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Lai CC, Wang HK, Wang FN, Peng YC, Lin TP, Peng HH, Shen SH. Autosegmentation of Prostate Zones and Cancer Regions from Biparametric Magnetic Resonance Images by Using Deep-Learning-Based Neural Networks. Sensors (Basel) 2021; 21:s21082709. [PMID: 33921451 PMCID: PMC8070192 DOI: 10.3390/s21082709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2021] [Revised: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 04/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The accuracy in diagnosing prostate cancer (PCa) has increased with the development of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI). Biparametric magnetic resonance imaging (bpMRI) was found to have a diagnostic accuracy comparable to mpMRI in detecting PCa. However, prostate MRI assessment relies on human experts and specialized training with considerable inter-reader variability. Deep learning may be a more robust approach for prostate MRI assessment. Here we present a method for autosegmenting the prostate zone and cancer region by using SegNet, a deep convolution neural network (DCNN) model. We used PROSTATEx dataset to train the model and combined different sequences into three channels of a single image. For each subject, all slices that contained the transition zone (TZ), peripheral zone (PZ), and PCa region were selected. The datasets were produced using different combinations of images, including T2-weighted (T2W) images, diffusion-weighted images (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) images. Among these groups, the T2W + DWI + ADC images exhibited the best performance with a dice similarity coefficient of 90.45% for the TZ, 70.04% for the PZ, and 52.73% for the PCa region. Image sequence analysis with a DCNN model has the potential to assist PCa diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Ching Lai
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300044, Taiwan; (C.-C.L.); (F.-N.W.)
| | - Hsin-Kai Wang
- Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112201, Taiwan;
- School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112304, Taiwan; (Y.-C.P.); (T.-P.L.)
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300044, Taiwan; (C.-C.L.); (F.-N.W.)
| | - Yu-Ching Peng
- School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112304, Taiwan; (Y.-C.P.); (T.-P.L.)
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112201, Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Ping Lin
- School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112304, Taiwan; (Y.-C.P.); (T.-P.L.)
- Department of Urology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112201, Taiwan
| | - Hsu-Hsia Peng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300044, Taiwan; (C.-C.L.); (F.-N.W.)
- Correspondence: (H.-H.P.); (S.-H.S.); Tel.: +886-3-571-5131 (ext. 80189) (H.-H.P.); +886-2-28757350 (S.-H.S.)
| | - Shu-Huei Shen
- Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112201, Taiwan;
- School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112304, Taiwan; (Y.-C.P.); (T.-P.L.)
- Correspondence: (H.-H.P.); (S.-H.S.); Tel.: +886-3-571-5131 (ext. 80189) (H.-H.P.); +886-2-28757350 (S.-H.S.)
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Chang CC, Dinh TK, Lee YA, Wang FN, Sung YC, Yu PL, Chiu SC, Shih YC, Wu CY, Huang YD, Wang J, Lu TT, Wan D, Chen Y. Nanoparticle Delivery of MnO 2 and Antiangiogenic Therapy to Overcome Hypoxia-Driven Tumor Escape and Suppress Hepatocellular Carcinoma. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2020; 12:44407-44419. [PMID: 32865389 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c08473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Antiangiogenic therapy is widely administered in many cancers, and the antiangiogenic drug sorafenib offers moderate benefits in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, antiangiogenic therapy can also lead to hypoxia-driven angiogenesis and immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and metastasis. Here, we report the synthesis and evaluation of NanoMnSor, a tumor-targeted, nanoparticle drug carrier that efficiently codelivers oxygen-generating MnO2 and sorafenib into HCC. We found that MnO2 not only alleviates hypoxia by catalyzing the decomposition of H2O2 to oxygen but also enhances pH/redox-responsive T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and drug-release properties upon decomposition into Mn2+ ions in the TME. Moreover, macrophages exposed to MnO2 displayed increased mRNA associated with the immunostimulatory M1 phenotype. We further show that NanoMnSor treatment leads to sorafenib-induced decrease in tumor vascularization and significantly suppresses primary tumor growth and distal metastasis, resulting in improved overall survival in a mouse orthotopic HCC model. Furthermore, NanoMnSor reprograms the immunosuppressive TME by reducing the hypoxia-induced tumor infiltration of tumor-associated macrophages, promoting macrophage polarization toward the immunostimulatory M1 phenotype, and increasing the number of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in tumors, thereby augmenting the efficacy of anti-PD-1 antibody and whole-cell cancer vaccine immunotherapies. Our study demonstrates the potential of oxygen-generating nanoparticles to deliver antiangiogenic agents, efficiently modulate the hypoxic TME, and overcome hypoxia-driven drug resistance, thereby providing therapeutic benefit in cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Chun Chang
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Trinh Kieu Dinh
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Yi-An Lee
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Yun-Chieh Sung
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Pei-Lun Yu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Shao-Chieh Chiu
- Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging and Translation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Chuan Shih
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Cheng-Yun Wu
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Da Huang
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Jane Wang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Tsai-Te Lu
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Dehui Wan
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
| | - Yunching Chen
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
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Sung YC, Jin PR, Chu LA, Hsu FF, Wang MR, Chang CC, Chiou SJ, Qiu JT, Gao DY, Lin CC, Chen YS, Hsu YC, Wang J, Wang FN, Yu PL, Chiang AS, Wu AYT, Ko JJS, Lai CPK, Lu TT, Chen Y. Delivery of nitric oxide with a nanocarrier promotes tumour vessel normalization and potentiates anti-cancer therapies. Nat Nanotechnol 2019; 14:1160-1169. [PMID: 31740794 DOI: 10.1038/s41565-019-0570-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 216] [Impact Index Per Article: 43.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2018] [Accepted: 10/03/2019] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Abnormal tumour vasculature has a significant impact on tumour progression and response to therapy. Nitric oxide (NO) regulates angiogenesis and maintains vascular homeostasis and, thus, can be delivered to normalize tumour vasculature. However, a NO-delivery system with a prolonged half-life and a sustained release mechanism is currently lacking. Here we report the development of NanoNO, a nanoscale carrier that enables sustained NO release to efficiently deliver NO into hepatocellular carcinoma. Low-dose NanoNO normalizes tumour vessels and improves the delivery and effectiveness of chemotherapeutics and tumour necrosis factor-related, apoptosis-inducing, ligand-based therapy in both primary tumours and metastases. Furthermore, low-dose NanoNO reprogrammes the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment toward an immunostimulatory phenotype, thereby improving the efficacy of cancer vaccine immunotherapy. Our findings demonstrate the ability of nanoscale NO delivery to efficiently reprogramme tumour vasculature and immune microenvironments to overcome resistance to cancer therapy, resulting in a therapeutic benefit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun-Chieh Sung
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Pei-Ru Jin
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Li-An Chu
- Brain Research Center, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Fu-Fei Hsu
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Mei-Ren Wang
- Department of Chemistry, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Chun Chang
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Show-Jen Chiou
- Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiayi University, Chiayi, Taiwan
| | - Jiantai Timothy Qiu
- School of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Dong-Yu Gao
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Chu-Chi Lin
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Sing Chen
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Chiung Hsu
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Jane Wang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Pei-Lun Yu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Ann-Shyn Chiang
- Brain Research Center, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
- Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Institute of Molecular and Genomic Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Miaoli, Taiwan
| | - Anthony Yan-Tang Wu
- Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Chemical Biology and Molecular Biophysics Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department and Graduate Institute of Pharmacology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - John Jun-Sheng Ko
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Charles Pin-Kuang Lai
- Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Chemical Biology and Molecular Biophysics Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Genome and Systems Biology Degree Program, National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tsai-Te Lu
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
- Department of Chemistry, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
| | - Yunching Chen
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
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Wu CH, Liu HL, Ho CT, Hsu PH, Fan CH, Yeh CK, Kang ST, Chen WS, Wang FN, Peng HH. Monitoring of acoustic cavitation in microbubble-presented focused ultrasound exposure using gradient-echo MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging 2019; 51:311-318. [PMID: 31125166 DOI: 10.1002/jmri.26801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2019] [Accepted: 05/13/2019] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Gadolinium-based contrast agents can be used to identify the blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening after inducing a focused ultrasound (FUS) cavitation effect in the presence of microbubbles. However, the use of gadolinium may be limited for frequent routine monitoring of the BBB opening in clinical applications. PURPOSE To use a gradient-echo sequence without contrast agent administration for monitoring of acoustic cavitation. STUDY TYPE Animal and phantom prospective. PHANTOM/ANIMAL MODEL Static and flowing gel phantoms; six normal adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE 3T, 7T; fast low-angle shot sequence. ASSESSMENT Burst FUS with acoustic pressures = 1.5, 2.2, 2.8 MPa; pulse repetition frequencies = 1, 10,100 Hz; and duty cycles = 2%, 5%, 10% were transmitted to the chamber of a static phantom with microbubble concentrations = 10%, 1%, 0.1%. MR slice thicknesses = 3, 6, 8 mm were acquired. In flowing phantom experiments, 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1% microbubbles were infused and transmitted by burst FUS with an acoustic pressure = 0.4 and 1 MPa. In in vivo experiments, 0.25% microbubbles was infused and 0.8 MPa burst FUS was transmitted to targeted brain tissue beneath the superior sagittal sinus. The mean signal intensity (SI) was normalized using the mean SI from pre-FUS. STATISTICAL TESTS Two-tailed Student's t-test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS In the static phantom, the time courses of normalized SI decreases to minimum SI levels of 70-80%. In the flowing phantom, substantial normalized SI of 160-230% was present with variant acoustic pressures and microbubble concentrations. Compared with in vivo control rats, the brain tissue of experimental rats with transmission of FUS pulses exhibited considerable decreases of normalized SI (P < 0.001) because of the cavitation-induced perturbation of flow. DATA CONCLUSION Observing gradient-echo SI changes can help monitor the targeted location of microbubble-enhanced FUS, which in turn assists the monitoring of the BBB opening. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2020;51:311-318.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen-Hua Wu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Hao-Li Liu
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Chang-gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.,Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging and Translation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Cheng-Tao Ho
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Po-Hung Hsu
- Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging and Translation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Ching-Hsiang Fan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Kuang Yeh
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Shih-Tsung Kang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Wen-Shiang Chen
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.,Division of Medical Engineering Research, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.,Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Hsu-Hsia Peng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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Lai CC, Huang PH, Wang FN, Shen SH, Wang HK, Liu HT, Chung HJ, Lin TP, Chang YH, Pan CC, Peng SL. Histogram analysis of prostate cancer on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging: A preliminary study emphasizing on zonal difference. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0212092. [PMID: 30753222 PMCID: PMC6372178 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2017] [Accepted: 01/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Background This study evaluated the performance of histogram analysis in the time course of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) for differentiating cancerous tissues from benign tissues in the prostate. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the histograms of DCE-MRI of 30 patients. Histograms within regions of interest(ROI) in the peripheral zone (PZ) and transitional zone (TZ) were separately analyzed. The maximum difference wash-in slope (MWS) and delay phase slope (DPS) were defined for each voxel. Differences in histogram parameters, namely the mean, standard deviation (SD), the coefficient of variation (CV), kurtosis, skewness, interquartile range (IQR), percentile (P10, P25, P75, P90, and P90P10), Range, and modified full width at half-maximum (mFWHM) between cancerous and benign tissues were assessed. Results In the TZ, CV for ROIs of 7.5 and 10mm was the only significantly different parameter of the MWS (P = 0.034 and P = 0.004, respectively), whereas many parameters of the DPS (mean, skewness, P10, P25, P50, P75 and P90) differed significantly (P = <0.001–0.016 and area under the curve [AUC] = 0.73–0.822). In the PZ, all parameters of the MWS exhibited significant differences, except kurtosis and skewness in the ROI of 7.5mm(P = <0.001–0.017 and AUC = 0.865–0.898). SD, IQR, mFWHM, P90P10 and Range were also significant differences in the DPS (P = 0.001–0.035). Conclusion The histogram analysis of DCE-MRI is a potentially useful approach for differentiating prostate cancer from normal tissues. Different histogram parameters of the MWS and DPS should be applied in the TZ and PZ.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Ching Lai
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Pin-Hsun Huang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Shu-Huei Shen
- Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- School of Medicine, Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
- * E-mail:
| | - Hsin-Kai Wang
- Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- School of Medicine, Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsian-Tzu Liu
- Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- School of Medicine, Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsiao-Jen Chung
- School of Medicine, Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Urology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Ping Lin
- School of Medicine, Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Urology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yen-Hwa Chang
- School of Medicine, Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Urology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chin-Chen Pan
- School of Medicine, Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Pathology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shin-Lei Peng
