ImportanceThe efficacy and safety of time-restricted eating (TRE) on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remain uncertain.ObjectiveTo compare the effects of TRE vs daily calorie restriction (DCR) on intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG) content and metabolic risk factors among patients with obesity and NAFLD.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis 12-month randomized clinical trial including participants with obesity and NAFLD was conducted at the Nanfang Hospital in Guangzhou, China, between April 9, 2019, and August 28, 2021.InterventionsParticipants with obesity and NAFLD were randomly assigned to TRE (eating only between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm) or DCR (habitual meal timing). All participants were instructed to maintain a diet of 1500 to 1800 kcal/d for men and 1200 to 1500 kcal/d for women for 12 months.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary outcome was change in IHTG content measured by magnetic resonance imaging; secondary outcomes were changes in body weight, waist circumference, body fat, and metabolic risk factors. Intention-to-treat analysis was used.ResultsA total of 88 eligible patients with obesity and NAFLD (mean [SD] age, 32.0 [9.5] years; 49 men [56%]; and mean [SD] body mass index, 32.2 [3.3]) were randomly assigned to the TRE (n = 45) or DCR (n = 43) group. The IHTG content was reduced by 8.3% (95% CI, −10.0% to −6.6%) in the TRE group and 8.1% (95% CI, −9.8% to −6.4%) in the DCR group at the 6-month assessment. The IHTG content was reduced by 6.9% (95% CI, −8.8% to −5.1%) in the TRE group and 7.9% (95% CI, −9.7% to −6.2%) in the DCR group at the 12-month assessment. Changes in IHTG content were comparable between the 2 groups at 6 months (percentage point difference: −0.2; 95% CI, −2.7 to 2.2; P = .86) and 12 months (percentage point difference: 1.0; 95% CI, −1.6 to 3.5; P = .45). In addition, liver stiffness, body weight, and metabolic risk factors were significantly and comparably reduced in both groups.Conclusions and RelevanceAmong adults with obesity and NAFLD, TRE did not produce additional benefits for reducing IHTG content, body fat, and metabolic risk factors compared with DCR. These findings support the importance of caloric intake restriction when adhering to a regimen of TRE for the management of NAFLD.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifiers: NCT03786523 and NCT04988230

Denoising is critical for improving visual quality and reliability of associative quantitative analysis when magnetic resonance (MR) images are acquired with low signal-to-noise ratios. The classical non-local means (NLM) filter, which averages pixels weighted by the similarity of their neighborhoods, is adapted and demonstrated to effectively reduce Rician noise without affecting edge details in MR magnitude images. However, the Rician NLM (RNLM) filter usually blurs small high-contrast particle details which might be clinically relevant information. In this paper, we investigated the reason of this particle blurring problem and proposed a novel particle-preserving RNLM filter with combined patch and pixel (RNLM-CPP) similarity. The results of experiments on both synthetic and real MR data demonstrate that the proposed RNLM-CPP filter can preserve small high-contrast particle details better than the original RNLM filter while denoising MR images.

Background The association between menstrual cycle characteristics and cardiovascular outcomes remains unclear. This study was undertaken to evaluate whether menstrual cycle regularity and length throughout the life course are associated with cardiovascular outcomes. Methods and Results This cohort study included 58 056 women who had no cardiovascular disease (CVD) at baseline and reported their menstrual cycle regularity and length. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for CVD events were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. During the median 11.8 years of follow‐up, 1623 incident CVD cases were documented, including 827 incident cases of coronary heart disease, 199 myocardial infarctions, 271 strokes, 174 cases of heart failure, and 393 cases of atrial fibrillations. Compared with women with regular menstrual cycles, the HRs for women with irregular menstrual cycles were 1.19 (95% CI, 1.07–1.31) for CVD events and 1.40 (95% CI, 1.14–1.72) for atrial fibrillation. The multivariable‐adjusted HRs for short (≤21 days) or long (35 days) menstrual cycles during follow‐up were 1.29 (95% CI, 1.11–1.50) and 1.11 (95% CI, 0.98–1.56) for CVD events, respectively. Similarly, long or short cycle length were more likely to be associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (HR, 1.30 [95% CI, 1.01–1.66]; and HR, 1.38 [95% CI, 1.02–1.87]), and short cycle length was more likely to be associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction. However, these associations for stroke and heart failure were not significant. Conclusions Long or short menstrual cycle length was associated with increased risks of CVD and atrial fibrillation but not myocardial infarction, heart failure, or stroke. Short cycle length was associated with a greater risk of coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction.