scholarly journals Diffusion–Based Virtual MR Elastography of the Liver: Can It Be Extended beyond Liver Fibrosis?

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 4553
Author(s):  
Takashi Ota ◽  
Masatoshi Hori ◽  
Denis Le Bihan ◽  
Hideyuki Fukui ◽  
Hiromitsu Onishi ◽  
...  

Background: Strong correlation has been reported between tissue water diffusivity and tissue elasticity in the liver. The purpose of this study is to explore the capability of diffusion–based virtual MR elastography (VMRE) in the characterization of liver tumors by extending beyond liver fibrosis assessments. Methods: Fifty-four patients (56 liver tumors: hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 31; metastases, 25) who underwent MRE, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) (b: 0, 800 s/mm2), and VMRE (b: 200, 1500 s/mm2) were enrolled. The MRE shear modulus (µMRE), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and shifted ADC (sADC) were obtained. Virtual stiffness (µdiff) was estimated from the relationship between µMRE and sADC. A linear discriminant analysis combining VMRE and MRE to classify HCC and metastases was performed in a training cohort (thirty-two patients) to estimate a classifier (C), and evaluate its accuracy in a testing cohort (twenty-two patients). Pearson’s correlations between µMRE, sADC, and ADC were evaluated. In addition to the discriminant analysis, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the discrimination capability between HCC and metastases. Results: The correlations between µMRE and sADC were significant for liver, HCC, and metastases (r = 0.91, 0.68, 0.71; all p < 0.05). Those between µMRE and ADC were weaker and significant only for metastases (r = 0.17, 0.20, 0.55). µdiff values were not significantly different between HCC and metastases (p = 0.56). Areas under the curves (AUC) to differentiate HCC from metastases were as follows: VMRE, 0.46; MRE alone, 0.89; MRE + VMRE, 0.96. The classifier C also provided better performance than MRE alone, in terms of sensitivity (100 vs. 93.5%, respectively) and specificity (92 vs. 76%, respectively, p = 0.046). Conclusions: The correlation between sADC and µMRE was strong both in the liver and in tumors. However, VMRE alone could not classify HCC and metastases. The combination of MRE and VMRE, however, allowed discriminant performance between HCC and metastases.

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1079-1087
Author(s):  
Jorgelina Z. Heredia ◽  
Carlos A. Moldes ◽  
Raúl A. Gil ◽  
José M. Camiña

Background: The elemental composition of maize grains depends on the soil, land and environment characteristics where the crop grows. These effects are important to evaluate the availability of nutrients with complex dynamics, such as the concentration of macro and micronutrients in soils, which can vary according to different topographies. There is available scarce information about the influence of topographic characteristics (upland and lowland) where culture is developed with the mineral composition of crop products, in the present case, maize seeds. On the other hand, the study of the topographic effect on crops using multivariate analysis tools has not been reported. Objective: This paper assesses the effect of topographic conditions on plants, analyzing the mineral profiles in maize seeds obtained in two land conditions: uplands and lowlands. Materials and Methods: The mineral profile was studied by microwave plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Samples were collected from lowlands and uplands of cultivable lands of the north-east of La Pampa province, Argentina. Results: Differentiation of maize seeds collected from both topographical areas was achieved by principal components analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). PCA model based on mineral profile allowed to differentiate seeds from upland and lowlands by the influence of Cr and Mg variables. A significant accumulation of Cr and Mg in seeds from lowlands was observed. Cluster analysis confirmed such grouping but also, linear discriminant analysis achieved a correct classification of both the crops, showing the effect of topography on elemental profile. Conclusions: Multi-elemental analysis combined with chemometric tools proved useful to assess the effect of topographic characteristics on crops.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohanad Mohammed ◽  
Henry Mwambi ◽  
Bernard Omolo

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer among women and men in the USA, and recent studies have shown an increasing incidence in less developed regions, including Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We developed a hybrid (DNA mutation and RNA expression) signature and assessed its predictive properties for the mutation status and survival of CRC patients. Methods: Publicly-available microarray and RNASeq data from 54 matched formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples from the Affymetrix GeneChip and RNASeq platforms, were used to obtain differentially expressed genes between mutant and wild-type samples. We applied the support-vector machines, artificial neural networks, random forests, k-nearest neighbor, naïve Bayes, negative binomial linear discriminant analysis, and the Poisson linear discriminant analysis algorithms for classification. Cox proportional hazards model was used for survival analysis. Results: Compared to the genelist from each of the individual platforms, the hybrid genelist had the highest accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC for mutation status, across all the classifiers and is prognostic for survival in patients with CRC. NBLDA method was the best performer on the RNASeq data while the SVM method was the most suitable classifier for CRC across the two data types. Nine genes were found to be predictive of survival. Conclusion: This signature could be useful in clinical practice, especially for colorectal cancer diagnosis and therapy. Future studies should determine the effectiveness of integration in cancer survival analysis and the application on unbalanced data, where the classes are of different sizes, as well as on data with multiple classes.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document