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
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Jiang PS, Tsai HY, Drake P, Wang FN, Chiang CS. Gadolinium-doped iron oxide nanoparticles induced magnetic field hyperthermia combined with radiotherapy increases tumour response by vascular disruption and improved oxygenation. Int J Hyperthermia 2017; 33:770-778. [PMID: 28540811 DOI: 10.1080/02656736.2017.1308019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The gadolinium-doped iron oxide nanoparticles (GdIONP) with greater specific power adsorption rate (SAR) than Fe3O4 was developed and its potential application in tumour therapy and particle tracking were demonstrated in transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate C1 (TRAMP-C1) tumours. The GdIONPs accumulated in tumour region during the treatment could be clearly tracked and quantified by T2-weighted MR imaging. The therapeutic effects of GdIONP-mediated hyperthermia alone or in combination with radiotherapy (RT) were also evaluated. A significant increase in the tumour growth time was observed following the treatment of thermotherapy (TT) only group (2.5 days), radiation therapy only group (4.5 days), and the combined radio-thermotherapy group (10 days). Immunohistochemical staining revealed a reduced hypoxia region with vascular disruption and extensive tumour necrosis following the combined radio-thermotherapy. These results indicate that GdIONP-mediated hyperthermia can improve the efficacy of RT by its dual functions in high temperature (temperature greater than 45 °C)-mediated thermal ablation and mild-temperature hyperthermia (MTH) (temperature between 39 and 42 °C)-mediated reoxygenation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei-Shin Jiang
- a Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences , National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu , Taiwan.,b Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute , Hsinchu , Taiwan
| | - Hsin-Yu Tsai
- a Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences , National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu , Taiwan
| | - Philip Drake
- c Chemistry and Forensic Science, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford , Braford , UK
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- a Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences , National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu , Taiwan
| | - Chi-Shiun Chiang
- a Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences , National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu , Taiwan
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Peng SL, Wang FN, Yang TC, Hsu JC, Wu YC, Peng HH. Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging for the evaluation of wall shear stress in the common carotid artery of a spontaneously hypertensive rat model at 7T: Location-specific change, regional distribution along the vascular circumference, and reproducibility analysis. Magn Reson Imaging 2015; 34:624-31. [PMID: 26712655 DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2015.12.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2015] [Accepted: 12/14/2015] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE To measure wall shear stress (WSS) in the common carotid arteries (CCA) of a spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model and a normotensive Wistar Kyoto rat (WKY) model by 2D phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI). MATERIALS AND METHODS PC-MRI was performed on 7 SHR and 7 WKY at ages of 4 and 7months at a 7T scanner. Images in the middle CCA (CCAmid) and in the bifurcation of CCA (CCAbifur) were acquired. The WSS values for differentiating characteristics between two models were calculated. Further, its location-specific change, regional distribution along the CCA circumference, and the reproducibility were evaluated. RESULTS In the 4-month-old rats, SHR showed lower temporal averaged WSS (WSSavg) and peak systolic WSS (WSSs) in the CCAbifur in comparison with WKY (WSSavg: 0.95±0.18 vs. 1.30±0.36N/m(2) (P<0.01); WSSs: 1.68±0.70 vs. 3.22±2.49N/m(2) (P<0.05)). We observed the same trends in the 7-month-old rats. In the SHR model, the WSSavg was lower in the CCAbifur than in the CCAmid. The regional distribution of WSSavg along the circumference of CCA showed lower values in WKY, particularly in posterior segments of CCAbifur. The intra-observer, intra-scan and inter-scan reproducibility was acceptable and the disagreements were ranged from -0.05 to 0.06N/m(2). CONCLUSION This study evaluated WSS in SHR and WKY models by 2D PC-MRI. High reproducibility analyses further indicated the reliability of measurements of WSS in the CCA of SHR and WKY models using PC-MRI at 7T.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shin-Lei Peng
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Tao-Chieh Yang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Jee-Ching Hsu
- Department of Anesthesiology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Yi-Chun Wu
- Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging and Translation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Hsu-Hsia Peng
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
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8
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Huang SM, Jan ML, Liang HC, Chang CH, Wu YC, Tsai SY, Wang FN. Investigation of Readout RF Pulse Impact on the Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer Spectrum. Sci Rep 2015; 5:15062. [PMID: 26455576 PMCID: PMC4601040 DOI: 10.1038/srep15062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2015] [Accepted: 09/14/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging (CEST-MRI) is capable of both microenvironment and molecular imaging. The optimization of scanning parameters is important since the CEST effect is sensitive to factors such as saturation power and field homogeneity. The aim of this study was to determine if the CEST effect would be altered by changing the length of readout RF pulses. Both theoretical computer simulation and phantom experiments were performed to examine the influence of readout RF pulses. Our results showed that the length of readout RF pulses has unremarkable impact on the Z-spectrum and CEST effect in both computer simulation and phantom experiment. Moreover, we demonstrated that multiple refocusing RF pulses used in rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) sequence induced no obvious saturation transfer contrast. Therefore, readout RF pulse has negligible effect on CEST Z-spectrum and the optimization of readout RF pulse length can be disregarded in CEST imaging protocol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheng-Min Huang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
| | - Meei-Ling Jan
- Health Physics Division, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Lungtan, Taoyuan 32546, Taiwan
| | - Hsin-Chin Liang
- Health Physics Division, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Lungtan, Taoyuan 32546, Taiwan
| | - Chia-Hao Chang
- Health Physics Division, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Lungtan, Taoyuan 32546, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Chun Wu
- Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging and Translation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
| | - Shang-Yueh Tsai
- Graduate Institute of Applied Physics, National Chengchi University, Taipei 11605, Taiwan.,Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning, National Chengchi University, Taipei 11605, Taiwan
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
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Peng SL, Su P, Wang FN, Cao Y, Zhang R, Lu H, Liu P. Optimization of phase-contrast MRI for the quantification of whole-brain cerebral blood flow. J Magn Reson Imaging 2015; 42:1126-33. [PMID: 25676350 DOI: 10.1002/jmri.24866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2014] [Accepted: 01/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Whole-brain cerebral blood flow (CBF) measured by phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) provides an important index for brain function. This work aimed to optimize the PC-MRI imaging protocol for accurate CBF measurements. METHODS Two studies were performed on a 3 Tesla system. In Study 1 (N = 12), we optimized in-plane resolution of PC-MRI acquisition for CBF quantification by considering accuracy, precision, and scan duration. In Study 2 (N = 7), we assessed the detrimental effect of nonperpendicular imaging slice orientation on CBF quantification. Both One-way analysis of variance with repeated measurement and Friedman test were used to examine the effects of resolution and angulation on CBF quantification. Additionally, we evaluated the inter-rater reliability in PC-MRI data processing. RESULTS Our results showed that CBF measurement with 0.7 mm resolution could be overestimated by up to 13.3% when compared with 0.4 mm resolution. Moreover, CBF could also be overestimated by up to 18.8% when the slice orientation is deviated by 30° from the ideal angulation. However, within 10° of the ideal slice orientation, estimated CBF was not significantly different from each other (P = 0.23 and 0.45 for internal carotid artery and vertebral artery, respectively). Inter-rater difference was <3%. CONCLUSION For fast and accurate quantification of whole-brain CBF with PC-MRI, we recommend the use of an imaging resolution of 0.5 mm and a slice orientation that is less than 10° from vessel's axial plane.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shin-Lei Peng
- Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.,Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Pan Su
- Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.,Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Yan Cao
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
| | - Rong Zhang
- Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - Hanzhang Lu
- Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.,Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - Peiying Liu
- Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
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10
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Peng SL, Wang FN, Wang CH, Peng HH, Lu CT, Yeh CK. Using microbubbles as an MRI contrast agent for the measurement of cerebral blood volume. NMR Biomed 2013; 26:1540-1546. [PMID: 23794141 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.2988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2012] [Revised: 05/17/2013] [Accepted: 05/17/2013] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
The susceptibility differences at the gas-liquid interface of microbubbles (MBs) allow their use as an intravascular susceptibility contrast agent for in vivo MRI. However, the characteristics of MBs are very different from those of the standard gadolinium-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-DPTA) contrast agent, including the size distribution and hemodynamic properties, which could influence MRI outcomes. Here, we investigate quantitatively the correlation between the relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) derived from Gd-DTPA (rCBV(Gd)) and the MB-induced susceptibility effect (ΔR(2*MB)) by conventional dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI (DSC-MRI). Custom-made MBs had a mean diameter of 0.92 µm and were capable of inducing 4.68 ± 3.02% of the maximum signal change (MSC). The MB-associated ΔR(2*MB) was compared with rCBV(Gd) in 16 rats on 4.7-T MRI. We observed a significant effect of the time to peak (TTP) on the correlation between ΔR(2*MB) and rCBV(Gd), and also found a noticeable dependence between TTP and MSC. Our findings suggest that MBs with longer TTPs can be used for the estimation of rCBV by DSC-MRI, and emphasize the critical effect of TTP on MB-based contrast MRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shin-Lei Peng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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11
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Wang FN, Peng SL, Lu CT, Peng HH, Yeh TC. Water signal attenuation by D2O infusion as a novel contrast mechanism for 1H perfusion MRI. NMR Biomed 2013; 26:692-698. [PMID: 23355425 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.2914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2012] [Revised: 12/06/2012] [Accepted: 12/06/2012] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Deuterium oxide (D2 O), which is commercially available and nonradioactive, was proposed as a perfusion tracer before the clinical usage of conventional gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents. However, the sensitivity of direct deuterium detection is the major challenge for its application. In this study, we propose a contrast-enhanced strategy to indirectly trace administered D2 O by monitoring the signal attenuation of (1) H MRI. Experiments on D2 O concentration phantoms and in vivo rat brains were conducted to prove the concept of the proposed contrast mechanism. An average maximum signal drop ratio of 5.25 ± 0.91% was detected on (1) H MR images of rat brains with 2 mL of D2 O administered per 100 g of body weight. As a diffusible tracer for perfusion, D2 O infusion is a practicable method for the assessment of tissue perfusion and has the potential to provide different information from gadolinium-based contrast agents, which have limited permeability for blood vessels. Furthermore, the observed negative relaxivities of D2 O reveal the (1) H-D exchange effect. Therefore, applications of perfusion MRI with D2 O as a contrast agent are worthy of further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, College of Nuclear Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
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12
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Wang TH, Jian CH, Hsieh YK, Wang FN, Wang CF. Spatial distributions of inorganic elements in honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) and possible relationships to dietary habits and surrounding environmental pollutants. J Agric Food Chem 2013; 61:5009-5015. [PMID: 23646931 DOI: 10.1021/jf400695w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
In this study, the laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was adopted to determine the distribution of inorganic elements, including Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, S, P, Pb, and Zn, in honeybees (Apis melifera L.). Two features are particularly noteworthy. First, it was found there is a significant amount of Fe located at the fringe of the abdomen in worker bees; ultrasonic imaging, scanning electron microscopy, and magnetic resonance imaging revealed that it arose from magnetic Fe-bearing nanoparticles (NPs) having an average diameter of approximately 40 nm. Interestingly, only worker bees contained these magnetic Fe-bearing NPs; no similar features appeared in larvae, pupae, wasps, or drones. Second, a detectable amount of Pb accumulated particularly in the alimentary canals of worker bees. Again, no detectable amounts of Pb in larvae, pupae, drones, or wasps, yet a level of 0.24 ± 0.05 mg/kg of Pb in pollen; therefore, the diet appears to be the primary pathway for environmental pollutants entering the honeybees' food chain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tsing-Hai Wang
- Biomedical Engineering and Environment Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
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13
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Chang HC, Chuang TC, Lin YR, Wang FN, Huang TY, Chung HW. Correction of geometric distortion in Propeller echo planar imaging using a modified reversed gradient approach. Quant Imaging Med Surg 2013; 3:73-81. [PMID: 23630654 DOI: 10.3978/j.issn.2223-4292.2013.03.05] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2013] [Accepted: 03/26/2013] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study investigates the application of a modified reversed gradient algorithm to the Propeller-EPI imaging method (periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction based on echo-planar imaging readout) for corrections of geometric distortions due to the EPI readout. MATERIALS AND METHODS Propeller-EPI acquisition was executed with 360-degree rotational coverage of the k-space, from which the image pairs with opposite phase-encoding gradient polarities were extracted for reversed gradient geometric and intensity corrections. The spatial displacements obtained on a pixel-by-pixel basis were fitted using a two-dimensional polynomial followed by low-pass filtering to assure correction reliability in low-signal regions. Single-shot EPI images were obtained on a phantom, whereas high spatial resolution T2-weighted and diffusion tensor Propeller-EPI data were acquired in vivo from healthy subjects at 3.0 Tesla, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. RESULTS Phantom images show success of the smoothed displacement map concept in providing improvements of the geometric corrections at low-signal regions. Human brain images demonstrate prominently superior reconstruction quality of Propeller-EPI images with modified reversed gradient corrections as compared with those obtained without corrections, as evidenced from verification against the distortion-free fast spin-echo images at the same level. CONCLUSIONS The modified reversed gradient method is an effective approach to obtain high-resolution Propeller-EPI images with substantially reduced artifacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hing-Chiu Chang
- Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA; ; Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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Peng SL, Chen CF, Liu HL, Lui CC, Huang YJ, Lee TH, Chang CC, Wang FN. Analysis of parametric histogram from dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI: application in evaluating brain tumor response to radiotherapy. NMR Biomed 2013; 26:443-450. [PMID: 23073840 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.2882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2012] [Revised: 09/12/2012] [Accepted: 09/12/2012] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE MRI) has been used to study tumor response to treatment for many years. In this study, the modified full width at half-maximum (mFWHM), calculated from the wash-in slope histogram, is proposed as a parameter for the evaluation of changes in tumor heterogeneity which respond to radiotherapy. Twenty-five patients with brain tumors were evaluated and divided into the nonresponder group (n = 11) and the responder group (n = 14) according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). All selected tumors were evaluated by mFWHM ratios of post- to pre-therapy (the ratio was defined as the therapeutic mFWHM ratio, TMR). The changes in kurtosis of the histograms and the averaged K(trans) within a tumor were also calculated for comparison. The receiver operating characteristic analysis and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to examine the diagnosis ability. The TMR values were significantly higher in nonresponders than in responders (p < 0.001). When compared with the other two parameters, the proposed method also demonstrated better sensitivity and specificity. When adopting the TMR for the estimation of prognosis after therapy, there was a significant difference between the population survival curves. In conclusion, the derived mFWHM reflects tumor heterogeneity, and the ability to depict patient survival probability from TMR corresponds well with that from RECIST. The results reveal that, in brain tumors, progression may be exhibited not only by tumor size, but also by tumor heterogeneity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shin-Lei Peng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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15
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Lin FH, Witzel T, Schultz G, Gallichan D, Kuo WJ, Wang FN, Hennig J, Zaitsev M, Belliveau JW. Reconstruction of MRI data encoded by multiple nonbijective curvilinear magnetic fields. Magn Reson Med 2012; 68:1145-56. [PMID: 22246786 PMCID: PMC3736833 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.24115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2011] [Revised: 10/18/2011] [Accepted: 11/18/2011] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Parallel imaging technique using localized gradients (PatLoc) uses the combination of surface gradient coils generating nonbijective curvilinear magnetic fields for spatial encoding. PatLoc imaging using one pair of multipolar spatial encoding magnetic fields (SEMs) has two major caveats: (1) The direct inversion of the encoding matrix requires exact determination of multiple locations which are ambiguously encoded by the SEMs. (2) Reconstructed images have a prominent loss of spatial resolution at the center of field-of-view using a symmetric coil array for signal detection. This study shows that a PatLoc system actually has a higher degree of freedom in spatial encoding to mitigate the two challenges mentioned above. Specifically, a PatLoc system can generate not only multipolar but also linear SEMs, which can be used to reduce the loss of spatial resolution at the field-of-view center. Here, we present an efficient and generalized image reconstruction method for PatLoc imaging using multiple SEMs without explicitly identifying the locations where SEM encoding is not unique. Reconstructions using simulations and empirical experimental data are compared with those using conventional linear gradients to demonstrate that the general combination of SEMs can improve image reconstructions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fa-Hsuan Lin
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Harvard Medical School - Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Thomas Witzel
- Harvard Medical School - Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Gerrit Schultz
- Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Daniel Gallichan
- Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Wen-Jui Kuo
- Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Juergen Hennig
- Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Maxim Zaitsev
- Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - John W. Belliveau
- Harvard Medical School - Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
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16
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Lin FH, Nummenmaa A, Witzel T, Polimeni JR, Zeffiro TA, Wang FN, Belliveau JW. Physiological noise reduction using volumetric functional magnetic resonance inverse imaging. Hum Brain Mapp 2011; 33:2815-30. [PMID: 21954026 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.21403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2010] [Revised: 05/31/2011] [Accepted: 06/14/2011] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Physiological noise arising from a variety of sources can significantly degrade the detection of task-related activity in BOLD-contrast fMRI experiments. If whole head spatial coverage is desired, effective suppression of oscillatory physiological noise from cardiac and respiratory fluctuations is quite difficult without external monitoring, since traditional EPI acquisition methods cannot sample the signal rapidly enough to satisfy the Nyquist sampling theorem, leading to temporal aliasing of noise. Using a combination of high speed magnetic resonance inverse imaging (InI) and digital filtering, we demonstrate that it is possible to suppress cardiac and respiratory noise without auxiliary monitoring, while achieving whole head spatial coverage and reasonable spatial resolution. Our systematic study of the effects of different moving average (MA) digital filters demonstrates that a MA filter with a 2 s window can effectively reduce the variance in the hemodynamic baseline signal, thereby achieving 57%-58% improvements in peak z-statistic values compared to unfiltered InI or spatially smoothed EPI data (FWHM = 8.6 mm). In conclusion, the high temporal sampling rates achievable with InI permit significant reductions in physiological noise using standard temporal filtering techniques that result in significant improvements in hemodynamic response estimation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fa-Hsuan Lin
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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17
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Yang YH, Huang TY, Wang FN, Chuang TC, Chen NK. Accelerating EPI distortion correction by utilizing a modern GPU-based parallel computation. J Neuroimaging 2011; 23:202-6. [PMID: 21914033 DOI: 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2011.00654.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The combination of phase demodulation and field mapping is a practical method to correct echo planar imaging (EPI) geometric distortion. However, since phase dispersion accumulates in each phase-encoding step, the calculation complexity of phase modulation is Ny-fold higher than conventional image reconstructions. Thus, correcting EPI images via phase demodulation is generally a time-consuming task. METHODS Parallel computing by employing general-purpose calculations on graphics processing units (GPU) can accelerate scientific computing if the algorithm is parallelized. This study proposes a method that incorporates the GPU-based technique into phase demodulation calculations to reduce computation time. The proposed parallel algorithm was applied to a PROPELLER-EPI diffusion tensor data set. RESULTS The GPU-based phase demodulation method reduced the EPI distortion correctly, and accelerated the computation. The total reconstruction time of the 16-slice PROPELLER-EPI diffusion tensor images with matrix size of 128 × 128 was reduced from 1,754 seconds to 101 seconds by utilizing the parallelized 4-GPU program. CONCLUSIONS GPU computing is a promising method to accelerate EPI geometric correction. The resulting reduction in computation time of phase demodulation should accelerate postprocessing for studies performed with EPI, and should effectuate the PROPELLER-EPI technique for clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yao-Hao Yang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
