Automated Detection of Malarial Retinopathy in Digital Fundus Images for Improved Diagnosis in Malawian Children with Clinically Defined Cerebral Malaria

Cerebral malaria (CM), a complication of malaria infection, is the cause of the majority of malaria-associated deaths in African children. The standard clinical case definition for CM misclassifies ~25% of patients, but when malarial retinopathy (MR) is added to the clinical case definition, the specificity improves from 61% to 95%. Ocular fundoscopy requires expensive equipment and technical expertise not often available in malaria endemic settings, so we developed an automated software system to analyze retinal color images for MR lesions: retinal whitening, vessel discoloration, and white-centered hemorrhages. The individual lesion detection algorithms were combined using a partial least square classifier to determine the presence or absence of MR. We used a retrospective retinal image dataset of 86 pediatric patients with clinically defined CM (70 with MR and 16 without) to evaluate the algorithm performance. Our goal was to reduce the false positive rate of CM diagnosis, and so the algorithms were tuned at high specificity. This yielded sensitivity/specificity of 95%/100% for the detection of MR overall, and 65%/94% for retinal whitening, 62%/100% for vessel discoloration, and 73%/96% for hemorrhages. This automated system for detecting MR using retinal color images has the potential to improve the accuracy of CM diagnosis

Predictors of patient preference for either whole body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) or CT/ PET-CT for staging colorectal or lung cancer

Introduction: Whole body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) may be more efficient in staging cancers, but can be harder for patients to tolerate. We examined predictors of patient preference for WB-MRI vs. CT/ PET-CT for staging colorectal or lung cancer. Methods: Patients recruited prospectively to two multicenter trials comparing diagnostic accuracy of WB-MRI with standard staging scans were sent two questionnaires: the first, administered at trial registration, captured demographics, educational level, and comorbidities; the second, administered after staging completion, measured emotional distress (GHQ-12), positive mood (PANAS), perceived scan burden, patients’ beliefs about WB-MRI, and preference for either WB-MRI or CT (colorectal trial), WB-MRI or PET-CT (lung trial). Preference for WB-MRI or CT / PET-CT were analysed using logistic regression. Results: Baseline and post-staging questionnaires were completed by 97 and 107 patients respectively. Overall, 56/107 (52%) preferred WB-MRI over standard scans, and were more likely to have no additional comorbidities, higher positive mood, greater awareness of potential benefits of WB-MRI, and lower levels of perceived WB-MRI scan burden. In adjusted analyses, only awareness of potential WB-MRI benefits remained a significant predictor (OR: 1.516, 95% CIs 1.006 to 2.284, p=0.047). Knowledge that WB-MRI does not use radiation predicted preference (adjusted OR: 3.018, 95% CIs 1.099 to 8.288, p=0.032), yet only 45/107 (42%) patients were aware of this attribute. Conclusions: A small majority of patients undergoing staging of colorectal or lung cancer prefer WB-MRI to CT/ PET-CT. Raising awareness of the potential benefits of WB-MRI, notably lack of ionising radiation, could influence preference

Predictors of patient preference for either whole body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) or CT/ PET-CT for staging colorectal or lung cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Whole body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) may be more efficient in staging cancers, but can be harder for patients to tolerate. We examined predictors of patient preference for WB-MRI vs. CT/ PET-CT for staging colorectal or lung cancer. METHODS: Patients recruited prospectively to two multicentre trials comparing diagnostic accuracy of WB-MRI with standard staging scans were sent two questionnaires: the first, administered at trial registration, captured demographics, educational level and comorbidities; the second, administered after staging completion, measured emotional distress (GHQ-12), positive mood (PANAS), perceived scan burden, patients' beliefs about WB-MRI, and preference for either WB-MRI or CT (colorectal trial), WB-MRI or PET-CT (lung trial). Preference for WB-MRI or CT/ PET-CT was analysed using logistic regression. RESULTS: Baseline and post-staging questionnaires were completed by 97 and 107 patients, respectively. Overall, 56/107 (52%) preferred WB-MRI over standard scans and were more likely to have no additional comorbidities, higher positive mood, greater awareness of potential benefits of WB-MRI and lower levels of perceived WB-MRI scan burden. In adjusted analyses, only awareness of potential WB-MRI benefits remained a significant predictor (OR: 1.516, 95% CIs 1.006-2.284, P = 0.047). Knowledge that WB-MRI does not use radiation predicted preference (adjusted OR: 3.018, 95% CIs 1.099-8.288, P = 0.032), although only 45/107 (42%) patients were aware of this attribute. CONCLUSIONS: A small majority of patients undergoing staging of colorectal or lung cancer prefer WB-MRI to CT/ PET-CT. Raising awareness of the potential benefits of WB-MRI, notably lack of ionizing radiation, could influence preference

