The preliminary study presented within this paper shows a comparative study of various texture features extracted from liver ultrasonic images by employing Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), a type of artificial neural network, to study the presence of disease conditions. An ultrasound (US) image shows echo-texture patterns, which defines the organ characteristics. Ultrasound images of liver disease conditions such as “fatty liver,” “cirrhosis,” and “hepatomegaly” produce distinctive echo patterns. However, various ultrasound imaging artifacts and speckle noise make these echo-texture patterns difficult to identify and often hard to distinguish visually. Here, based on the extracted features from the ultrasonic images, we employed an artificial neural network for the diagnosis of disease conditions in liver and finding of the best classifier that distinguishes between abnormal and normal conditions of the liver. Comparison of the overall performance of all the feature classifiers concluded that “mixed feature set” is the best feature set. It showed an excellent rate of accuracy for the training data set. The gray level run length matrix (GLRLM) feature shows better results when the network was tested against unknown data.

Summary Terminalia arjuna (T. arjuna) is an Indian medicinal plant credited with cardiotonic and cardioprotective properties; and baicalein is the active ingredient. To determine the possible mechanisms of protective action of T. arjuna and baicalein, we studied the reactions of T. arjuna extracts and baicalein with the biologically important superoxide (O2˙−) and singlet oxygen ( 1 O2) by measuring O2˙− or 1 O2 induced damage of lipids, lipid preoxidation, in the reaction mixture containing rat liver mitochondria and cardiac homogenate. Absorption of T. arjuna and baicalein in rat small intestine was also assessed. In addition, inhibitory effect of T. arjuna and baicalein on radiation-induced ROS generation in NIH3T3 cells and a cell-free chemical system, as well as on whole plasma oxidation were studied. Significant absorption of T. arjuna and baicalein from the intestine was observed. Baicalein is highly effective in inhibiting lipid peroxidation, reactive oxygen species generation, and plasma oxidation, even at low concentrations of 10-25 µM. To determine the possible mechanisms in this phenomena, we studied the reaction of T. arjuna extracts and baicalein with O2˙− and 1 O2 using electron spin resonance and found that T. arjuna extracts and *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +81-75-251-5503Fax: +81-75-252-3721 E-mail:toshi@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp Abbreviations: ˙OH, hydroxyl radical; µs, microseconds; 1 O2, singlet oxygen; 4-OH TEMP, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-hydroxypiperidine; 4-OH TEMPO˙, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-hydroxypiperidine-N-oxide radical; AAPH, 2.2'-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride; CD, conjugated diene; CO2˙−, formate radical anion; CO2, carbon dioxide; DCF, dichlorofluorescein; DCFH, 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein; DCFH/DA, 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate; DETAPAC, diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid; DMEM, Dulbecco's modified eagle's medium; DMF, N,N'-dimethyl formamide; DMPO, 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyroline-N-oxide; eaq − , hydrated electrons; EDTA, ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid; ESR, electron spin resonance; H˙, hydrogen atom; H2O2, hydrogen peroxide; HCOO − , formate anion; IC50, concentration at which 50% inhibition is achieved; KSCN, potassium thiocyanate; LDL, low density lipoprotein; LOOH, lipid hydroperoxides; MeCN, acetonitrile; ms, milliseconds; N2, nitrogen; N2O, nitrous oxide; ns, nanoseconds; O2˙−, superoxide radical; OH − , hydroxyl anion; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid; RB, Rose Bengal; RFI, relative fluorescence intensity; RNS, reactive nitrogen species; ROS, reactive oxygen species; SAQA, singlet oxygen quenching activity; SSA, superoxide scavenging activity; TBARS, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances; Trolox, 6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid. . In conclusion, our results show that T. arjuna and baicalein are very potent in membrane protection against O2˙− and 1 O2 in vitro, and their ability to react with these species may explain previously observed effects of this plant and its active ingredient.