“N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), whi


“N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), which is a useful biomarker of chronic heart failure, has been shown to be a strong predictor of cardiovascular mortality. HIF-1�� pathway The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationships between NT-proBNP and markers of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients

with type 2 diabetes. Relationships of NT-proBNP to pulse wave velocity (PWV) or ankle-brachial index (ABI) as well as to various parameters, including body mass index, blood pressure, serum lipid concentration, serum uric acid concentration, and glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c), age, hemoglobin, serum creatinine concentration, severity of diabetic nephropathy or retinopathy, current treatment of diabetes, cardiothoracic ratio on chest radiograph, presence of left ventricular hypertrophy and/or ST-T changes evaluated by electrocardiograph, smoking status and presence of cardiovascular disease were investigated in 323 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes. Log (NT-proBNP) correlated positively with PWV (r = 0.283, p < 0.0001) and correlated negatively with ABI (r = -0.144, p = 0.0094). Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that age (beta = 0.200, p = 0.0033), systolic blood pressure (beta = 0.246, p C59 wnt < 0.0001), total cholesterol (beta = -0.135, p = 0.0326), uric acid (beta = 0.133, p = 0.0462), creatinine (beta = -0.184, p = 0.0122), smoking status (beta =

-0.129, p = 0.0499) and log (NT-proBNP) (beta = 0.177, p = 0.0149) were independently correlated with PWV and that systolic blood pressure (beta = -0.145, p = 0.0310),

log triglyceride (beta = -0.151, p = 0.0397) and log (NT-proBNP) (beta = -0.207, p = 0.0094) were independently correlated with ABI. In conclusion, NT-proBNP could be a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes.”
“The impact of positron emission tomography (PET) on radiation therapy is held back by poor methods of defining functional volumes of interest. Many new software tools are being proposed for contouring target volumes but the different approaches are not adequately compared and their accuracy is poorly evaluated due to the ill-definition of ground truth. This paper compares the largest cohort learn more to date of established, emerging and proposed PET contouring methods, in terms of accuracy and variability. We emphasize spatial accuracy and present a new metric that addresses the lack of unique ground truth. Thirty methods are used at 13 different institutions to contour functional volumes of interest in clinical PET/CT and a custom-built PET phantom representing typical problems in image guided radiotherapy. Contouring methods are grouped according to algorithmic type, level of interactivity and how they exploit structural information in hybrid images. Experiments reveal benefits of high levels of user interaction, as well as simultaneous visualization of CT images and PET gradients to guide interactive procedures.

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