The combination of 10th percentile ADC, average ADC, and T2-weighted skewness with CAD is promising in the differentiation of prostate cancer from normal tissue. ADC image features and K(trans) moderately correlate with GS.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the robustness of our prior computerized texture analysis method for breast cancer risk assessment, which was developed initially on a limited dataset of screen-film mammograms. This current study investigated the robustness by (1) evaluating on a large clinical dataset, (2) using full-field digital mammograms (FFDM) as opposed to screen-film mammography, and (3) incorporating analyses over two types of high-risk patient sets, as well as patients at low risk for breast cancer. The evaluation included the analyses on the parenchymal patterns of women at high risk of developing of breast cancer, including both BRCA1/2 gene mutation carriers and unilateral cancer patients, and of women at low risk of developing breast cancer. A total of 456 cases, including 53 women with BRCA1/2 gene mutations, 75 women with unilateral cancer, and 328 low-risk women, were retrospectively collected under an institutional review board approved protocol. Regions-ofinterest (ROIs), were manually selected from the central breast region immediately behind the nipple. These ROIs were subsequently used in computerized feature extraction to characterize the mammographic parenchymal patterns in the images. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to assess the performance of the computerized texture features in the task of distinguishing between high-risk and low-risk subjects. In a round robin evaluation on the FFDM dataset with Bayesian artificial neural network analysis, AUC values of 0.82 (95% confidence interval [0.75, 0.88]) and 0.73 (95% confidence interval [0.67, 0.78]) were obtained between BRCA1/2 gene mutation carriers and low-risk women, and between unilateral cancer and low-risk women, respectively. These results from computerized texture analysis on digital mammograms demonstrated that high-risk and low-risk women have different mammographic parenchymal patterns. On this large clinical dataset, we validated our methods for quantitative analyses of mammographic patterns on FFDM, statistically demonstrating again that women at high risk tend to have dense breasts with coarse and lowcontrast texture patterns.

Combining mammography with ABUS, compared with mammography alone, significantly improved readers' detection of breast cancers in women with dense breast tissue without substantially affecting specificity.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the relative conspicuity of bone metastases on short-tau inversion recovery (STIR) and diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) whole-body MR sequences for breast, prostate and myeloma malignancies. Methods: 44 whole-body MRI scans were reviewed retrospectively (coronal T 1 weighted, STIR and DWI with b5800). On each scan, up to four of the largest bone lesions were identified on T 1 weighting, and the region of interest signal intensity was measured on STIR and DWI, as well as the background signal intensity. The mean lesion signal to background ratio was calculated for each patient and then for each malignancy group. Results: In prostate cancer patients, the DWI signal/background ratio was greater than that of STIR in 22 out of 24 patients (mean DWI lesion/background ratio 3.91, mean STIR lesion/background ratio 2.31; p50.0001). In multiple myeloma, the DWI ratio was higher in 6/7 patients (DWI group mean ratio 7.59, STIR group mean ratio 3.7; p50.0366). In 13 breast cancer patients, mean STIR and DWI signal/background were similar (DWI group mean ratio 4.13, group mean STIR ratio 4.26; p50.8587). Conclusion: Bone lesion conspicuity measured by lesion/background signal intensity was higher on DWI b5800 than on STIR in patients with prostate cancer and multiple myeloma. DWI should be used in whole-body MR oncology protocols in these conditions to maximise lesion detection. Metastatic disease to bones can be the only site of distant spread in patients with prostate or breast cancer. Accurate detection of such disease dissemination can be challenging as small-volume disease confined to the marrow cavity may be missed on radionuclear bone scintigraphy or CT imaging. Whole-body (WB) MRI is increasingly used in oncological imaging as a tool to improve detection of bone metastases. Several authors report good results compared with other modalites. Baur-Melnyk et al [1] found WB MRI gave superior detection rate and staging for myeloma compared with CT, and Shortt et al [2], evaluating the same malignancy, concluded that WB MRI performed better than positron emission tomography CT. In prostate and breast patients, Gutzeit et al [3] found WB MRI to rank equally with skeletal scintigraphy for detection of bone lesions, and in some cases detected markedly more metastases. In a recent pooled meta-analysis of published studies, WB MRI showed a pooled sensitivity of 90.0% and pooled specificity of 91.8% for the detection of bone metastases [4].WB MRI imaging protocols have evolved with time as MRI scanners are now more technologically advanced. Conventional WB MRI studies have typically employed T 1 weighted (T 1 W) and short-tau inversion recovery (STIR) sequences [1,5,6]. However, more recently, diffusion-weighted sequences are increasingly being utilised [3,7]. The image contrast from diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) is based on difference in the mobility of water protons between tissues. As the mobility of water protons is impeded more in tumour than in normal tissues, this results ...

We report lifetimes, branching fractions, and the resulting oscillator strengths for transitions within the P II multiplet (3s 2 3p 2 3 P − 3s3p 3 3 P o ) at 1308 Å. These comprehensive beam-foil measurements, which are the most precise set currently available experimentally, resolve discrepancies involving earlier experimental and theoretical results. Interstellar phosphorus abundances derived from λ1308 can now be interpreted with greater confidence. In the course of our measurements, we also obtained an experimental lifetime for the 3p4s 3 P o 0 level of P IV. This lifetime agrees well with the available theoretical calculation.