Interstudy reproducibility of the second generation, Fourier domain optical coherence tomography in patients with coronary artery disease and comparison with intravascular ultrasound: a study applying automated contour detection

Recently, Fourier domain OCT (FD-OCT) has been introduced for clinical use. This approach allows in vivo, high resolution (15 micron) imaging with very fast data acquisition, however, it requires brief flushing of the lumen during imaging. The reproducibility of such fast data acquisition under intracoronary flush application is poorly understood. To assess the inter-study variability of FD-OCT and to compare lumen morphometry to the established invasive imaging method, IVUS. 18 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease scheduled for PCI were included. In each target vessel a FD-OCT pullback (MGH system, light source 1,310 nm, 105 fps, pullback speed 20 mm/s) was acquired during brief (3 s) injection of X-ray contrast (flow 3 ml/s) through the guiding catheter. A second pullback was repeated under the same conditions after re-introduction of the FD OCT catheter into the coronary artery. IVUS and OCT imaging was performed in random order. FD-OCT and IVUS pullback data were analyzed using a recently developed software employing semi automated lumen contour and stent strut detection algorithms. Corresponding ROI were matched based on anatomical landmarks such as side branches and/or stent edges. Inter-study variability is presented as the absolute difference between the two pullbacks. FD-OCT showed remarkably good reproducibility. Inter-study variability in native vessels (cohort A) was very low for mean and minimal luminal area (0.10 ± 0.38, 0.19 ± 0.57 mm[superscript 2], respectively). Likewise inter-study variability was very low in stented coronary segments (cohort B) for mean lumen, mean stent, minimal luminal and minimal stent area (0.06 ± 0.08, 0.07 ± 0.10, 0.04 ± 0.09, 0.04 ± 0.10 mm[superscript 2], respectively). Comparison to IVUS morphometry revealed no significant differences. The differences between both imaging methods, OCT and IVUS, were very low for mean lumen, mean stent, minimal luminal and minimal stent area (0.10 ± 0.45, 0.10 ± 0.36, 0.26 ± 0.54, 0.05 ± 0.47 mm[superscript 2], respectively). FD-OCT shows excellent reproducibility and very low inter-study variability in both, native and stented coronary segments. No significant differences in quantitative lumen morphometry were observed between FD-OCT and IVUS. Evaluating these results suggest that FD-OCT is a reliable imaging tool to apply in longitudinal coronary artery disease studie

Glioblastoma cellular cross-talk converges on NF-κB to attenuate EGFR inhibitor sensitivity

Funding Information: We thank Dr. David James, Dr. Frederick Lang, Dr. Cameron Brennan, and Dr. Harley Kornblum for GBM-PDX neurospheres. We thank Dr. Karen Arden for continuous support and critical evaluation of the results. We thank Dr. Robert Davis, Dr. German Gomez, Dr. Tiffany Taylor, Dr. Rachel Reed, Dr. Melissa Mcalonis, and Dr. Sora Lee for technical support. In memory of Rosa Lupo. This work was supported by the Defeat GBM Research Collaborative, a subsidiary of the National Brain Tumor Society (F.B.F. and P.S.M.), R01-NS080939 (F.B.F.), the James S. McDonnell Foundation (F.B.F.), the National Cancer Institute (2T32CA009523-29A1) (A.H.T), and 1RO1NS097649-01 (C.C.C.). C.Z. was partially supported by an American-Italian Cancer Foundation post-doctoral research fellowship. F.L. received a Gao Feng Gao Yuan Scholarship Award. T.C.G., A.K.S., P.S.M., W.K.C., and F.B.F. receive salary and additional support from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Zanca et al.In glioblastoma (GBM), heterogeneous expression of amplified and mutated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) presents a substantial challenge for the effective use of EGFR-directed therapeutics. Here we demonstrate that heterogeneous expression of the wild-type receptor and its constitutively active mutant form, EGFRvIII, limits sensitivity to these therapies through an interclonal communication mechanism mediated by interleukin-6 (IL-6) cytokine secreted from EGFRvIII-positive tumor cells. IL-6 activates a NF-κB signaling axis in a paracrine and autocrine manner, leading to bromodomain protein 4 (BRD4)-dependent expression of the prosurvival protein survivin (BIRC5) and attenuation of sensitivity to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). NF-κB and survivin are coordinately up-regulated in GBM patient tumors, and functional inhibition of either protein or BRD4 in in vitro and in vivo models restores sensitivity to EGFR TKIs. These results provide a rationale for improving anti-EGFR therapeutic efficacy through pharmacological uncoupling of a convergence point of NF-κB-mediated survival that is leveraged by an interclonal circuitry mechanism established by intratumoral mutational heterogeneity.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Lumen Contouring and Retrospective Gating of Coronary OCT

