Whole-body PET/CT scanning is accompanied by substantial radiation dose and cancer risk. Thus, examinations should be clinically justified, and measures should be taken to reduce the dose.

No abstract

The inflammatory process was already initiated in the myocardial cells in C57BL/6J mice at the early stage of C. pneumoniae infection and hyperlipidaemia. The expression of NF-kappaB and AP-1 was upregulated in mice infected by C. pneumoniae or fed an atherogenic diet. C. pneumoniae or hyperlipidaemia may involve the pathogenesis and progression of ischaemic cardiomyopathy.

Conduct disorder (CD) is one of the most common behavior disorders in adolescents, such as impulsivity, aggression, and running from school. Males are more likely to develop CD than females, and two previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have demonstrated abnormal microstructural integrity in the uncinate fasciculus (UF) in boys with CD compared to a healthy control group. However, little is known about changes in the UF in females with CD. In this study, the UF was illustrated by tractography; then, the fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity, mean diffusion, radial diffusivity (RD), and the length and number of the UF fiber bundles were compared between male and female patients with CD and between female patients with CD and female healthy controls, as well as between males with CD and healthy males. We found that males with CD showed significantly higher FA of the bilateral UF and significantly lower RD of the left UF when comparing with females with CD. Meanwhile, significantly higher FA and lower RD of the bilateral UF were also found in boys with CD relative to the male healthy controls. Our results replicated previous reports that the microstructural integrity of the UF was abnormal in boys with CD. Additionally, our results demonstrated significant gender effects on the UF of patients with CD, which may indicate why boys have higher rates of conduct problems than girls.

No abstract

In this preliminary study, we aimed to investigate the abnormalities of water diffusion in children with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Eight children with unilateral TLE (according to electroencephalography, EEG) and eight age- and sex-matched controls were recruited. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)/diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) acquisitions were performed. Radial diffusivity (λ(⊥)), axial diffusivity (λ(∥)), mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps were calculated for both DTI and DKI, and radial kurtosis (K(⊥)), axial kurtosis (K(∥)) and mean kurtosis (MK) maps were calculated for DKI only. Mann-Whitney test showed that, for white matter in the temporal lobe, DKI-derived λ(∥) , MD and K(∥) were significantly different in bilateral temporal lobes and EEG-abnormal and EEG-normal sides of the temporal lobe between patients and controls, whereas DTI showed no abnormalities. For gray matter, DKI detected significantly higher MD and MK in the same three comparisons, whereas DTI detected abnormalities only in the comparison between bilateral temporal lobes and between EEG-normal sides in cases and left-right matched sides in controls. No significant difference was observed between EEG-abnormal and EEG-normal sides in cases. These preliminary results indicate that DKI is more sensitive than DTI for the detection of diffusion abnormalities in the temporal lobes of children with TLE, even when EEG signals are normal. These findings pave the way for the application of DKI for in-depth studies on TLE in children.

• The correct assessment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is important for planning treatment. • Neovasculature in higher T stage NPC exhibits increased permeability and perfusion. • Correlation between quantitative and semi-quantitative analysis validates the robustness of DCE-MRI. • DCE-MRI may be helpful as an adjunctive parameter in evaluating NPC.

• Magnetic resonance imaging is increasingly used to assess nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). • NPC has distinctive diffusion/perfusion characteristics at different stages. • Non-invasive MR imaging may help pretreatment staging prediction. • Diffusion properties of NPC best correlate with AJCC and N staging. • Perfusion properties of NPC best correlate with T staging.