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18
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Wang FN, Suh BY. REVISION OF HYPO-OSMOTIC SWELLING (HOS) TEST WITH A PROPOSITION OF CLASSIFIED GRADING SYSTEM: iTS COMPARISONS WITH FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF HUMAN SPERM SEPARATION TECHNIQUE. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2009; 51:317-26. [PMID: 16036640 DOI: 10.1080/014850190922649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
In this study, we arbitrarily classified the morphological changes of sperm under hypo-osmotic condition and compared the results with four different sperm separation techniques. The morphology of classification ranged from a good swelling (SG 3 > SG 2 > SG 1), to non-swelling but reactive (SG 0-R), and completely non-swelling (SG 0). Thirty fresh semen from patients were divided into 4 groups and each processed by washing, swim up, 2-layer column and real time micro-separation system. The prevalent patterns of the swollen sperm in sequence after treatment was SG 0 > SG 1 > SG 3 > SG2 > SG 0-R in fresh semen, and the proportion of SG 0 was almost half of the total % HOS test results. However, SG 3 became the most common swollen form with a significant increase in number with any method of sperm preparation after treatment. The real time technique yielded the highest % rate of SG 3 type of swollen spermatozoa and was the richest in concentration (53+/-3.9%, P < 0.05) as compared with that of swim up (26+/-4.6%), 2-layer (20+/-4.4%), sperm washing (23+/-3.9%), and fresh semen (17+/- 2.8%), respectively. By contrast, 2-layer collected more number of SG0-R (5.3+/-1.2%, P < 0.05) pattern of spermatozoa when compared to real time and swim up. A positive correlation (r = 0.81, P < 0.002) was shown between the % total HOS spermatozoa and total motility of fresh semen but not with morphology. Collectively, an abnormally functional sperm may exist in almost half of a total sperm count from men. It would appear that a better potential fertilization capacity may reside in the more swollen sperm from HOS test than the less swollen sperm and that may be more related with the motility rather than the morphology. The HOS classification and grading system appears valuable in further evaluating sperm quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- F N Wang
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, King/Drew Medical Center, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Sciences, Los Angeles, California 90059, USA
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19
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Chen YI, Wang FN, Nelson AJ, Xu H, Kim Y, Rosen BR, Kwong KK. Electrical stimulation modulates the amphetamine-induced hemodynamic changes: an fMRI study to compare the effect of stimulating locations and frequencies on rats. Neurosci Lett 2008; 444:117-21. [PMID: 18722508 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2008.08.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2008] [Revised: 08/08/2008] [Accepted: 08/11/2008] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
UNLABELLED Our previous fMRI and microdialysis measurements showed that electroacupuncture (EA) at LI4 was effective in alleviating excessive cerebral dopamine release induced by d-amphetamine (AMPH) in rats. We now compare the effect of EA in adjusting excess dopamine release at two stimulating frequencies (2 Hz versus 100 Hz at LI4) and at two acupoints (forepaw (LI4) versus hindpaw (ST36), at 2 Hz). fMRI measurements of relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) were used to monitor the brain activity of "rest", followed by AMPH challenge, 10 min "rest", and then 20 min of EA. RESULTS EA at LI4 and ST36 significantly attenuated the AMPH-induced rCBV increases in the striatum, S1 cortex, and thalamus. Frequency: EA at 100 Hz induced greater attenuation of rCBV than EA at 2 Hz in the S1, insula, anterior cingulate cortices, dorsolateral striatum, and thalamus. Acupoints: EA at LI4 modulated a broader area in the medial anterior striatum while EA at ST36 modulated a more site-specific area in the dorsolateral striatum. In the thalamus, EA at LI4 showed greater attenuating effect than EA at ST36 did. However, in the insular cortex, EA at ST36 showed stronger attenuation. CONCLUSION EA at both LI4 and ST36 was effective in restoring dopamine homeostasis from an excess state, with the most effective response at LI4 with 100 Hz, while the responses to 2Hz EA at LI4 and ST36 showed slightly different spatial distribution of MR signal. This therefore provided insight into the neurophysiological basis of electroacupuncture effects in cortical and subcortical circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Y Iris Chen
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
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20
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Abstract
Multiple receivers can be utilized to enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of MRI by employing the parallel imaging technique. Previously, we have reported the L-curve Tikhonov regularization technique to mitigate noise amplification resulting from the geometrical correlations between channels in a coil array. Nevertheless, one major disadvantage of regularized image reconstruction is lengthy computational time in regularization parameter estimation. At a fixed noise level, L-curve regularization parameter estimation was also found not to be robust across repetitive measurements, particularly for low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) acquisitions. Here we report a computationally efficient and robust method to estimate the regularization parameter by partitioning the variance of the noise-whitened encoding matrix based on the estimated SNR of the aliased pixel set in parallel MRI data. The proposed Variance Partitioning Regularization (VPR) method can improve computational efficiency by 2-5-fold, depending on image matrix sizes and acceleration rates. Our anatomical and functional MRI results show that the VPR method can be applied to both static and dynamic MRI experiments to suppress noise amplification in parallel MRI reconstructions for improved image quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fa-Hsuan Lin
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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21
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Chen YI, Ren J, Wang FN, Xu H, Mandeville JB, Kim Y, Rosen BR, Jenkins BG, Hui KKS, Kwong KK. Inhibition of stimulated dopamine release and hemodynamic response in the brain through electrical stimulation of rat forepaw. Neurosci Lett 2008; 431:231-5. [PMID: 18178315 PMCID: PMC2254524 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2007.11.063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2007] [Revised: 11/20/2007] [Accepted: 11/24/2007] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
The subcortical response to peripheral somatosensory stimulation is not well studied. Prior literature suggests that somatosensory stimulation can affect dopaminergic tone. We studied the effects of electrical stimulation near the median nerve on the response to an amphetamine-induced increase in synaptic dopamine. We applied the electrical stimulation close to the median nerve 20 min after administration of 3mg/kg amphetamine. We used fMRI and microdialysis to measure markers of dopamine (DA) release, together with the release of associated neurotransmitters of striatal glutamate (Glu) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Changes in cerebral blood volume (CBV), a marker used in fMRI, indicate that electrical stimulation significantly attenuated increased DA release (due to AMPH) in the striatum, thalamus, medial prefrontal and cingulate cortices. Microdialysis showed that electrical stimulation increased Glu and GABA release and attenuated the AMPH-enhanced DA release. The striatal DA dynamics correlated with the CBV response. These results demonstrate that electrical stimulation near the median nerve activates Glu/GABA release, which subsequently attenuate excess striatal DA release. These data provide evidence for physiologic modulation caused by electroacupuncture at points near the median nerve.
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Affiliation(s)
- Y Iris Chen
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Room 2301, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
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22
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Chuang TC, Huang TY, Lin FH, Wang FN, Juan CJ, Chung HW, Chen CY, Kwong KK. PROPELLER-EPI with parallel imaging using a circularly symmetric phased-array RF coil at 3.0 T: application to high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging. Magn Reson Med 2007; 56:1352-8. [PMID: 17051531 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.21064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
A technique integrating multishot periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) and parallel imaging is presented for diffusion echo-planar imaging (EPI) at high spatial resolution. The method combines the advantages of parallel imaging to achieve accelerated sampling along the phase-encoding direction, and PROPELLER acquisition to further decrease the echo train length (ETL) in EPI. With an eight-element circularly symmetric RF coil, a parallel acceleration factor of 4 was applied such that, when combined with PROPELLER acquisition, a reduction of geometric distortions by a factor substantially greater than 4 was achieved. The resulting phantom and human brain images acquired with a 256 x 256 matrix and an ETL of only 16 were visually identical in shape to those acquired using the fast spin-echo (FSE) technique, even without field-map corrections. It is concluded that parallel PROPELLER-EPI is an effective technique that can substantially reduce susceptibility-induced geometric distortions at high field strength.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tzu-Chao Chuang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
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23
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Wang FN, Huang TY, Lin FH, Chuang TC, Chen NK, Chung HW, Chen CY, Kwong KK. PROPELLER EPI: an MRI technique suitable for diffusion tensor imaging at high field strength with reduced geometric distortions. Magn Reson Med 2006; 54:1232-40. [PMID: 16206142 PMCID: PMC3602792 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.20677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
A technique suitable for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at high field strengths is presented in this work. The method is based on a periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) k-space trajectory using EPI as the signal readout module, and hence is dubbed PROPELLER EPI. The implementation of PROPELLER EPI included a series of correction schemes to reduce possible errors associated with the intrinsically higher sensitivity of EPI to off-resonance effects. Experimental results on a 3.0 Tesla MR system showed that the PROPELLER EPI images exhibit substantially reduced geometric distortions compared with single-shot EPI, at a much lower RF specific absorption rate (SAR) than the original version of the PROPELLER fast spin-echo (FSE) technique. For DTI, the self-navigated phase-correction capability of the PROPELLER EPI sequence was shown to be effective for in vivo imaging. A higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to single-shot EPI at an identical total scan time was achieved, which is advantageous for routine DTI applications in clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fu-Nien Wang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
- Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
| | - Teng-Yi Huang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
- Correspondence to: Teng-Yi Huang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
| | - Fa-Hsuan Lin
- MGH/MIT/HMS Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Tzu-Chao Chuang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
| | - Nan-Kuei Chen
- Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Hsiao-Wen Chung
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
- Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
| | - Cheng-Yu Chen
- Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
| | - Kenneth K. Kwong
- MGH/MIT/HMS Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
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Lin FH, Huang TY, Chen NK, Wang FN, Stufflebeam SM, Belliveau JW, Wald LL, Kwong KK. Functional MRI using regularized parallel imaging acquisition. Magn Reson Med 2005; 54:343-53. [PMID: 16032694 PMCID: PMC3779863 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.20555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Parallel MRI techniques reconstruct full-FOV images from undersampled k-space data by using the uncorrelated information from RF array coil elements. One disadvantage of parallel MRI is that the image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is degraded because of the reduced data samples and the spatially correlated nature of multiple RF receivers. Regularization has been proposed to mitigate the SNR loss originating due to the latter reason. Since it is necessary to utilize static prior to regularization, the dynamic contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in parallel MRI will be affected. In this paper we investigate the CNR of regularized sensitivity encoding (SENSE) acquisitions. We propose to implement regularized parallel MRI acquisitions in functional MRI (fMRI) experiments by incorporating the prior from combined segmented echo-planar imaging (EPI) acquisition into SENSE reconstructions. We investigated the impact of regularization on the CNR by performing parametric simulations at various BOLD contrasts, acceleration rates, and sizes of the active brain areas. As quantified by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the simulations suggest that the detection power of SENSE fMRI can be improved by regularized reconstructions, compared to unregularized reconstructions. Human motor and visual fMRI data acquired at different field strengths and array coils also demonstrate that regularized SENSE improves the detection of functionally active brain regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fa-Hsuan Lin
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Radiology, MGH-HMS-MIT, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA.
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Abstract
In this work the feasibility of separating fat and water signals using the balanced steady-state free precession (SSFP) technique is demonstrated. The technique is based on the observation (Scheffler and Hennig, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2003;49:395-397) that at the nominal values of TE = TR/2 in SSFP imaging, phase coherence can be achieved at essentially only two orientations (0 degrees and 180 degrees ) relative to the RF pulses in the rotating frame, under the assumption of TR << T2, and independently of the SSFP angle. This property allows in-phase and out-of-phase SSFP images to be obtained by proper choices of the center frequency offset, and thus allows the Dixon subtraction method to be utilized for effective fat-water separation. The TR and frequency offset for optimal fat-water separation are derived from theories. Experimental results from healthy subjects, using a 3.0 Tesla system, show that nearly complete fat suppression can be accomplished.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teng-Yi Huang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
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Chung HW, Chung HJ, Wang FN. Re: Sedivy et al. Short-term rhythmic proliferation of human breast cancer cell lines: surface effects and fractal growth patterns. J Pathol 2002; 197: 163-169. J Pathol 2003; 201:629-30; author reply 630-1. [PMID: 14648667 DOI: 10.1002/path.1470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
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Liu YJ, Chung HW, Huang IJ, Wang FN, Chin SC, Lee CS, Chen CY. A reinvestigation of maximal signal drop in dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging. J Neuroimaging 2002; 12:330-8. [PMID: 12380480 DOI: 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2002.tb00141.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to reevaluate the usefulness of relative maximum signal drop (rMSD), as compared to relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) and cerebral blood flow (rCBF), in dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS Twenty-five patients (11 with cerebral gliomas and 14 with infarcts of middle cerebral arterial territories) were included. The rMSD values were measured from 83 regions of interest and compared with measurements from corresponding rCBV and rCBF maps. RESULTS In stroke patients, rMSD correlated strongly with rCBF (r = 0.96) but only fairly with rCBV (r = 0.69). The absence of an association between rMSD and rCBV was evident in regions of increased contrast bolus dispersion. In glioma patients, the correlation of rMSD with rCBF (r = 0.85) was similar to that of rMSD with rCBV (r = 0.80). The interparameter associations were well predicted by computer simulations. CONCLUSIONS The authors conclude that rMSD is as useful as rCBF under a variety of pathophysiological conditions, whereas in conditions with normal mean transit time, such as brain tumors, rMSD provides equivalent blood volume information to rCBV. The simplicity of rMSD maps could lead to the increased use of perfusion-weighted MRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi-Jui Liu
- Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES To compare speech recognition performance in Chinese-speaking cochlear implant patients with a speech processor program selected by the clinical audiologist in Taiwan and with a new speech processor program based on the Washington University clinical procedure developed by Skinner et al. STUDY DESIGN Six adult Chinese-speaking patients implanted with the Nucleus cochlear implant system participated in this study. METHODS A fitting procedure developed in 1995 by Skinner et al. at Washington University School of Medicine was used to create a new speech processor program to optimize each patient's hearing in everyday life. Speech tests (vowels, consonants, tones, and words), sound-field thresholds, and a self-report questionnaire were used to evaluate each patient's performance with his or her previous speech processor program and a new one. RESULTS Four of the six patients had significant changes from the previous to the new speech processor program. These changes were associated with improvement in score on at least one speech test, more sensitive sound field thresholds, and reported improvement in some everyday listening situations on the questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that use of this procedure with adult cochlear implantees may improve benefit in everyday life. Analysis of the speech test stimuli and patients' responses provides a basis for modification or creation of new Mandarin Chinese speech tests for preoperative and postoperative evaluation of adult cochlear implant patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- J C Sun
- Department of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA
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Abstract
This paper discusses real-time sperm separation technology and the use of Wang tubes for isolating high-quality and fertile sperm. Several methods have been developed and used to prepare a better sperm specimen, including the conventional swim-up technique, Percoll discontinuous density gradient, Sephadex gel filtration, centrifugation, migration-sedimentation, albumin column, and Sperm-prep. However, none of these methods has the ability to isolate from the original ejaculum a large number of highly motile, morphologically normal, and normal-chromatin sperm, while retaining in an adequate volume of physiological medium, free of less-motile and nonmotile sperm, and free of microorganisms, cell debris, seminal plasma, leukocytes, and foreign bodies. These methods should be classified as incomplete techniques of sperm separation and are of only limited effectiveness in infertility treatment. They may also cause irreparable damage to the mother or fetus. Real-time sperm separation technology is based on the observations that nonpathological spermatozoa do not transfer organisms, that the motility pattern and swim-up capacity of pathological sperm are limited or disturbed, and that the movement of sperm differs from the passive motion of nonciliated microorganisms and the random active motion of ciliated microorganisms in terms of velocity and direction. Real-time sperm separation technology encompasses the Wang tube system, which has two main functions: to isolate organisms-free, normal-chromatin, morphologically normal, and highly motile spermatozoa that are suitable for use in infertility treatment, and to prevent sex-linked inherited diseases. The results of these evaluations indicate that real-time sperm separation technology is the most effective and precise method of isolating and decontaminating sperm to date.
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Affiliation(s)
- F N Wang
- Microbofre Scientific Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, People's Republic of China
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Chaing HS, Merino-chavez G, Yang LL, Wang FN, Hafez ES. Medicinal plants: conception / contraception. Adv Contracept Deliv Syst 1994; 10:355-63. [PMID: 12287843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/19/2023]
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Zhang JW, Song WF, Zhao YJ, Wu GY, Qiu ZM, Wang FN, Chen SS, Stamatoyannopoulos G. Molecular characterization of a novel form of (A gamma delta beta)zero thalassemia deletion in a Chinese family. Blood 1993; 81:1624-9. [PMID: 7680922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
We have identified and molecularly characterized a novel deletion in the beta-globin gene cluster that is associated with elevated fetal hemoglobin in the adult. The propositus is a homozygote from the Yunnan province of China. The deletion spans about 90 kb of DNA and removes the A gamma, delta, and beta-globin genes. The 5' breakpoint of the deletion is located about 0.13 kb upstream from the A gamma-globin gene, whereas the 3' breakpoint is located about 66 kb downstream from the beta-globin gene, about 13 kb upstream from the breakpoint of the Chinese (A gamma delta beta)zero-thalassemia. Heterozygotes for this Yunnanese form of (A gamma delta beta)zero-thalassemia express between 9% and 17% of fetal hemoglobin, whereas the homozygote present with a mild anemia (Hb = 10.7 g/dl). Comparison of the sites of 3' breakpoints of the Yunnanese and the Chinese (A gamma delta beta)zero-thalassemia mutants is compatible with the hypothesis that an enhancer element is located between the 3' breakpoints of these two mutants. Juxta-position to the G gamma gene of this element may be responsible for the efficient gamma-gene expression in the Yunnanese mutant.
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Affiliation(s)
- J W Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing
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Abstract
The Wang tube was modified to improve in vitro semen manipulation, by adding another two racks to the anterior (posterior) wall of the low component of the Wang tube and supplying another four convex lenses symmetrical to those on the bottom wall. The former provides a slanted position leading to a complete real-time sperm separation image and benefiting low-quality sperm preparation when the modified Wang tube is turned on its side. The latter converses the microscope's light better and gives a clearer objective image.
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Affiliation(s)
- F N Wang
- Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, China Medical College Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
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Wang FN, Hsu MC, Cheng CM, Su TP, Yeh KA, Lai WH, Hsiung CH, Karow WG, Tsai HD. Intrauterine devices Wang S.S Cu 380 as compared to ML Cu 375, Nova T, T Cu 300, 7 Cu 200, Lippes Loop and Ohta Ring: clinical / physiopathological parameters. Adv Contracept Deliv Syst 1992; 8:267-76. [PMID: 12285733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/19/2023]
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Abstract
Various sperm preparation techniques, swim-up and Percoll gradient, and the newly developed Wang's tube system, were evaluated for their ability to recover normal-chromatin sperm. Twenty human semen samples, collected by masturbation, were studied simultaneously with the three methods. Analysis by Acridine orange fluorescence test was performed on all samples. Pretreated semen contains 58 +/- 22% green sperm (fertile/normal). Treatment with Wang's tube system resulted in 99 +/- 1.0% green sperm; Percoll gradient, 78 +/- 11%; and swim-up technique, 72 +/- 15%. It would appear that Wang's tube system yields a high-quality sperm preparation with enough concentration, very active forward progression, and greatly improved sperm morphology, while containing normal-chromatin, double-stranded DNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- F N Wang
- Microbofre Scientific Institute, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
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Wang FN, Huang H, Chen CW, Phillips P. [Articulation development in Mandarin-speaking preschool children aged 3 to 6 in Taiwan]. Changgeng Yi Xue Za Zhi 1986; 9:68-75. [PMID: 3454702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
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36
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Wang FN. [Management of anaphylactic shock]. Hu Li Za Zhi 1972; 19:24-9. [PMID: 4484430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
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