Academic radiology
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We assessed subjects with stage II and stage III chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and age-matched healthy volunteers at a single center using (3)He magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3.0 T. Measurements of the (3)He apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and center coronal slice (3)He ventilation defect volume (VDV) were examined for same-day and 7-day reproducibility as well as subgroup comparisons. ⋯ Hyperpolarized (3)He MRI was well-tolerated in subjects with stage II and stage III COPD. Seven-day repeated scanning was highly reproducible for ADC and moderately reproducible for VDV.
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To evaluate the correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the pancreas on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and pancreatic exocrine function determined by HCO(3) concentration in the secretin endoscopic pancreatic function test (ePFT). ⋯ Strong correlation between ADC value and pancreatic exocrine function as well as Cambridge score for chronic pancreatitis exists. Further studies are needed to determine the cut off ADC value for chronic pancreatitis.
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We sought to evaluate the automatic detection of the papillary muscle and to determine its influence on quantitative left ventricular (LV) mass assessment. ⋯ The automatic algorithm for detecting the papillary muscle was accurate with variabilities comparable to intra- and interobserver variabilities. LV mass is determined most accurately when the papillary muscles are included in the LV mass measurements. Taken together, these observations warrant the inclusion of automatic contour detection of papillary muscle mass in studies that involve the determination of LV mass.