Tractography passes the test: Results from the diffusion-simulated connectivity (disco) challenge.

Estimating structural connectivity from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is a challenging task, partly due to the presence of false-positive connections and the misestimation of connection weights. Building on previous efforts, the MICCAI-CDMRI Diffusion-Simulated Connectivity (DiSCo) challenge was carried out to evaluate state-of-the-art connectivity methods using novel large-scale numerical phantoms. The diffusion signal for the phantoms was obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. The results of the challenge suggest that methods selected by the 14 teams participating in the challenge can provide high correlations between estimated and ground-truth connectivity weights, in complex numerical environments. Additionally, the methods used by the participating teams were able to accurately identify the binary connectivity of the numerical dataset. However, specific false positive and false negative connections were consistently estimated across all methods. Although the challenge dataset doesn't capture the complexity of a real brain, it provided unique data with known macrostructure and microstructure ground-truth properties to facilitate the development of connectivity estimation methods

Hemodynamic changes in depressive patients

Objective: This study is aimed at exploring the relationship between hemodynamic changes and depressive and anxious symptom in depression patients. Methods: The cardiac function indices including the left stroke index (LSI), ejection fraction (EF), heart rate (HR), diastolic pressure mean (DPM), systolic pressure mean (SPM), left ventricle end-diastolic volume (LVDV), effective circulating volume (ECV), resistance total mean (RTM) and blood flow smooth degree (BFSD) were determined in 65 patients with major depressive disorders and 31 healthy normal controls. The clinical symptoms were assessed with Hamilton depression scale (HAMD) and Hamilton anxiety scale (HAMA). Results: In patients with depression without anxiety, LSI, EF, LVDV, DPM, SPM, ECV, BFSD were significantly lower than those in controls, while RTM was higher than that in controls. Patients with comorbidity of depression and anxiety showed decreased LVDV, ECV, BFSD, and increased HR in comparison with the controls. The anxiety/somatization factor score positively correlated with LSI, EF, LVDV, but negatively correlated with RTM. There was negative correlation between retardation factor score and DPM, SPM, LVDV. Conclusion: The study indicated that there are noticeable changes in left ventricle preload and afterload, blood pressure, peripheral resistance, and microcirculation in depressive patients, and that the accompanying anxiety makes the changes more complicated

The association of depressive symptoms with survival in a Dutch cohort of patients with end-stage renal disease

Methods. In a prospective fashion, symptoms of depression were evaluated in ESRD patients on RRT using the depression subscore of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Fatal and non-fatal clinical events were determined during a 1-year follow-up. Results. Of 101 patients with ESRD, 42% showed manifest depressive symptoms, defined as a HADS-D score >= 7. No association was found between depressive symptoms and severity of somatic disease. During follow-up, all-cause mortality was significantly higher in patients with depressive symptoms above threshold (n = 42, mortality: 26%) compared to patients with depressive symptoms below threshold (n = 59, mortality 8%), (crude HR 3.3, CI 1.2-9.6, P = 0.02). The excess in mortality was mainly caused by a higher incidence of septicaemia (0 versus 12%, P = 0.01). After adjustment for clinical parameters, this association between depressive symptoms and mortality became even stronger. There was no significant difference observed in the incidence of cardiovascular events. Conclusions. Patients with ESRD treated with dialysis show a high level of depressive symptoms that is independently associated with poor survival. Future research should address appropriate therapeutic regimens.Clinical epidemiolog