Evaluation of background parenchymal enhancement on breast MRI: A systematic review

Objective: To perform a systematic review of the methods used for background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) evaluation on breast MRI. Methods: Studies dealing with BPE assessment on breast MRI were retrieved from major medical libraries independently by four reviewers up to 6October 2015. The keywords used for database searching are "background parenchymal enhancement", "parenchymal enhancement", "MRI" and "breast". The studies were included if qualitative and/or quantitative methods for BPE assessment were described. Results: Of the 420 studies identified, a total of 52 articles were included in the systematic review. 28 studies performed only a qualitative assessment of BPE, 13 studies performed only a quantitative assessment and 11 studies performed both qualitative and quantitative assessments. A wide heterogeneity was found in the MRI sequences and in the quantitative methods used for BPE assessment. Conclusion: A wide variability exists in the quantitative evaluation of BPE on breast MRI. More studies focused on a reliable and comparable method for quantitative BPE assessment are needed. Advances in knowledge: More studies focused on a quantitative BPE assessment are needed

Ultrasound boosts doxorubicin efficacy against sensitive and resistant ovarian cancer cells

Ovarian cancer (OC) is characterised by the highest mortality of all gynaecological malignancies, frequent re-lapses, and the development of resistance to drug therapy. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is an innovative anti-cancer approach that combines a chemical/drug (sonosensitizer) with low-intensity ultrasound (US), which are both harmless per se ', with the sonosensitizer being acoustically activated, thus yielding localized cytotoxicity often via reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Doxorubicin (Doxo) is a potent chemotherapeutic drug that has also been recommended as a first-line treatment against OC. This research work aims to investigate whether Doxo can be used at very low concentrations, in order to avoid its significant side effects, as a sonosensitiser under US exposure to promote cancer cell death in Doxo non-resistant (A2780/WT) and Doxo resistant (A2780/ ADR) human OC cell lines. Moreover, since recurrence is an important issue in OC, we have also investigated whether the proposed SDT with Doxo induces immunogenic cell death (ICD) and thus hinders OC recurrence. Our results show that the sonodynamic anticancer approach with Doxo is effective in both A2780/WT and A2780/ADR cell lines, and that it proceeds via a ROS-dependent mechanism of action and immune sensitization that is based on the activation of the ICD pathway

Intraoperative breast specimen assessment in breast conserving surgery: comparison between standard mammography imaging and a remote radiological system.

The aim of this paper was to compare standard specimen mammography (SSM) with remote intraoperative specimen mammography (ISM) assessment in breast conserving-surgery (BCS) based on operative times, intraoperative additional excision (IAE) and re-intervention rates. We retrospectively compared 129 consecutive patients (136 lesions) who had BCS with SSM at our centre between 11/2011 and 02/2013 with 138 consecutive patients (144 lesions) who underwent BCS with ISM between 08/2014 and 02/2015. SSM or ISM were performed to confirm the target lesions within the excised specimen and margin adequacy. The utility of SMM and ISM was evaluated considering pathology as gold-standard, using χ2 or Fisher’s exact tests for comparison of categorical variables, and non-parametric Mann–Whitney test for continuous variables

Efecto antimicrobiano del clavo y la canela sobre patógenos

The use of spices with antimicrobial properties has been very important in the food industry. The aim of this work was to study the antimicrobial effect of clove and cinnamon on the pathogens Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus using the agar diffusion method, and double dilutions in broth. The extracts of cinnamon and clove studied under the agar diffusion method, caused no antimicrobial effect on Salmonella spp, while in its highest concentrations (100 y 150 mg/mL) if they showed an antimicrobial effect on E. coli and S. aureus, classified as sensitive. In the methodology of double dilutions in broth, it was determined that for S. aureus ATCC ® 29213TM the CMI and CMB were 512 μg/mL and 4096 μg/mL respectively and E. coli O157:H7 the CMI and CMB were 2048 μg/mL and 4096 μg/mL.El uso de especias con características antimicrobianas ha tenido gran relevancia en la industria alimenticia. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue estudiar el efecto antimicrobiano del clavo y la canela sobre los patógenos Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli y Staphylococcus aureus utilizando el método de difusión en agar, y diluciones dobles en caldo. Los extractos de canela y clavo estudiados bajo la metodología de difusión en agar, no provocaron ningún efecto antimicrobiano sobre Salmonella spp, mientras que, en sus concentraciones más elevadas (100 y 150 mg/mL), si mostraron un efecto antimicrobiano sobre E. coli y S. aureus, clasificándose como sensibles. En la metodología de diluciones dobles en caldo, se determinó que para el S. aureus ATCC® 29213TM la CMI y la CMB fueron 512 µg/mL y 4096 µg/mL respectivamente y para Escherichia coli O157:H7 la CMI y la CMB fueron 2048 µg/mL y 4096 µg/mL

Background parenchymal enhancement assessment: Inter- and intra-rater reliability across breast MRI sequences

Objective: To evaluate inter- and intra-rater reliability of background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) assessment across breast MRI sequences. Materials and methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained and the requirement for consent was waived. Three radiologists qualitatively categorized BPE on 150 breast MRI using a four-point scale (minimal, mild, moderate or marked) according to BI-RADS category system. According to MR-sequence used for the assessment of BPE, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability across a simulated reading strategy with four options was performed: (1) initial contrast-enhanced (CE) fat-suppressed T1-weighted images (2) initial CE subtracted images (3) maximum-intensity-projection (MIP) of the first CE subtracted images (4) combination of initial CE fat-suppressed T1-weighted, initial CE subtracted and MIP images. Raters repeated BPE assessment of 45 breast MRI four weeks after the initial assessment. Gwet's AC1 index with ordinal weights was used to assess reliabilities. Results: Gwet's index for the reliability among the three raters was 0.68 (0.63-0.74) using initial contrast-enhanced fat-suppressed T1 weighted images, 0.74 (0.69-0.80) using subtracted images, 0.80 (0.76-0.83) using MIP, 0.80 (0.77-0.84) using a combination of the initial contrast-enhanced fat-suppressed T1 weighted, initial contrast-enhanced subtracted and MIP images. Test-retest reliability was 0.81 (0.60\u20131.00) for rater 1, 0.77 (0.55-0.98) for rater 2, 0.79 (0.59-0.99) for rater 3 using the combination of initial contrast-enhanced fat-suppressed T1 weighted, initial contrast-enhanced subtracted and MIP images. Conclusions: Overall, the combination of all CE MRI images showed the highest reliability of BPE assessment. However, MIP showed a high reliability with lower reading time compared to the combination of all CE MRI images