No abstract

Objective The purpose of this article is to determine the feasibility of using computer assisted diagnosis (CAD) techniques to automatically identify, localize, and measure body fat tissue from a rapid wholebody MRI examination Design Prospective investigative study.Setting Dublin, Ireland.Participants 42 volunteers (21 male, 21 female) aged 18 to 56. The study group consisted of healthy volunteers with a wide range of body weights, and included a cohort of high performance athletes. Main outcome measuresThe provision of an automated system, which assesses subjects' whole body MRI scans and which provides numerical and visual feedback to illustrate the findings. The system generates results in a matter of minutes allowing for an initial assessment to be performed immediately following the completion of an MRI scan. By highlighting areas where body fat is concentrated the system allows radiologists to quickly identify and examine regions of interest in the scan.Results Rapid, accurate, and reproducible delineation of body fat distribution can be obtained using whole body MRI techniques and Computer Aided Diagnosis.Conclusions Whole-body MRI in conjunction with CAD allows a fast, automatic, and accurate approach to body fat measurement and localization and can be a useful alternative to body mass index.Whole-body fat analysis can be achieved in less than 5 min.3

ABSTRACT:The Wnt/b-catenin pathway is a major signaling cascade in bone biology, playing a key role in regulating bone development and remodeling, with aberrations in signaling resulting in disturbances in bone mass. The objectives of our study were to correlate serum Dkk1 expression with bone mineral density (BMD) and assess the potential role of Dkk1 as a serological marker of bone mass. Serum was collected from a cohort of patients (n ¼ 36), 18 patients with a reduced BMD and 18 control patients. Serum Dkk1 expression as quantified by ELISA was correlated with lumbar and femoral t-and z-scores. Serum Dkk1 concentration in the osteoporosis group was significantly higher than control group (941 AE 116 vs. 558 AE 47 pg/ml, p < 0.01). Serum Dkk1 expression was highly correlated with bone mass variables with inverse associations found between serum Dkk1 expression and lumbar t-score (r ¼ À0.34, p ¼ 0.00433), lumbar z-score (r ¼ À0.22, p ¼ 0.1907), femur t-score (r ¼ À0.42, p ¼ 0.0101), and femur z-score (r ¼ À0.43, p ¼ 0.0089). Our data further emphasizes the pivotal role played by Wnt/b-catenin signaling in bone mass regulation. Dkk1, a powerful antagonist of canonical Wnt signaling, may have a role to play as a serological marker for disorders of bone mass, warranting further evaluation. ß

No abstract

Rapid kilovolt peak-switching dual-energy CT resulted in significant BH reduction and improvements in SNR and CNR in the myocardium and coronary arteries.