This study was to evaluate the prognostic value of pretreatment inflammatory indexes including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT). We enrolled 98 eligible CRC patients and divided them into high or low NLR, PLR, LMR, and SII groups according to their median index value, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to identify the potential predictors of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). In the univariate analysis, ECOG performance status, distant metastasis, NLR, PLR, LMR, and SII were found to be significantly associated with PFS and OS. In the multivariate analysis, ECOG performance status, distant metastasis, and NLR were identified to be independent predictors of PFS (HR 2.487, p = 0.012; HR 2.422, p = 0.042; HR 2.243, p = 0.034, respectively), and OS (HR 2.237, p = 0.018; HR 2.757, p = 0.020; HR 2.336, p = 0.017, respectively). The results of our study revealed that ECOG performance status, distant metastasis and NLR were independent prognostic factors of PFS and OS in CRC patients receiving neoadjuvant CRT.

This study aims at evaluating the prognostic significance of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and systemic immune-inflammation indexes (SII) in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients treated with cetuximab. Ninety-five patients receiving cetuximab for mCRC were categorized into the high or low NLR, PLR, LMR, and SII groups based on their median index values. Univariate and multivariate survival analysis were performed to identify the indexes’ correlation with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). In the univariate analysis, ECOG performance status, neutrphil counts, lymphocyte counts, monocyte counts, NLR, PLR, and LDH were associated with survival. Multivariate analysis showed that ECOG performance status of 0 (hazard ratio [HR] 3.608, p < 0.001; HR 5.030, p < 0.001, respectively), high absolute neutrophil counts (HR 2.837, p < 0.001; HR 1.922, p = 0.026, respectively), low lymphocyte counts (HR 0.352, p < 0.001; HR 0.440, p = 0.001, respectively), elevated NLR (HR 3.837, p < 0.001; HR 2.467, p = 0.006) were independent predictors of shorter PFS and OS. In conclusion, pre-treatment inflammatory indexes, especially NLR were potential biomarkers to predict the survival of mCRC patients with cetuximab therapy.

Background - The prognosis of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients has improved remarkably in recent decades with guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT). Left ventricular reverse remodeling (LVRR) is one of the major therapeutic goals. Whether myocardial fibrosis or inflammation would reverse associated with LVRR remains unknown. Methods - A total of 157 prospectively enrolled DCM patients underwent baseline and follow-up CMR examinations with a median interval of 13.7 months (interquartile range: 12.2-18.5 months). LVRR was defined as an absolute increase in LV ejection fraction (LVEF) of >10% to the final value of ≥ 35% and a relative decrease in LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) of >10%. Statistical analyses were performed using paired t-test and student t-test, logistic regression analysis, and linear regression analysis. Results - Forty-eight (31%) patients reached LVRR. At baseline, younger age, worse NYHA class, new-onset heart failure, lower LVEF, absence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), lower myocardial T2, and extracellular volume (ECV) were significant predictors of LVRR. During the follow-up, patients with and without LVRR both showed a significant decrease of myocardial native T1 (LVRR: [baseline]1303.0±43.6ms; [follow-up]1244.7±51.8ms; without LVRR: [baseline]1308.5±80.5ms; [follow-up]1287.6±74.9ms, both p < 0.001), matrix and cellular volumes while no significant difference was observed in T2 or ECV values after treatment. Conclusions - In idiopathic DCM patients, the absence of LGE, lower T2, and ECV values at baseline are significant predictors of LVRR. The myocardial T1, matrix, and cell volume decrease significantly in patients with LVRR after GDMT.

Objectives: This study was designed to estimate the performance of textural features derived from contrast-enhanced CT in the differential diagnosis of pancreatic serous cystadenomas and pancreatic mucinous cystadenomas. Methods: Fifty-three patients with pancreatic serous cystadenoma and 25 patients with pancreatic mucinous cystadenoma were included. Textural parameters of the pancreatic neoplasms were extracted using the LIFEx software, and were analyzed using random forest and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) methods. Patients were randomly divided into training and validation sets with a ratio of 4:1; random forest method was adopted to constructed a diagnostic prediction model. Scoring metrics included sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC. Results: Radiomics features extracted from contrast-enhanced CT were able to discriminate pancreatic mucinous cystadenomas from serous cystadenomas in both the training group (slice thickness of 2 mm, AUC 0.77, sensitivity 0.95, specificity 0.83, accuracy 0.85; slice thickness of 5 mm, AUC 0.72, sensitivity 0.90, specificity 0.84, accuracy 0.86) and the validation group (slice thickness of 2 mm, AUC 0.66, sensitivity 0.86, specificity 0.71, accuracy 0.74; slice thickness of 5 mm, AUC 0.75, sensitivity 0.85, specificity 0.83, accuracy 0.83). Conclusions: In conclusion, our study provided preliminary evidence that textural features derived from CT images were useful in differential diagnosis of pancreatic mucinous cystadenomas and serous cystadenomas, which may provide a non-invasive approach to determine whether surgery is needed in clinical practice. However, multicentre studies with larger sample size are needed to confirm these results.

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