4 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:948-953.

We examined a major organ function during 3 h biventricular assisted circulation after acute myocardial infarction model in the pig. In left ventricular circulation, the outflow cannula was placed in the ascending aorta and an inflow cannula through the mitral valve in the left ventricle. A pump (pulsatile group, Zeon Medical, Inc., Tokyo, Japan and nonpulsatile group, Nikkiso HPM-15, Nikkiso, Inc., Tokyo, Japan) was connected to each cannula. In right ventricular circulation, the outflow cannula was placed in the pulmonary artery and an inflow cannula in the right ventricle. The right ventricular circulation was supported by a nonpulsatile pump (Nikkiso HPM-15). The items measured were the regional blood flows of the cortex and medulla in the kidney, white matter and gray mater in brain, and liver; renal arterial flow; carotid arterial flow; portal vein flow; common hepatic arterial flow; arterial ketone body ratio (AKBR); and lactate/pyrubic acid (L/P). In the pulsatile group, the renal cortical blood flow increased, and the medulla blood flow decreased. On the other hand, in the nonpulsatile group, both regional blood flows decreased. That means that in the pulsatile assisted group intrarenal redistribution improved rather than in the nonpulsatile assisted group. In addition the liver regional blood flow, AKBR, and L/P showed significant differences between the pulsatile and nonpulsatile groups. On the other hand, the white matter and gray matter regional blood flows and carotid arterial flow did not show significant differences between the groups. The results of our study indicated that pulsatile circulation produced superior circulation in the kidney and liver, and microcirculation on the cell level was superior as well in early treatment of acute heart failure.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Experiences with computer-assisted detection of cerebral aneurysms in diagnosis by radiologists in real-life clinical environments have not been reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of computer-assisted detection in a routine reading environment.

Objective. To develop automatic visceral fat volume calculation software for computed tomography (CT) volume data and to evaluate its feasibility. Methods. A total of 24 sets of whole-body CT volume data and anthropometric measurements were obtained, with three sets for each of four BMI categories (under 20, 20 to 25, 25 to 30, and over 30) in both sexes. True visceral fat volumes were defined on the basis of manual segmentation of the whole-body CT volume data by an experienced radiologist. Software to automatically calculate visceral fat volumes was developed using a region segmentation technique based on morphological analysis with CT value threshold. Automatically calculated visceral fat volumes were evaluated in terms of the correlation coefficient with the true volumes and the error relative to the true volume. Results. Automatic visceral fat volume calculation results of all 24 data sets were obtained successfully and the average calculation time was 252.7 seconds/case. The correlation coefficients between the true visceral fat volume and the automatically calculated visceral fat volume were over 0.999. Conclusions. The newly developed software is feasible for calculating visceral fat volumes in a reasonable time and was proved to have high accuracy.

We examined left ventricular assist during 6 h for an acute myocardial infarction model in pigs. The outflow cannula was placed in the ascending aorta and an inflow cannula in the left atrium. A pump (Pulsatile group: Zeon Medical and Nonpulsatile group: Nikkiso HPM-15) was connected to each cannula. Items measured were the regional blood flow of the cortex and the medulla in the kidney, renal arterial flow, arterial blood ketone body ratio (AKBR), lactate/pyruvic acid, BUN, creatinine and beta 2-microglobulin. After experimental study, the kidneys were removed, and a pathological study was performed. In the pulsatile assisted group, renal cortical blood flow increased but medulla blood flow decreased. On the other hand, in the nonpulsatile assisted group, both regional blood flows decreased. That means that in the pulsatile assisted group intrarenal redistribution improved, rather than in the nonpulsatile assisted group. The results of our study indicated that pulsatile assist produced superior circulation in the kidney, and the microcirculation on the cell level was superior as well in early treatment of acute left heart failure.