PSMA PET for the Evaluation of Liver Metastases in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Patients: A Multicenter Retrospective Study

Simple Summary Visceral involvement in prostate cancer (PCa) represents a negative prognostic factor. Liver metastases typically occur in systemic, late-stage, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The diagnostic performance of [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11-PET for visceral metastases of CRPC patients has never been systematically assessed. Our aim was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of PSMA-PET compared to conventional imaging, i.e., CT or MRI, or liver biopsy in the detection of liver metastases in CRPC patients. The secondary aim was to assess the ability of radiomics to predict the presence of liver metastases. Regarding liver metastases assessment in CRPC patients, [68Ga]-PSMA-11-PET demonstrated moderate sensitivity while high specificity, positive predictive value, and reproducibility compared to conventional imaging and liver biopsy. However, nuclear medicine physicians should carefully assess the liver parenchyma on PET images, especially in patients at higher risk for liver metastases and with high PSA values. Moreover, radiomic features may aid in recognizing higher-risk patients to develop them. Background: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of PSMA-PET compared to conventional imaging/liver biopsy in the detection of liver metastases in CRPC patients. Moreover, we evaluated a PSMA-PET/CT-based radiomic model able to identify liver metastases. Methods: Multicenter retrospective study enrolling patients with the following inclusion criteria: (a) proven CRPC patients, (b) PSMA-PET and conventional imaging/liver biopsy performed in a 6 months timeframe, (c) no therapy changes between PSMA-PET and conventional imaging/liver biopsy. PSMA-PET sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy for liver metastases were calculated. After the extraction of radiomic features, a prediction model for liver metastases identification was developed. Results: Sixty CRPC patients were enrolled. Within 6 months before or after PSMA-PET, conventional imaging and liver biopsy identified 24/60 (40%) patients with liver metastases. PSMA-PET sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy for liver metastases were 0.58, 0.92, 0.82, 0.77, and 0.78, respectively. Either number of liver metastases and the maximum lesion diameter were significantly associated with the presence of a positive PSMA-PET (p < 0.05). On multivariate regression analysis, the radiomic feature-based model combining sphericity, and the moment of inverse difference (Idm), had an AUC of 0.807 (95% CI:0.686-0.920). Conclusion: For liver metastases assessment, [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11-PET demonstrated moderate sensitivity while high specificity, PPV, and inter-reader agreement compared to conventional imaging/liver biopsy in CRPC patients

Stratification of asthma phenotypes by airway proteomic signatures

© 2019 Background: Stratification by eosinophil and neutrophil counts increases our understanding of asthma and helps target therapy, but there is room for improvement in our accuracy in prediction of treatment responses and a need for better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Objective: We sought to identify molecular subphenotypes of asthma defined by proteomic signatures for improved stratification. Methods: Unbiased label-free quantitative mass spectrometry and topological data analysis were used to analyze the proteomes of sputum supernatants from 246 participants (206 asthmatic patients) as a novel means of asthma stratification. Microarray analysis of sputum cells provided transcriptomics data additionally to inform on underlying mechanisms. Results: Analysis of the sputum proteome resulted in 10 clusters (ie, proteotypes) based on similarity in proteomic features, representing discrete molecular subphenotypes of asthma. Overlaying granulocyte counts onto the 10 clusters as metadata further defined 3 of these as highly eosinophilic, 3 as highly neutrophilic, and 2 as highly atopic with relatively low granulocytic inflammation. For each of these 3 phenotypes, logistic regression analysis identified candidate protein biomarkers, and matched transcriptomic data pointed to differentially activated underlying mechanisms. Conclusion: This study provides further stratification of asthma currently classified based on quantification of granulocytic inflammation and provided additional insight into their underlying mechanisms, which could become targets for novel therapies

Uma nova abordagem para a discriminação entre solo exposto e vegetação não fotossinteticamente ativa, baseada em dados do sensor aster/terra

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Dataset related to article "High definition-transcranial random noise stimulation to improve speech fluency in persistent developmental stuttering: A case study"

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Tracking EEG changes during the exposure to hyperbaric oxygen

The aim was to investigate and define possible alterations in cerebral activity during prolonged hyperbaric oxygen exposure and decompression as compared to baseline activity. METHODS: Thirty-two channel electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded with a Bluetooth EEG system in 11 subjects. A 20-min EEG recording was carried out under three different conditions: breathing air inside a hyperbaric chamber at sea level; breathing oxygen at a simulated depth of 18 msw; breathing air at sea level after decompression. Relative EEG power was estimated in frequency ranges. RESULTS: During oxygen breathing, brain activity showed an early fast delta decrease in the posterior regions, with a synchronous and significant increase in alpha in the same regions. After decompression, the delta relative power decrease was uniformly distributed over the cerebral cortex until minute 8, and the alpha relative power was maximal in the posterior regions during the first 2 min. CONCLUSIONS: These results may be relevant for establishing a reference point in future studies on oxygen-sensitive subjects who reported problems during oxygen diving. SIGNIFICANCE: Significant changes in EEG relative power suggest that it may be possible to define and recognize landmarks of oxygen-induced brain activity, which would be useful in the medical treatment of subjects reporting "oxygen-toxicity diving-related problems"

Bluetooth Communication Interface for EEG Signal Recording in Hyperbaric Chambers

Recording biological signals inside a hyperbaric chamber poses technical challenges (the steel walls enclosing it greatly attenuate or completely block the signals as in a Faraday cage), practical (lengthy cables creating eddy currents), and safety (sparks hazard from power supply to the electronic apparatus inside the chamber) which can be overcome with new wireless technologies. In this technical report we present the design and implementation of a Bluetooth system for electroencephalographic (EEG) recording inside a hyperbaric chamber and describe the feasibility of EEG signal transmission outside the chamber. Differently from older systems, this technology allows the online recording of amplified signals, without interference from eddy currents. In an application of this technology, we measured EEG activity in professional divers under three experimental conditions in a hyperbaric chamber to determine how oxygen, assumed at a constant hyperbaric pressure of 2.8 ATA , affects the bioelectrical activity. The EEG spectral power estimated by fast Fourier transform and the cortical sources of the EEG rhythms estimated by low-resolution brain electromagnetic analysis were analyzed in three different EEG acquisitions: breathing air at sea level; breathing oxygen at a simulated depth of 18 msw, and breathing air at sea level after decompression

How expertise changes cortical sources of EEG rhythms and functional connectivity in divers under simulated deep-sea conditions

Although the recent years have witnessed a growing interest in functional connectivity (FC) through brain sources, FC in extreme situations has not been completely elucidated. This study aimed at investigating whether the expertise acquired during deep-sea diving is reflected in FC in a group of professional divers (PDs) compared with a group of new divers (NDs) and how it could affect concentration and stress levels. The source of brain frequency rhythms, derived by electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition in a hyperbaric chamber, were extracted in different frequency bands and the corresponding FC was estimated in order to compare the two groups. Results highlighted a significant decrease of alpha source in PDs during air breathing and a significant increase of the upper beta source over central areas at the beginning of post-oxygen air, as well as an increase of beta FC between fronto-temporal regions in the last minutes of oxygen breathing and in the early minutes of post-oxygen air. This provides evidence in support of the hypothesis that the experience and expertise differences would modulate brain networks. These experiments provided the unique opportunity of investigating the impact of the neurophysiological activity in simulated critical scenarios in view of the investigation in real sea-water experiments