Evaluation of Mucociliary Clearance by Three Dimension Micro-CT-SPECT in Guinea Pig: Role of Bitter Taste Agonists

Different image techniques have been used to analyze mucociliary clearance (MCC) in humans, but current small animal MCC analysis using in vivo imaging has not been well defined. Bitter taste receptor (T2R) agonists increase ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and cause bronchodilation but their effects in vivo are not well understood. This work analyzes in vivo nasal and bronchial MCC in guinea pig animals using three dimension (3D) micro-CT-SPECT images and evaluates the effect of T2R agonists. Intranasal macroaggreggates of albumin-Technetium 99 metastable (MAA-Tc99m) and lung nebulized Tc99m albumin nanocolloids were used to analyze the effect of T2R agonists on nasal and bronchial MCC respectively, using 3D micro-CT-SPECT in guinea pig. MAA-Tc99m showed a nasal mucociliary transport rate of 0.36 mm/min that was increased in presence of T2R agonist to 0.66 mm/min. Tc99m albumin nanocolloids were homogeneously distributed in the lung of guinea pig and cleared with time-dependence through the bronchi and trachea of guinea pig. T2R agonist increased bronchial MCC of Tc99m albumin nanocolloids. T2R agonists increased CBF in human nasal ciliated cells in vitro and induced bronchodilation in human bronchi ex vivo. In summary, T2R agonists increase MCC in vivo as assessed by 3D micro-CT-SPECT analysis

Efficacy of the local endometrial injury in patients who had previous failed IVF-ICSI outcome

Background: The latest studies reported that local endometrial injury is a useful method to improve the success of IVF-ICSI outcome. Objective: To assess whether local endometrial injury occurred by Pipelle in the spontaneous cycle could improve implantation rate, cleavage rate, and pregnancy outcome in the subsequent IVF-ICSI cycle in patients who had recurrent IVF failure. Materials and Methods: An endometrial biopsy was performed on day 21st in 41 patients as intervention group in this retrospective cross-sectional study. The control group contained 42 women. Results: Implantation rate was 22.5% and 10.5% in intervention and control group, respectively and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p=001). Pregnancy rate was 43.9% in the intervention group and this parameter was significantly lower in control group (21.4%) (p=0.03). Conclusion: Local endometrial injury in the nontransfer cycle increases the implantation rate and pregnancy rate in the subsequent IVF-ICSI cycle in patients who had previous failed IVF-ICSI outcome

Efficacy of the local endometrial injury in patients who had previous failed IVF-ICSI outcome

Background: The latest studies reported that local endometrial injury is a useful method to improve the success of IVF-ICSI outcome. Objective: To assess whether local endometrial injury occurred by Pipelle in the spontaneous cycle could improve implantation rate, cleavage rate, and pregnancy outcome in the subsequent IVF-ICSI cycle in patients who had recurrent IVF failure. Materials and Methods: An endometrial biopsy was performed on day 21st in 41 patients as intervention group in this retrospective cross-sectional study. The control group contained 42 women. Results: Implantation rate was 22.5% and 10.5% in intervention and control group, respectively and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p=001). Pregnancy rate was 43.9% in the intervention group and this parameter was significantly lower in control group (21.4%) (p=0.03). Conclusion: Local endometrial injury in the nontransfer cycle increases the implantation rate and pregnancy rate in the subsequent IVF-ICSI cycle in patients who had previous failed IVF-ICSI outcome

Can Laws Be a Potential PET Image Texture Analysis Approach for Evaluation of Tumor Heterogeneity and Histopathological Characteristics in NSCLC?

We investigated the association between the textural features obtained from F-18-FDG images, metabolic parameters (SUVmax(,) SUVmean, MTV, TLG), and tumor histopathological characteristics (stage and Ki-67 proliferation index) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The FDG-PET images of 67 patients with NSCLC were evaluated. MATLAB technical computing language was employed in the extraction of 137 features by using first order statistics (FOS), gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), gray-level run length matrix (GLRLM), and Laws' texture filters. Textural features and metabolic parameters were statistically analyzed in terms of good discrimination power between tumor stages, and selected features/parameters were used in the automatic classification by k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) and support vector machines (SVM). We showed that one textural feature (gray-level nonuniformity, GLN) obtained using GLRLM approach and nine textural features using Laws' approach were successful in discriminating all tumor stages, unlike metabolic parameters. There were significant correlations between Ki-67 index and some of the textural features computed using Laws' method (r = 0.6, p = 0.013). In terms of automatic classification of tumor stage, the accuracy was approximately 84% with k-NN classifier (k = 3) and SVM, using selected five features. Texture analysis of FDG-PET images has a potential to be an objective tool to assess tumor histopathological characteristics. The textural features obtained using Laws' approach could be useful in the discrimination of tumor stage