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Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of baseline 18 F-FDG PET/CT textural analysis in locally-advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Methods Eighty-six patients with LARC underwent 18 F-FDG PET/CT before treatment. Maximum and mean standard uptake values (SUVmax and SUVmean), metabolic tumoral volume (MTV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), histogram-intensity features, as well as 11 local and regional textural features, were evaluated. The relationships of clinical, pathological and PET-derived metabolic parameters with disease-specific survival (DSS), disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed by Cox regression analysis. Logistic regression was used to predict the pathological response by the Dworak tumor regression grade (TRG) in the 66 patients treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT). Results The median follow-up of patients was 41 months. Seventeen patients (19.7%) had recurrent disease and 18 (20.9 %) died, either due to cancer progression ( n  = 10) or from another cause while in complete remission ( n  = 8). DSS was 95% at 1 year, 93% at 2 years and 87% at 4 years. Weight loss, surgery and the texture parameter coarseness were significantly associated with DSS in multivariate analyses. DFS was 94 % at 1 year, 86 % at 2 years and 79 % at 4 years. From a multivariate standpoint, tumoral differentiation and the texture parameters homogeneity and coarseness were significantly associated with DFS. OS was 93% at 1 year, 87% at 2 years and 79% after 4 years. cT, surgery, SUVmean, dissimilarity and contrast from the neighborhood intensity-difference matrix (contrast NGTDM ) were significantly and independently associated with OS. Finally, RAS -mutational status ( KRAS and NRAS mutations) and TLG were significant predictors of pathological response to nCRT (TRG 3-4). Conclusion Textural analysis of baseline 18 F-FDG PET/CT provides strong independent predictors of survival in patients with LARC, with better predictive power than intensity- and volume-based parameters. The utility of such features, especially coarseness, should be confirmed by larger clinical studies before considering their potential integration into decisional algorithms aimed at personalized medicine.

Background Fractal dimension is an indirect indicator of signal complexity. The aim was to evaluate the fractal and textural analysis parameters of glomeruli in obese and non-obese patients with glomerular diseases and association of these parameters with clinical features. Methods The study included 125 patients mean age 46 ± 15.2 years: obese (BMI ≥ 27 kg/m2—63 patients) and non-obese (BMI < 27 kg/m2—62 patients). Serum concentration of creatinine, protein, albumin, cholesterol, trygliceride, and daily proteinuria were measured. Formula Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Colaboration (CKD-EPI) equation was calculated. Fractal (fractal dimension, lacunarity) and textural (angular second moment (ASM), textural correlation (COR), inverse difference moment (IDM), textural contrast (CON), variance) analysis parameters were compared between two groups. Results Obese patients had higher mean value of variance (t = 1.867), ASM (t = 1.532) and CON (t = 0.394) but without significant difference (P > 0.05) compared to non-obese. Mean value of COR (t = 0.108) and IDM (t = 0.185) were almost the same in two patient groups. Obese patients had higher value of lacunarity (t = 0.499) in comparison with non-obese, the mean value of fractal dimension (t = 0.225) was almost the same in two groups. Significantly positive association between variance and creatinine concentration (r = 0.499, P < 0.01), significantly negative association between variance and CKD-EPI (r = -0.448, P < 0.01), variance and sex (r = -0.339, P < 0.05) were found. Conclusions Variance showed significant correlation with serum creatinine concentration, CKD-EPI and sex. CON and IDM were significantly related to sex. Fractal and textural analysis parameters of glomeruli could become a supplement to histopathologic analysis of kidney tissue. •Variance showed significant correlation with eGFR calculated by CKD- EPI formula.•Significant correlation between variance and serum creatinine was found.•Textural contrast and inverse difference moment were significantly related to sex.•Fractal analysis of glomeruli could become supplement to histopathologic analysis.•Textural analyses of kidney tissue should become useful to histopathologic analysis.

