29 research outputs found

    Real-time PACS-integrated longitudinal brain metastasis tracking tool provides comprehensive assessment of treatment response to radiosurgery

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    Abstract Background Treatment of brain metastases can be tailored to individual lesions with treatments such as stereotactic radiosurgery. Accurate surveillance of lesions is a prerequisite but challenging in patients with multiple lesions and prior imaging studies, in a process that is laborious and time consuming. We aimed to longitudinally track several lesions using a PACS-integrated lesion tracking tool (LTT) to evaluate the efficiency of a PACS-integrated lesion tracking workflow, and characterize the prevalence of heterogenous response (HeR) to treatment after Gamma Knife (GK). Methods We selected a group of brain metastases patients treated with GK at our institution. We used a PACS-integrated LTT to track the treatment response of each lesion after first GK intervention to maximally seven diagnostic follow-up scans. We evaluated the efficiency of this tool by comparing the number of clicks necessary to complete this task with and without the tool and examined the prevalence of HeR in treatment. Results A cohort of eighty patients was selected and 494 lesions were measured and tracked longitudinally for a mean follow-up time of 374 days after first GK. Use of LTT significantly decreased number of necessary clicks. 81.7% of patients had HeR to treatment at the end of follow-up. The prevalence increased with increasing number of lesions. Conclusions Lesions in a single patient often differ in their response to treatment, highlighting the importance of individual lesion size assessments for further treatment planning. PACS-integrated lesion tracking enables efficient lesion surveillance workflow and specific and objective result reports to treating clinicians

    Enhancing clinical decision-making: An externally validated machine learning model for predicting isocitrate dehydrogenase mutation in gliomas using radiomics from presurgical magnetic resonance imaging

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    Abstract Background Glioma, the most prevalent primary brain tumor, poses challenges in prognosis, particularly in the high-grade subclass, despite advanced treatments. The recent shift in tumor classification underscores the crucial role of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation status in the clinical care of glioma patients. However, conventional methods for determining IDH status, including biopsy, have limitations. Exploring the use of machine learning (ML) on magnetic resonance imaging to predict IDH mutation status shows promise but encounters challenges in generalizability and translation into clinical practice because most studies either use single institution or homogeneous datasets for model training and validation. Our study aims to bridge this gap by using multi-institution data for model validation. Methods This retrospective study utilizes data from large, annotated datasets for internal (377 cases from Yale New Haven Hospitals) and external validation (207 cases from facilities outside Yale New Haven Health). The 6-step research process includes image acquisition, semi-automated tumor segmentation, feature extraction, model building with feature selection, internal validation, and external validation. An extreme gradient boosting ML model predicted the IDH mutation status, confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Results The ML model demonstrated high performance, with an Area under the Curve (AUC), Accuracy, Sensitivity, and Specificity in internal validation of 0.862, 0.865, 0.885, and 0.713, and external validation of 0.835, 0.851, 0.850, and 0.847. Conclusions The ML model, built on a heterogeneous dataset, provided robust results in external validation for the prediction task, emphasizing its potential clinical utility. Future research should explore expanding its applicability and validation in diverse global healthcare settings

    Phonon‐Dominated Energy Transport in Purely Metallic Heterostructures

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    Ultrafast X-ray diffraction is used to quantify the transport of energy in laser-excited nanoscale gold-nickel (Au-Ni) bilayers. Electron transport and efficient electron-phonon coupling in Ni convert the laser-deposited energy in the conduction electrons within a few picoseconds into a strong non-equilibrium between hot Ni and cold Au phonons at the bilayer interface. Modeling of the subsequent equilibration dynamics within various two-temperature models confirms that for ultrathin Au films, the thermal transport is dominated by phonons instead of conduction electrons because of the weak electron-phonon coupling in Au

    Concepts and use cases for picosecond ultrasonics with x-rays

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    This review discusses picosecond ultrasonics experiments using ultrashort hard x-ray probe pulses to extract the transient strain response of laser-excited nanoscopic structures from Bragg-peak shifts. This method provides direct, layer-specific, and quantitative information on the picosecond strain response for structures down to few-nm thickness. We model the transient strain using the elastic wave equation and express the driving stress using Grüneisen parameters stating that the laser-induced stress is proportional to energy density changes in the microscopic subsystems of the solid, i.e., electrons, phonons and spins. The laser-driven strain response can thus serve as an ultrafast proxy for local energy-density and temperature changes, but we emphasize the importance of the nanoscale morphology for an accurate interpretation due to the Poisson effect. The presented experimental use cases encompass ultrathin and opaque metal-heterostructures, continuous and granular nanolayers as well as negative thermal expansion materials, that each pose a challenge to established all-optical techniques

