Interobserver variability,detection rate,and lesion patterns of 68Ga-PSMA-11-PET/CT in early-stage biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy

European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging - 68Ga-PSMA-11-PET/CT is increasingly used in early-stage biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer to detect potential lesions for an...     

Relative risk of plaque erosion among different age and sex groups in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Postmortem studies reported plaque erosion is frequent in young women. Recent in vivo studies failed to show age and sex differences in the plaque erosion prevalence. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of plaque erosion by age and sex among acute coronary syndromes (ACS) patients. From 1699 ACS patients, 1083 with plaque erosion or rupture were analyzed. Patients were categorized as 5 age groups (≤?50, 51–60, 61–70, 71–80,?≥?81 years). Overall prevalence of plaque erosion was similar between males and females (p?=?0.831). Males age?≤?50 had higher (p?=?0.018) and age 71–80 had lower (p?=?0.006) prevalence of plaque erosion. Females age 61–70 had higher (p?=?0.021) and age 71–80 had lower (p?=?0.045) prevalence of plaque erosion. In advanced age groups (≥?71 years), rupture was the dominant etiology in both sexes. In multivariate analysis of males, age?≤?50 demonstrated a trend to increase (OR 1.418, 95% CI 0.961–2.093, p?=?0.078) the erosion risk. Females age?≤?70 independently increased (OR 2.138, 95% CI 1.249–3.661, p?=?0.006) the risk for erosion. The prevalence of plaque erosion was similar between males and females. Plaque erosion risk was increased in the males age?≤?50 and in the females age?≤?70 among ACS patients.

     

Association of RETN gene polymorphism at +299 G>A with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis

International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries - Resistin (RETN) protein plays an important role in the regulation of energy, glucose, and lipid homeostasis and maintenance of fasting...     

Extracting and summarizing white matter hyperintensities using supervised segmentation methods in Alzheimer's disease risk and aging studies

Precise detection and quantification of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) observed in T2‐weighted Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) is of substantial interest in aging, and age‐related neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). This is mainly because WMH may reflect co‐morbid neural injury or cerebral vascular disease burden. WMH in the older population may be small, diffuse, and irregular in shape, and sufficiently heterogeneous within and across subjects. Here, we pose hyperintensity detection as a supervised inference problem and adapt two learning models, specifically, Support Vector Machines and Random Forests, for this task. Using texture features engineered by texton filter banks, we provide a suite of effective segmentation methods for this problem. Through extensive evaluations on healthy middle‐aged and older adults who vary in AD risk, we show that our methods are reliable and robust in segmenting hyperintense regions. A measure of hyperintensity accumulation, referred to as normalized effective WMH volume, is shown to be associated with dementia in older adults and parental family history in cognitively normal subjects. We provide an open source library for hyperintensity detection and accumulation (interfaced with existing neuroimaging tools), that can be adapted for segmentation problems in other neuroimaging studies. Hum Brain Mapp 35:4219–4235, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

Bis(Methylpyridine)‐EDTA Derivative as a Potential Ligand for PET Imaging: Synthesis,Complexation, and Biological Evaluation

A novel transitional metal ligand derivatized from EDTA‐conjugated 2‐amino‐4‐methyl pyridine, an acyclic vehicle (EDTA‐Mepy₂) was designed, synthesized, and characterized for PET imaging with ⁶⁸Ga. The drug likeliness and appropriate lipophilicity were first analyzed by molecular docking studies which shows interactive property of ligand with serum albumin protein (HSA: PDB 1E78), at Lys199, Arg257, and His242 residues, which make it more appropriate in transportation as a specific ligand for PET imaging. As a confirmation, binding constant of the ligand with human serum albumin was calculated at λ_ex = 350 nm which was found to be 4.9 × 10³ m ^?1. The pharmacokinetics of ⁶⁸Ga‐EDTA‐Mepy₂ was analyzed by blood kinetics (t_1/2 slow: 3 h 56 min and t_1/2 fast: 32 min) and biodistribution (maximum%ID/g was found in kidney at 1 h). Further the capability of this ligand was analyzed as optical marker also, by recording λ_ex = 380 nm, RFU = 8000; 710 nm, RFU = 1000 units at fixed λ_em = 280 nm. Additionally, in physiological conditions where its stability was calculated, suggests 15–20 times selectivity over the endogenously present metal ions (K_GaL/K_ZnL = 14.3, K_GaL/K_CuL = 18.1).     

A Proposed Methodology for In Vitro Evaluation of Bitterness in Drug Solutions and In Vitro Drug Release Samples

Purpose

Ethical and safety concerns, paediatric taste panels and predictivity in early drug development for strategic decisions are some of the reasons for seeking in vitro methods of bitterness evaluation for drugs and drug products. In this study, taste panel studies and in vitro drug release studies have been performed, correlated to each other and proposed as an analytical tool for evaluation of bitterness.

Methods

Bitterness threshold and bitterness scores for different solutions of ondansetron hydrochloride (ONS) were estimated by taste panel studies. In vitro drug release studies on taste-masked drug product in pharmacopoeial apparatus and an in-house-developed apparatus were performed and correlated to drug release studies in oral cavity.

Results

Concentration of 22 μg/ml and below was perceived bitterless by all the volunteers of taste panel. A second-order polynomial equation (y?=?0.6206x ²???0.2011x???0.7796; correlation coefficient R ²?=?0.991) was derived as a relationship between bitterness score and log ONS concentration. Drug release in in-house-assembled apparatus and oral cavity were not statistically different (α?=?0.05) at both 60 and 120 s.

Conclusions

Bitterness threshold and bitterness scores are helpful in evaluation of bitterness in drug solutions and samples obtained from drug release studies.