Partial-volume artifacts reduce vessel contrast and continuity (especially in small vessels) in magnetic resonance (MR) angiography. The authors applied zero-filled (band-limited) interpolation to three-dimensional (3D) MR angiograms to reduce partial-volume artifacts. They demonstrated that zero-filled interpolation can also be implemented by means of voxel shifting in real space. Voxel-shifted interpolation is much less computer memory intensive than conventional zero-filled interpolation. They numerically simulated the contrast loss due to partial-volume artifacts and contrast recovery obtained with zero-filled interpolation. Zero-filled interpolation in all three orthogonal directions was applied to 3D MR angiography data sets from 29 human studies. These studies were obtained with the three commonly used 3D MR angiography techniques: 3D time of flight, multislab 3D time of flight, and 3D phase contrast. A substantial improvement in vessel contrast and vessel continuity was observed in all cases.

Our preliminary findings suggest that white matter FA may be a clinically useful biomarker for the assessment of treatment-related neurotoxicity in post-treatment childhood cancer survivors.

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Background Digital health technologies (ie, the integration of digital technology and health information) aim to increase the efficiency of health care delivery; they are rapidly adapting to health care contexts to provide improved medical services for citizens. However, contrary to expectations, their rapid adoption appears to have led to health inequities, with differences in health conditions or inequality in the distribution of health care resources among different populations. Objective This scoping review aims to identify and describe the inequities of health care services brought about by the adoption of digital health technologies. The factors influencing such inequities, as well as the corresponding countermeasures to ensure health equity among different groups of citizens, were also studied. Methods Primary studies and literature, including articles and reviews, published in English between 1990 and 2020 were retrieved using appropriate search strategies across the following three electronic databases: Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus. Data management was performed by two authors (RY and WZ) using Thomson Endnote (Clarivate Analytics, Inc), by systematically screening and identifying eligible articles for this study. Any conflicts of opinion were resolved through discussions with the corresponding author. A qualitative descriptive synthesis was performed to determine the outcomes of this scoping review. Results A total of 2325 studies were collected during the search process, of which 41 (1.76%) papers were identified for further analysis. The quantity of literature increased until 2016, with a peak in 2020. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway ranked among the top 3 countries for publication output. Health inequities caused by the adoption of digital health technologies in health care services can be reflected in the following two dimensions: the inability of citizens to obtain and adopt technology and the different disease outcomes found among citizens under technical intervention measures. The factors that influenced inequities included age, race, region, economy, and education level, together with health conditions and eHealth literacy. Finally, action can be taken to alleviate inequities in the future by government agencies and medical institutions (eg, establishing national health insurance), digital health technology providers (eg, designing high-quality tools), and health care service recipients (eg, developing skills to access digital technologies). Conclusions The application of digital health technologies in health care services has caused inequities to some extent. However, existing research has certain limitations. The findings provide a comprehensive starting point for future research, allowing for further investigation into how digital health technologies may influence the unequal distribution of health care services. The interaction between individual subjective factors as well as social support and influencing factors should be included in future studies. Specifically, access to and availability of digital health technologies for socially disadvantaged groups should be of paramount importance.

Primary liver cancer is an important cause of cancer death, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for 70%-85% of total liver cancer worldwide. Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection contributes to > 75% of HCC cases. High serum viral load is the most reliable indicator of viral replication in predicting development of HCC. HBV genotype C is closely associated with HCC in cirrhotic patients aged > 50 years, whereas genotype B is associated with development of HCC in non-cirrhotic young patients and postoperative relapse of HCC. Different HBV subgenotypes have distinct patterns of mutations, which are clearly associated with increased risk of HCC. Mutations accumulate during chronic HBV infection and predict occurrence of HCC. Chronic inflammation leads to increased frequency of viral mutation via cellular cytidine deaminase induction. Mutations are negatively selected by host immunity, whereas some immuno-escaped HBV mutants are active in hepatocarcinogenesis. Inflammatory pathways contribute to the inflammation-necrosis-regeneration process, ultimately HCC. Their hallmark molecules can predict malignancy in HBV-infected subjects. Continuing inflammation is involved in hepatocarcinogenesis and closely related to recurrence and metastasis. HBV load, genotype C, viral mutations and expression of inflammatory molecules in HBV-related HCC tissues are significantly associated with poor prognosis. Imbalance between intratumoral CD8(+) T cells and regulatory T cells or Th1 and Th2 cytokines in peritumoral tissues can predict prognosis of HBV-related HCC. These factors are important for developing active prevention and surveillance of HBV-infected subjects who are more likely to develop HCC, or for tailoring suitable treatment to improve survival or postpone postoperative recurrence of HCC.

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