The Association of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with Cerebral Gray Matter Volume Is Independent of Retinal Vascular Architecture and Retinopathy.

It is uncertain whether small vessel disease underlies the relationship between Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and brain atrophy. We aimed to study whether retinal vascular architecture, as a proxy for cerebral small vessel disease, may modify or mediate the associations of T2DM with brain volumes. In this cross-sectional study using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans and retinal photographs in 451 people with and without T2DM, we measured brain volumes, geometric measures of retinal vascular architecture, clinical retinopathy, and MRI cerebrovascular lesions. There were 270 people with (mean age 67.3 years) and 181 without T2DM (mean age 72.9 years). T2DM was associated with lower gray matter volume (p = 0.008). T2DM was associated with greater arteriolar diameter (p = 0.03) and optimality ratio (p = 0.04), but these associations were attenuated by adjustments for age and sex. Only optimality ratio was associated with lower gray matter volume (p = 0.03). The inclusion of retinal measures in regression models did not attenuate the association of T2DM with gray matter volume. The association of T2DM with lower gray matter volume was independent of retinal vascular architecture and clinical retinopathy. Retinal vascular measures or retinopathy may not be sufficiently sensitive to confirm a microvascular basis for T2DM-related brain atrophy

OCT Assisted Quantification of Vitreous Inflammation in Uveitis

Purpose: Vitreous haze (VH) is a key marker of inflammation in uveitis but limited by its subjectivity. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has potential as an objective, noninvasive method for quantifying VH. We test the hypotheses that OCT can reliably quantify VH and the measurement is associated with slit-lamp based grading of VH. Methods: In this prospective study, participants underwent three repeated OCT macular scans to evaluate the within-eye reliability of the OCT vitreous intensity (VI). Association between OCT VI and clinical findings (including VH grade, phakic status, visual acuity [VA], anterior chamber cells, and macular thickness) were assessed. Results: One hundred nineteen participants were included (41 healthy participants, 32 patients with uveitis without VH, and 46 patients with uveitis with VH). Within-eye test reliability of OCT VI was high in healthy eyes and in all grades of VH (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] > 0.79). Average OCT VI was significantly different between healthy eyes and uveitic eyes without and uveitic eyes with VH, and was associated with increasing clinical VH grade (P < 0.05). OCT VI was significantly associated with VA, whereas clinical VH grading was not. Cataract was also associated with higher OCT VI (P = 0.03). Conclusions: OCT VI is a fast, noninvasive, objective, and automated method for measuring vitreous inflammation. It is associated with clinician grading of vitreous inflammation and VA, however, it can be affected by media opacities. Translational Relevance: OCT imaging for quantifying vitreous inflammation shows high within-eye repeatability and is associated with clinical grading of vitreous haze. OCT measurements are also associated with visual acuity but may be affected by structures anterior to the acquisition window, such as lens opacity and other anterior segment changes

White Paper: Shifting the goal post - from high impact journals to high impact data

The purpose of this white paper is to provide an overview of the ongoing initiatives at center level to respond to changing public expectations and to the challenge of improving the conduct of science by making research data widely available. We also attempt to provide a framework for implementing open access for research data to maximize CGIAR’s impact on development. The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows; firstly a summary of the diversity of research data produced by the centers is given, followed by an overview of the existing infrastructure for data management for each Center. Secondly, some of the limitations and barriers faced by the centers in their process to mainstream research data publishing are addressed. The paper concludes with recommendations for how these limitations and barriers can be tackled

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction