Synthesis and characterization of iridium 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (PTA) complexes. X-ray crystal and molecular structures of [Ir(PTA)4(CO)]Cl and [Ir(PTAH)3(PTAH2)(H)2]Cl6

The first 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (PTA) ligated iridium compounds have been synthesized. The reaction of PTA with [Ir(COD)Cl]2 (COD = 1,5-cyclooctadiene) under a CO atmosphere produces an inseparable mixture of [Ir(PTA)3(CO)Cl] (1) and the PTA analogue of Vaska's compound, [Ir(PTA)2(CO)Cl] (2). Compound 1 and [Ir(PTA)4(CO)]Cl (3) were prepared via ligand substitution reactions of PTA with Vaska's compound, trans-Ir(PPh3)2(CO)Cl, in absolute and 95% ethanol, respectively. Complex 3 crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pbca with a = 20.3619(4) A, b = 14.0345(3) A, c = 24.1575(5) A, and Z = 8. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies show that 3 has a trigonal bipyramidal structure in which the CO occupies an axial position. This is the first crystallographically characterized [IrP4(CO)]+ complex in which the CO is axially ligated. Compound 1 was converted into 3 by ligand substitution with 1 equiv of PTA in water. Interestingly, the reaction of 3 with excess NaCl did not result in the production of 1, but instead the formation of the dichloro species, [Ir(PTAH)2(PTA)2Cl2]Cl3 (4) (PTAH = protonated PTA). Dissolution of 1 or 3 in dilute HCl produced 4 and a dihydrido species, [Ir(PTAH)4(H)2]Cl5 (5), which were readily separated by inspection due to their different crystal habits. Compound 5 crystallizes in the triclinic space group P1 with a = 12.4432(9) A, b = 12.5921(9) A, c = 16.3231(12) A, alpha = 76.004(1) degrees, beta = 71.605(1) degrees, gamma = 69.177(1) degrees, and Z = 2. Complex 5 exhibits a distorted octahedral geometry with two hydride ligands in a cis configuration. A rationale consistent with these reactions is presented by consideration of the steric and electronic properties of the PTA ligand.

Improvement of sensitivity of breast cancer diagnosis with adaptive neighborhood contrast enhancement of mammograms

Mammograms are difficult to interpret, especially of cancers at their early stages. In this paper, we analyze the effectiveness of our adaptive neighborhood contrast enhancement (ANCE) technique in increasing the sensitivity of breast cancer diagnosis. Seventy-eight screen-film mammograms of 21 difficult cases (14 benign and seven malignant), 222 screen-film mammograms of 28 interval cancer patients and six benign control cases were digitized with a high-resolution of about 4096 x 2048 x 10-bit pixels and then processed with the ANCE method. Unprocessed and processed digitized mammograms as well as the original films were presented to six experienced radiologists for a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) evaluation for the difficult case set and to three reference radiologists for the interval cancer set. The results show that the radiologists' performance with the ANCE-processed images is the best among the three sets of images (original, digitized, and enhanced) in terms of area under the ROC curve and that diagnostic sensitivity is improved by the ANCE algorithm. All of the 19 interval cancer cases not detected with the original films of earlier mammographic examinations were diagnosed as malignant with the corresponding ANCE-processed versions, while only one of the six benign cases initially labeled correctly with the original mammograms was interpreted as malignant after enhancement. McNemar's tests of symmetry indicated that the diagnostic confidence for the interval cancer cases was improved by the ANCE procedure with a high level of statistical significance (p-values of 0.0001-0.005) and with no significant effect on the diagnosis of the benign control cases (p-values of 0.08-0.1). This study demonstrates the potential for improvement of diagnostic performance in early detection of breast cancer with digital image enhancement.