Microliter-ordered automatic blood sampling system for fully quantitative analysis of small-animal PET

Annals of Nuclear Medicine - The objective of the present study was to develop a fully automated blood sampling system for kinetic analysis in mice positron emission tomography (PET) studies....     

The efficacy and safety of mizoribine for maintenance therapy in patients with myeloperoxidase anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (MPO-ANCA)-associated vasculitis: the usefulness of serum mizoribine monitoring

Clinical and Experimental Nephrology - The life prognosis of elderly patients with myeloperoxidase–anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-associated vasculitis (MPO-AAV) has been improved by...     

A nationwide analysis of renal and patient outcomes for adults with lupus nephritis in Japan

Clinical and Experimental Nephrology - The prognosis of lupus nephritis (LN) has improved following the introduction of effective immunosuppressive therapy and progress in supportive care. This...     

Evaluation of a newly proposed renal risk score for Japanese patients with ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis

Clinical and Experimental Nephrology - We determined the usefulness and prognostic ability of the renal risk score (RRS), proposed in Europe, for Japanese patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic...     

Diagnosis of early colorectal cancer invasion depth by quantitative evaluation of the basal indentation in CT colonography

Objective

To investigate the feasibility of diagnosing the invasion depth of early colorectal cancer (CRC) by quantitatively evaluating the basal indentation (BI)—i.e., the intestinal lateral deformity—in CT colonography (CTC).

Materials and methods

34 early CRCs (13 Tis CRCs and 21 T1 CRCs) in 32 patients who underwent a preoperative CTC were retrospectively examined. Two radiologists calculated the depth of the BI on a computed tomographic air-contrast enema (CT enema) image, the depth of the BI due to the geometric function (BI-G) on a cross-sectional multiplanar reconstruction (CS-MPR) image, and the ratio of the BI to the BI-G (i.e., the “BI ratio”) for each lesion. The BI ratios of the Tis and T1 CRCs were compared.

Results

The BI ratios were significantly higher in the T1 CRCs than in the Tis CRCs (p < 0.0001). The optimum cutoff value of the BI ratio for differentiating the T1 CRCs from the Tis CRCs was 1.64, with a sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of 90.5 %, 100 %, and 0.974, respectively.

Conclusions

We have demonstrated for the first time that quantitatively evaluating the BI can improve the accuracy of diagnosis of early CRC invasion depth.