The physicochemical properties, especially pH value of dental medicines, have significant influence on the health of oral cavity tissues. The pH of formulations should correspond to the value of saliva pH (5.5–8.0). For carbomer-based gels, the required pH value is obtained by neutralizing them with alkaline components, which leads to their structuring (thickening). This affects the physical properties of the gel, its residence time at the application site and the rate of release of active pharmaceutical ingredient. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to evaluate the rheological, textural, and biopharmaceutical properties of Carbomer Polacril® 40P-based dental gel depending on the pH value. Evaluation of the rheological properties of gel preparations were performed by measuring the structural viscosity of the samples as a function of pH and temperature. The textural properties of the gel were evaluated by performing tests regarding back extrusion and spreadability. Carbomer Polacril® 40P-based gels haven’t shown noticeable thixotropic behavior, and were characterized by plastic flow in the whole studied pH range. The structural viscosity at the selected average pH value hasn’t differed at storage (25 °C) and application (37 °C) temperature. Texture studies of dental gels have shown a strong correlation with rheoparameters. Their rheological behavior and textural properties haven’t changed significantly between the pH range of 5.5–6.6. The relatively narrow range of working pH values does not affect the change in the viscosity of the preparation significantly and, consequently, does not affect the release of APIs from the developed Carbomer Polacril® 40P-based dental gel.

Plagioclase crystals in plagioclase ultraphyric basalts (PUB) record changes in the major, trace, and isotopic compositions of evolving magmas. Those changes represent the record of specific processes in the crust and upper mantle that impart distinct crystal textures onto which chemical signatures are written. The extent to which the type and abundance of plagioclase textures and chemical signatures identified in one tectonic setting are found in others is still unclear. Here we report on the textural and compositional characteristics of PUB lavas from the Northeastern (NE) Pacific Ridge system (Juan de Fuca Ridge, Blanco Fracture Zone, and Gorda Ridge). The NE Pacific Ridge system exhibits a variety of populations of plagioclase megacrysts. The distribution of textural and compositional characteristics (e.g., single mode, bimodal, or trimodal distribution) are consistent with the presence of more than one parental magma in some samples. In PUB lava from the NE Pacific, we found that the populations of different textural types of plagioclase megacrysts are not compositionally distinct. Specifically, in any individual sample, there is no correlation of texture with major and trace element composition. We interpret the disconnect between texture and composition to be indicative of a system characterized by mixing of similar batches of magma resulting in populations of plagioclase megacrysts dominated by homogeneity or small degrees of normal/reverse zoning in most but not all cases. Furthermore, the populations of megacrysts and glomerocrysts are distinct in each sample and not correlated with their setting (on‐axis, off‐axis, or intra‐transform basin). Key Points The NE Pacific Ridge system exhibits a variety of populations of plagioclase megacrysts as characterized by both texture and composition The proportions of textural/compositional features are different in each sample with no dependence on tectonic setting The lack of a correlation of texture to composition has important implications for the interpretation of melt inclusion data

