Pneumocystography in nonpalpable breast cysts: effect on remission rate

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect on remission rate after pneumocystography among nonpalpable cysts. A series of 206 nonpalpable cysts aspirated using the perforated compression plate technique was reviewed. The effect on remission was evaluated on mammograms obtained 1-3 years after the cyst aspiration. Logistic regression was used to compare the effect between those examined with pneumocystography (n=62) and those aspirated alone (n=144). The ratio of complete remission was 52% (32/62) with pneumocystography compared to 53% (76/144) without. In univariate analysis there was no association between pneumocystography and complete remission. However, complete emptying of the cyst was significantly associated with complete remission (OR = 1.85, 95%CI = 1.05-3.25). In a multivariate model, complete emptying without pneumocystography was significantly associated with complete remission (OR = 2.40, 95%CI = 1.14-5.02) but not complete emptying in combination with pneumocystography (OR = 0.84, 95%CI = 0.24-2.89). Pneumocystography showed a close to two-fold association with complete remission. However, this association was not statistically significant (OR = 1.92, 95%CI = 0.52-7.05). In conclusion, complete emptying of a nonpalpable cyst significantly increased the chance of complete remission when pneumocystography was not performed. Pneumocystography showed no significant effect on remission rate.     

Fast and robust extraction of hippocampus from MR images for diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease

Assessment of temporal lobe atrophy from magnetic resonance images is a part of clinical guidelines for the diagnosis of prodromal Alzheimer's disease. As hippocampus is known to be among the first areas affected by the disease, fast and robust definition of hippocampus volume would be of great importance in the clinical decision making. We propose a method for computing automatically the volume of hippocampus using a modified multi-atlas segmentation framework, including an improved initialization of the framework and the correction of partial volume effect. The method produced a high similarity index, 0.87, and correlation coefficient, 0.94, with semi-automatically generated segmentations. When comparing hippocampus volumes extracted from 1.5T and 3T images, the absolute value of the difference was low: 3.2% of the volume. The correct classification rate for Alzheimer's disease and cognitively normal cases was about 80% while the accuracy 65% was obtained for classifying stable and progressive mild cognitive impairment cases. The method was evaluated in three cohorts consisting altogether about 1000 cases, the main emphasis being in the analysis of the ADNI cohort. The computation time of the method is about 2 minutes on a standard laptop computer. The results show a clear potential for applying the method in clinical practice.     

Perceived and individual ideals of gender in Swedish adolescents with and without an eating disorder

Three open-ended questions based on Steiner-Adair (1986) were used to study gender concepts in relation to ideals in adolescent boys and girls and eating-disordered girls. The answers were coded according to themes emanating from the collected data and not predetermined. Dichotomous differences were found between the genders regarding perceived ideals of body size, but clinical and nonclinical girls perceived ideals of society and media similarly. Individual gender concepts differed substantially from the perceived ideals, and were most often focused on lifestyle and life conditions. However, the clinical girls were somewhat more likely to emphasize appearance and loving relationships.     

Mammographic finding as predictor of survival in 1-9 mm invasive breast cancers. worse prognosis for cases presenting as calcifications alone

PURPOSE: To investigate breast cancer survival in small invasive breast cancers in relation to mammographic findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated a consecutive series of 96 cases of 1-9mm small invasive breast cancers diagnosed 1988-1994. Median follow-up of the survivors was 7 years (range: 4.5-10.5). Mammographic findings were classified into rounded masses, spiculated masses, calcifications (casting or pleomorphic) and masses combined with calcifications. Lymph node status and histological malignancy grade were also evaluated. Eight year survival rate in breast cancer was estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method and risk of death with proportional-hazards regression. RESULTS: 6/96 women died from breast cancer. 3/14 had calcifications alone, 2/56 with spiculated masses, 1/12 with rounded masses. 5/78 who died were node-negative cancers and 1/4 was node-positive. The survival rate for the whole group was 93%: 77% for the calcifications alone group, 95% for spiculated masses and 91% for rounded masses. The survival rate for the node-negative cancers was 92% compared to 75% for node-positive cancers. Calcifications alone (p = 0.01) and node positivity (p =0.03) had each independent significant higher risk of death taking finding, node status and grade into account. CONCLUSION: Small invasive breast cancers mammographically presenting as casting or pleomorphic calcifications alone have a significantly worse prognosis than other types.     

The importance of appropriate partial volume correction for PET quantification in Alzheimer’s disease

Purpose  

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Clinically, it is characterized by progressive cognitive and functional impairment with structural hallmarks of cortical atrophy and ventricular expansion. Amyloid plaque aggregation is also known to occur in AD subjects. In-vivo imaging of amyloid plaques is now possible with positron emission tomography (PET) radioligands. PET imaging suffers from a degrading phenomenon known as the partial volume effect (PVE). The quantitative accuracy of PET images is reduced by PVEs primarily due to the limited spatial resolution of the scanner. The degree of PVE is influenced by structure size, with smaller structures tending to suffer from more severe PVEs such as atrophied grey matter regions. The aims of this paper were to investigate the effect of partial volume correction (PVC) on the quantification of amyloid PET and to highlight the importance of selecting an appropriate PVC technique.