Cardiovascular disease causes decreased blood flow to the heart and the brain. Due to the buildup of plaque the coronary arteries become narrow. The plaque can suddenly disrupt and partially or completely occlude a vessel, this can lead to myocardial infarction and sudden death. Angioplasty is a surgical procedure during which stents are placed inside the coronary arteries to keep these vessels open. Quantitative analysis can be performed on an imaging technique called OCT to study the lumen areas over time and the effects of implanted stents. The lumen areas are the part of an artery where the blood flow through. Contour detection is necessary for calculating the lumen areas. To our knowledge the lumen contours of the coronary arteries from OCT data-sets are currently only manually detected, no method for automatic contour detection exists. The lumen volume can be calculated using the lumen areas and is also used in quantitative OCT analysis. However, motion artifacts are introduced due to the cardiac cycle while acquiring an OCT data-set. These motion artifacts reduce the accuracy of the calculated lumen volume. The focus of this thesis is on automatic contour detection and selecting a subset of cross-sections is proposed as a possible solution for reducing these motion artifacts.MediamaticsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Speurplanet.nl onderdeel van Moerstaal: BSc Project Computer Science / Software Technology IN3700

Het project bestond uit het vinden van een oplossing om het huidige speurplanet.nl te verbeteren dan wel te vernieuwen. Speurplanet is een website waar gebruikers (tweede hands) artikelen kunnen verkopen en kopen. De opdrachtgever wil het huidige speurplanet.nl vervangen. Het huidige speurplanet.nl moet worden vernieuwd/vervangen, omdat de huidige layout en implementatie niet meer aan de eisen voldoen. Speurplanet is een onderdeel van Moerstaal en D.M. Media. Het bedrijf Moerstaal is een provider van email adressen, homepages en domeinnamen en D.M. Media is een op email gericht marketing bureau.Software EngeneeringElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Castleman Disease of the Parotid Gland: A Report of a Case

Castleman disease is an extremely rare benign lymphoproliferative disorder of unknown etiology. It affects the lymphatic chain in anybody region, although the commonest site is the mediastinum. The head and neck region is the second most common site; however, the salivary glands are rarely affected. We report a case of a 29-year-old Asian lady who presented with a 2-year history of an enlarging left parotid mass. Histopathology of the excisional biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of Castleman disease

Rapid light output degradation of GaN-based packaged LED in the early stage of humidity test

An initial sharp decrease in the light output of a high-power light-emitting diode is observed when it is exposed to humid condition. TGA and energy-dispersive system analyses confirm the possibility of moisture entrapment in the silicone encapsulation; moreover, the light scattering model verifies qualitatively the scattering of the light due to the entrapped moisture, and it is this scattering that renders an initial sharp drop in the light output. The finding shows the importance of pore size of the silicone gel in order to prevent such sharp decrease in the light output under a humid environment

a hash-tlb approach for mmu virtualization in xen/ia64

IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Parallel ProcessingWith advances in hardware-assisted full virtualization technologies, system virtualization based on the virtual machine monitor (VMM) has received much recent attention. Using the Xen/IA64 hardware virtual machine implemented on Intel® Virtualization