Objective: This study evaluated the metabolic parameters and texture features of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET/CT) for the diagnosis and differentiation of endometrial atypical hyperplasia (EAH), EAH with field cancerization (FC), and stage 1A endometrial carcinoma (EC 1a). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the metabolic parameters of PET/CT in 170 patients with diagnoses confirmed by pathology, including 57 cases of EAH (57/170, 33.53%), 45 cases of FC (45/170, 26.47%), and 68 cases of EC 1a (68/170, 40.0%). Then, the texture features of each tumor were extracted and compared with the metabolic parameters and pathological results using nonparametric tests and linear regression analysis. The diagnostic performance was assessed by the area under the curve (AUC) values obtained from receiver operating characteristic analysis. Results: There were moderate positive correlations between the PET standardized uptake values (SUVpeak, SUVmax, and SUVmean) and postoperative pathological features with correlation coefficients ( r s ) of 0.663, 0.651, and 0.651, respectively ( P < .001). Total lesion glycolysis showed relatively low correlation with pathological characteristics ( r s = 0.476), whereas metabolic tumor volume and age showed the weakest correlations ( r s = 0.186 and 0.232, respectively). To differentiate between the diagnosis of EAH and FC, SUVmax displayed the largest AUC of 0.857 (sensitivity, 82.2%; specificity, 84.2%). Five texture features were screened out as Percentile 40, Percentile 45, InverseDifferenceMoment_(A)llDirectionₒffset 1, InverseDifferenceMomentₐngle 45ₒffset 4, and ClusterProminenceₐngle 135ₒffset 7 ( P < .001) by linear model of texture analysis (AUC = 0.851; specificity = 0.692; sensitivity = 0.871). To differentiate between the diagnoses of FC and EC 1a, SUVpeak displayed the largest AUC of 0.715 (sensitivity, 67.6%; specificity, 77.8%), and 2 texture features were identified as Percentile 10 and CPₐngle 135ₒffset 7 (AUC = 0.819; specificity = 0.871; sensitivity = 0.766; P < .001). Conclusions: SUVmax and SUVpeak had the highest diagnostic values for EAH, FC, and EC 1a compared with the other tested parameters. SUVmax, Percentile 40, Percentile 45, InverseDifferenceMoment_(A)llDirectionₒffset 1, InverseDifferenceMomentₐngle 45ₒffset 4, and ClusterProminenceₐngle 135ₒffset 7 distinguished EAH from FC. SUVpeak, Percentile 10, and ClusterProminenceₐngle 135ₒffset 7 distinguished FC from EC 1a. This study showed that the addition of texture features provides valuable information for differentiating EAH, FC, and EC 1a diagnoses.

Radiomics is a new field in medical imaging with the potential of changing medical practice. Radiomics is characterized by the extraction of several quantitative imaging features which are not visible to the naked eye from conventional imaging modalities, and its correlation with specific relevant clinical endpoints, such as pathology, therapeutic response, and survival. Several studies have evaluated the use of radiomics in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with encouraging results, particularly in the pretreatment prediction of tumor biological characteristics, risk of recurrence, and survival. In spite of this, there are limitations and challenges to be overcome before the implementation of radiomics into clinical routine. In this article, we will review the concepts of radiomics and their current potential applications in patients with HCC. It is important that the multidisciplinary team involved in the treatment of patients with HCC be aware of the basic principles, benefits, and limitations of radiomics in order to achieve a balanced interpretation of the results toward a personalized medicine.

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is increasingly used in neonatal intensive care, however visual scoring of LUS images remains subjective. Quantitative LUS (Q-LUS) is objective and whilst it detects small lung aeration changes in preterm animals, human data are limited. We hypothesised that Q-LUS would correlate strongly with oxygenation in very preterm infants born before 32 weeks’ gestation. We examined two quantitative image properties to assess whether Q-LUS correlates with oxygen status in very preterm infants: (1) mean-grey-value (MGV) and (2) second-order textural features (angular second moment, contrast, grey-level correlation (Q-LUS correlation ), inverse difference moment, entropy). 560 LUS images were acquired from 70 very preterm infants using Venue 50 and Venue Go systems and analysed in Fiji ImageJ. Oxygenation was assessed using oxygen saturation index (OSI) and peripheral oxygen saturation to fraction of inspired oxygen (S/F) ratio. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρ) was used to determine correlations between Q-LUS measurements and infant oxygenation. We found that MGV correlated fairly with OSI (ρ=-0.46, [-0.68,-0.23], p<0.01) and S/F ratio (ρ=0.38, [95% CI: 0.16,0.61]; p<0.01), though results varied by ultrasound system (Venue 50 (OSI: ρ=-0.43, [-0.69,-0.18], p<0.01; S/F ratio: ρ=0.34, [0.06,0.63], p=0.02) and Venue Go (OSI: ρ=0.12, [-0.61,0.83], p=0.71; S/F ratio: ρ=-0.24, [-0.85,0.37], p=0.36). Among textural features, Q-LUS correlation was moderately correlated with OSI (ρ=0.48, [0.25,0.71], p <0.01) and S/F ratio (ρ=-0.54, [-0.74,-0.34], p <0.01), and was consistent across systems. Overall, Q-LUS showed fair-to-moderate correlation with oxygenation in very preterm infants. Q-LUS correlation was the only textural feature unaffected by machine type, supporting its potential as a machine-independent, indirect measure of oxygenation.