    Ultrafast negative thermal expansion driven by spin disorder

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    We measure the transient strain profile in a nanoscale multilayer system composed of yttrium, holmium, and niobium after laser excitation using ultrafast x-ray diffraction. The strain propagation through each layer is determined by transient changes in the material-specific Bragg angles. We experimentally derive the exponentially decreasing stress profile driving the strain wave and show that it closely matches the optical penetration depth. Below the Neel temperature of Ho, the optical excitation triggers negative thermal expansion, which is induced by a quasi-instantaneous contractive stress and a second contractive stress contribution increasing on a 12-ps timescale. These two timescales were recently measured for the spin disordering in Ho [Rettig et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 257202 (2016)]. As a consequence, we observe an unconventional bipolar strain pulse with an inverted sign traveling through the heterostructure

    Electronic energy transport in nanoscale Au/Fe hetero-structures in the perspective of ultrafast lattice dynamics

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    We study the ultrafast electronic transport of energy in a photoexcited nanoscale Au Fe hetero structure by modeling the spatiotemporal profile of energy densities that drives transient strain, which we quantify by femtosecond x ray diffraction. This flow of energy is relevant for intrinsic demagnetization and ultrafast spin transport. We measured lattice strain for different Fe layer thicknesses ranging from few atomic layers to several nanometers and modeled the spatiotemporal flow of energy densities. The combination of a high electron phonon coupling coefficient and a large Sommerfeld constant in Fe is found to yield electronic transfer of nearly all energy from Au to Fe within the first hundreds of femtosecond

    Layer specific observation of slow thermal equilibration in ultrathin metallic nanostructures by femtosecond X-ray diffraction

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    Ultrafast heat transport in nanoscale metal multilayers is of great interest in the context of optically induced demagnetization, remagnetization and switching. If the penetration depth of light exceeds the bilayer thickness, layer-specific information is unavailable from optical probes. Femtosecond diffraction experiments provide unique experimental access to heat transport over single digit nanometer distances. Here, we investigate the structural response and the energy flow in the ultrathin double-layer system: gold on ferromagnetic nickel. Even though the excitation pulse is incident from the Au side, we observe a very rapid heating of the Ni lattice, whereas the Au lattice initially remains cold. The subsequent heat transfer from Ni to the Au lattice is found to be two orders of magnitude slower than predicted by the conventional heat equation and much slower than electron-phonon coupling times in Au. We present a simplified model calculation highlighting the relevant thermophysical quantities

    PACS-Integrated Tools for Peritumoral Edema Volumetrics Provide Additional Information to RANO-BM-Based Assessment of Lung Cancer Brain Metastases after Stereotactic Radiotherapy: A Pilot Study

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    Stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) is the standard of care treatment for brain metastases (METS) today. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding of how posttreatment lesional volumetric changes may assist prediction of lesional outcome. This is partly due to the paucity of volumetric segmentation tools. Edema alone can cause significant clinical symptoms and, therefore, needs independent study along with standard measurements of contrast-enhancing tumors. In this study, we aimed to compare volumetric changes of edema to RANO-BM-based measurements of contrast-enhancing lesion size. Patients with NSCLC METS ≥10 mm on post-contrast T1-weighted image and treated with SRT had measurements for up to seven follow-up scans using a PACS-integrated tool segmenting the peritumoral FLAIR hyperintense volume. Two-dimensional contrast-enhancing and volumetric edema changes were compared by creating treatment response curves. Fifty NSCLC METS were included in the study. The initial median peritumoral edema volume post-SRT relative to pre-SRT baseline was 37% (IQR 8–114%). Most of the lesions with edema volume reduction post-SRT experienced no increase in edema during the study. In over 50% of METS, the pattern of edema volume change was different than the pattern of contrast-enhancing lesion change at different timepoints, which was defined as incongruent. Lesions demonstrating incongruence at the first follow-up were more likely to progress subsequently. Therefore, edema assessment of METS post-SRT provides critical additional information to RANO-BM
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