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Objective: To determine the prevalence and clinical features of pathologically proven incidental cancer (IC) detected by whole-body fluorine-18 fludeoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT, as well as the incidence of false-positive and false-negative results. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed reports derived from 18 F-FDG PET/CT images of 3079 consecutive patients with known or suspected malignancies for 3 years. Discrete focal uptake indicating IC was identified from reports as well as pathological or clinical diagnoses, and the clinical courses were investigated. The false-positive result was defined as uptake indicating IC but not pathologically confirmed as malignant during follow-up. The false-negative result was defined as pathologically proven IC detected by another modality at initial clinical work-up or diagnosed during the follow-up period. Results: We found 18 F-FDG uptake indicating IC in 6.7% of all patients, and IC was pathologically proven in 2.2% of all patients. The most common sites were the colon, lung and stomach. The median survival duration of patients with IC was 42 months. The results were false positive in 4.5% of all patients, and the results were false negative in 2.3% of all patients. Conclusion:18 F-FDG PET/CT is a valuable tool for detecting IC. The rates of false-positive and false-negative results are within acceptable range. Advances in knowledge: This is the first report to describe the survival of patients with IC, and the detailed features of false-negative results at actual clinical settings.

SUMMARYIn recent years, there has been increasing interest in statistical shape modeling of human anatomy. The statistical shape model can capture the morphological variations of human anatomy. Since liver cirrhosis will cause significant morphological changes, the authors propose a computer-aided diagnosis method for liver cirrhosis based on statistical shape models. In the proposed method, the authors first construct a statistical shape model of the liver using 50 clinical CT datasets (25 sets of normal data and 25 sets of abnormal data). The authors apply the marching cubes algorithm to convert the segmented liver volume to a triangulated mesh surface containing 1000 vertex points. The coordinates of these vertex points are used to represent the 3D liver shape as a shape vector. After normalization and identification of correspondences between all datasets, principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to find the principal variation modes of the shape vectors. Then the authors propose a mode selection method based on class variations between the normal class and abnormal class. The authors found that the top two modes of class variations are most effective for the classification of normal and abnormal livers. The classification rate of abnormal livers and normal livers by the use of a simple linear discriminant function were 84% and 80%, respectively. C⃝ 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 190(4): 37-45, 2015; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

ABSTRACT. In our previous study, prenatal diethylstilbestrol (DES) exposure (days 7-21 of gestation) suppressed plasma testosterone levels and histological development in the epididymis of rat offspring. In this study, we measured cell proliferation in epididymal ductules and the expression of steroid hormone receptors and 5-reductase 1 in the epididymis to assess the effect of DES on epididymal development in the offspring. Prenatal DES exposure did not alter the cell division index, but suppressed the expression of androgen receptor mRNA at 15 weeks after birth, and stimulated estrogen receptor  mRNA at 6 weeks. These results suggest that prenatal DES exposure results in the retardation of epididymal tissue maturation by disruption of the postnatal expression of steroid hormone receptors.KEY WORDS: DES, epididymis, rat.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 71(3): 375-378, 2009 Androgen plays an important role in the development and function of the testis and male reproductive tract via the androgen receptor (AR) in mammals. Similarly, since estrogen receptors (ERs) in those tissues have been demonstrated [5,9,15,16,19], estrogen may be involved in the development of the male reproductive system. The mechanism via which brief estrogen exposure during development can lead to permanent structural and functional changes to the male reproductive tract are still unclear. Studies in rats treated neonatally with DES, have shown the impaired development of the epithelium and relative overgrowth of stromal tissue in the epididymis [2,21], vas deferens [2], seminal vesicles [22], and prostate [16,22], during or soon after the cessation of treatment. These gross structural changes are associated with a reduced expression of the AR [10,12,13,21,22], and with the induction of the abnormal expression of estrogen receptor  [ER; 2,14,22].Our previous study demonstrated that fetal administration of a low dose of DES induced a low level of testosterone, which led to a slight modification of spermatogenesis at 15 weeks, instead of a more extensive disruption of the morphological development of the epididymis, reducing the weight of the epididymis, the height of epididymal tubule epithelial cells, and luminal diameters [23]. Therefore, we speculated on which fetal DES treatment effects the cell proliferation of epididymal tubule epithelial cells.A previous study reported that the administration of DES to rat pups inhibited cell proliferation in the epididymis [2]. In this study, we attempted to confirm whether the gross anatomical changes in the epididymis induced by fetal treatment with DES are the result of the inhibition of epididymal cell proliferation. In addition, we examined the changes in steroid hormone receptor expression to elucidate the mechanism of the effect of fetal DES administration on the epididymis of offspring.Sprague-Dawley rats (Japan SLC, Hamamatsu, Japan) were given a commercial diet (CE-2, CLEA , Tokyo, Japan) and water, both ad libitum. Females were mated with males overnight and were examined the next morning for the...

SUMMARY In recent years, there has been increasing interest in statistical shape modeling of human anatomy. The statistical shape model can capture the morphological variations of human anatomy. Since liver cirrhosis will cause significant morphological changes, the authors propose a computer‐aided diagnosis method for liver cirrhosis based on statistical shape models. In the proposed method, the authors first construct a statistical shape model of the liver using 50 clinical CT datasets (25 sets of normal data and 25 sets of abnormal data). The authors apply the marching cubes algorithm to convert the segmented liver volume to a triangulated mesh surface containing 1000 vertex points. The coordinates of these vertex points are used to represent the 3D liver shape as a shape vector. After normalization and identification of correspondences between all datasets, principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to find the principal variation modes of the shape vectors. Then the authors propose a mode selection method based on class variations between the normal class and abnormal class. The authors found that the top two modes of class variations are most effective for the classification of normal and abnormal livers. The classification rate of abnormal livers and normal livers by the use of a simple linear discriminant function were 84% and 80%, respectively.