using the MR hardware produced by three different vendors. Repeated measurements were performed at the sites and across the sites including a traveling volunteer, comparing qualitative and quantitative ROI-based results including an explorative radiomics analysis. RESULTS: For DWI/ADC phantom measurements using a central post-processing algorithm, the maximum deviation could be decreased to 2%. However, there is no significant difference compared to a decentralized ADC value calculation at the respective MRI devices. In volunteers, the measurement variation in 2 repeated scans did not exceed 11% for ADC and is below 20% for single-shot T2w in systematic liver ROIs. The measurement variation between sites amounted to 20% for ADC and < 25% for single-shot T2w. Explorative radiomics classification experiments yield better results for ADC than for single-shot T2w. CONCLUSION: Harmonization of MR acquisition and post-processing parameters results in acceptable standard deviations for MR/DW imaging. MRI could be the tool in oncologic multicenter trials to overcome the limitations of RECIST-based response evaluation. KEY POINTS: • Harmonizing acquisition parameters and post-processing homogenization, standardized protocols result in acceptable standard deviations for multicenter MR-DWI studies. • Total measurement variation does not to exceed 11% for ADC in repeated measurements in repeated MR acquisitions, and below 20% for an identical volunteer travelling between sites. • Radiomic classification experiments were able to identify stable features allowing for reliable discrimination of different physiological tissue samples, even when using heterogeneous imaging data.

[Artificial intelligence and machine learning in oncologic imaging]. / Künstliche Intelligenz und maschinelles Lernen in der onkologischen Bildgebung.

Machine learning (ML) is entering many areas of society, including medicine. This transformation has the potential to drastically change medicine and medical practice. These aspects become particularly clear when considering the different stages of oncologic patient care and the involved interdisciplinary and intermodality interactions. In recent publications, computers-in collaboration with humans or alone-have been outperforming humans regarding tumor identification, tumor classification, estimating prognoses, and evaluation of treatments. In addition, ML algorithms, e.g., artificial neural networks (ANNs), which constitute the drivers behind many of the latest achievements in ML, can deliver this level of performance in a reproducible, fast, and inexpensive manner. In the future, artificial intelligence applications will become an integral part of the medical profession and offer advantages for oncologic diagnostics and treatment.

Proton ordering in (NH4)3H(SO4)2 at low-temperature phase transitions.

Single-crystal neutron diffraction was used to investigate the H-atom disorder in triammonium hydrogen disulfate (TAHS), (NH4)3H(SO4)2, below room temperature. Crystal structure analysis of the monoclinic phase III shows an increase of proton ordering with decreasing temperature in the (SO4)H(SO4) dimer. Moreover, the NH4(+) groups on a general position begin ordering in this phase. The monoclinic unit cell of TAHS-IV doubles in the b direction and a slight distortion of SO4(2-) and NH4(+) tetrahedra is observed. The order parameter introduced by Landau was determined for the second-order II/III and III/IV phase transitions from the intensities of the superstructure reflections. TAHS-V has a triclinic space group and the crystal structure seems to be completely ordered according to a structure analysis by single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements. In addition, the decisive role of the dynamical disorder of different ammonium groups on successive phase transitions is discussed. Additional peaks were observed by X-ray powder diffraction measurements at ∼ 70 K on cooling, which refers to the V/VII phase transition. These additional peaks remained up to ∼ 85 K on heating. They were described with a doubling of the unit cell along all three principal crystallographic directions.

The diphyllosilicate Rb2(VO)2[Si8O19].

Dirubidium divanadyl phyllooctasilicate, Rb(2)(VO)(2)[Si(8)O(19)], is the first known anhydrous diphyllosilicate containing V(IV). The structure consists of silicate double layers which are separated by [V(2)O(8)](8-) dimers and is related to that of the compounds A(2)Cu(2)[Si(8)O(19)] (A = Rb or Cs), although the title compound crystallizes in a noncentrosymmetric orthorhombic space group. The silicate double layers contain four tetrahedrally coordinated Si sites in general positions and 12 O sites, nine in general positions and the other three on mirror planes. The vanadyl dimers have two square-pyramidally coordinated V sites (site symmetry m). There are two different 10- and 12-fold coordinated Rb sites with site symmetry m, one of which is a split position located between the dimers in the interlayer space, while the other is in a channel within the silicate layer.

Temperature dependence of the AV3O7 (A = Ca, Sr) structure.

The V(4+) (spin (1/2)) oxovanadates AV(3)O(7) (A = Ca, Sr) were synthesized and studied by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The room-temperature structures of both compounds are orthorhombic and their respective space groups are Pnma and Pmmn. The previously assumed structure of SrV(3)O(7) has been revised and the temperature dependence of both crystal structures in the temperature ranges 297-100 K and 315-100 K, respectively, is discussed for the first time.

Synthesis and structural characterization of BaV4O9.

The new spin (1/2) V(4+) barium oxovanadate BaV(4)O(9) was synthesized and studied by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Its room-temperature structure is monoclinic, space group P2/c. We discuss the temperature evolution of the crystal structure and thermal expansion tensor of the material between 293 and 100 K.