Background: Although many works have supported the utility of PET radiomics, several authors have raised concerns over the robustness and replicability of the results. This study aimed to perform a systematic review on the topic of PET radiomics and the used methodologies. Methods: PubMed was searched up to 15 October 2020. Original research articles based on human data specifying at least one tumor type and PET image were included, excluding those that apply only first-order statistics and those including fewer than 20 patients. Each publication, cancer type, objective and several methodological parameters (number of patients and features, validation approach, among other things) were extracted. Results: A total of 290 studies were included. Lung (28%) and head and neck (24%) were the most studied cancers. The most common objective was prognosis/treatment response (46%), followed by diagnosis/staging (21%), tumor characterization (18%) and technical evaluations (15%). The average number of patients included was 114 (median = 71; range 20–1419), and the average number of high-order features calculated per study was 31 (median = 26, range 1–286). Conclusions: PET radiomics is a promising field, but the number of patients in most publications is insufficient, and very few papers perform in-depth validations. The role of standardization initiatives will be crucial in the upcoming years.

Purpose To assess the influence of long-axial field-of-view (LAFOV) PET/CT systems on radiomics feature reliability, to assess the suitability for short-duration or low-activity acquisitions for textural feature analysis and to investigate the influence of acceptance angle. Methods 34 patients were analysed: twelve patients underwent oncological 2-[18F]-FDG PET/CT, fourteen [18F]PSMA-1007 and eight [68Ga]Ga-DOTATOC. Data were obtained using a 106 cm LAFOV system for 10 min. Sinograms were generated from list-mode data corresponding to scan durations of 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, 120, 240, 360 and 600s using both standard (minimum ring difference MRD 85 crystals) and maximum acceptance angles (MRD 322). Target lesions were segmented and radiomics features were calculated. To assess feature correlation, Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC) was calculated with respect to the full duration acquisition for MRD 85 and 322 respectively. The number of features with excellent ( r  > 0.9), moderate ( r  > 0.7 and < 0.9) and poor ( r  ≤ 0.7) correlation was compared as a measure of feature stability. Intra-class heterogeneity was assessed by means of the quartile coefficient of dispersion. Results As expected, PPMCC improved with acquisition time for all features. By 240s almost all features showed at least moderate agreement with the full count (C100%) data, and by 360s almost all showed excellent agreement. Compared to standard-axial field of view (SAFOV) equivalent scans, fewer features showed moderate or poor agreement, and this was most pronounced for [68Ga]Ga-DOTATOC. Data obtained at C100% at MRD 322 were better able to capture between-patient heterogeneities. Conclusion The improved feature reliability at longer acquisition times and higher MRD demonstrate the advantages of high sensitivity LAFOV systems for reproducible and low-noise data. High fidelity between MRD 85 and MRD 322 was seen at all scan durations > 2s. When contrasted with data comparable to a simulated SAFOV acquisition, full-count and full-MRD data were better able to capture underlying feature heterogeneities.

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of MRI-based texture features of the lacrimal glands (LG) in augmenting the imaging differentiation between primary Sjögren’s Syndrome (pSS) affected LG and healthy LG, as well as to emphasize the possible importance of radiomics in pSS early-imaging diagnosis. The MRI examinations of 23 patients diagnosed with pSS and 23 healthy controls were retrospectively included. Texture features of both LG were extracted from a coronal post-contrast T1-weighted sequence, using a dedicated software. The ability of texture features to discriminate between healthy and pSS lacrimal glands was performed through univariate, multivariate, and receiver operating characteristics analysis. Two quantitative textural analysis features, RunLengthNonUniformityNormalized (RLNonUN) and Maximum2DDiameterColumn (Max2DDC), were independent predictors of pSS-affected glands (p < 0.001). Their combined ability was able to identify pSS LG with 91.67% sensitivity and 83.33% specificity. MRI-based texture features have the potential to function as quantitative additional criteria that could increase the diagnostic accuracy of pSS-affected LG.