Biomedical subjects
Cheryl Arnold
Publications and source records attributed to Cheryl Arnold.
The effect of orientation on quantification of muscle creatine by 1H MR spectroscopy.
Creatine is a central energy metabolite whose N-CH3 group can be detected with 1H MR spectroscopy (1H MRS) with relatively high sensitivity. Prior studies suggest that muscle fiber orientation can influence the appearance of other resonances attributed to total creatine (CR). Our purpose was to determine whether muscle fiber orientation affects muscle CR concentration quantification by 1H MRS with the commonly used N-CH3 resonance at 3.0 ppm. Skeletal muscle CR was quantified with water-referenced 1H MRS in normal subjects with different forearm muscle orientations relative to the static magnetic field at 1.5T. There were no significant differences in mean total [CR] in two different series of experiments separately including two orthogonal orientations and four orientations (0 degrees, 30 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees) of the forearm relative to the static field using either short (TE = 15 ms) or long (TE = 100 ms) echo times for voxels containing or centered on the same tissues. Subtle differences in CR line-width and T2 correction factors were observed with orientation. These observations are consistent with the primary hypothesis that careful water-referenced [CR] quantification, accounting for T2 effects and using the N-CH3 peak at 3.0ppm, is not affected by muscle orientation.
Hepatic ATP reserve and efficiency of replenishing: comparison between obese and nonobese normal individuals.
OBJECTIVE: Although obesity-associated fatty liver disease is emerging as one of the most common diseases in hepatology practice, it is unclear why liver disease prevalence increases with obesity. Because impaired energy homeostasis enhances the susceptibility of hepatocytes to injury, the aim of this study was to determine whether increased body mass index (BMI) is associated with decreased basal hepatic adenosine triphosphate (ATP) stores or impaired recovery from fructose-induced hepatic ATP depletion. METHODS: Hepatic ATP stores were assessed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in 19 healthy subjects with varying BMI. After obtaining the baseline spectra, 0.5 ml/kg of 50% fructose solution was administered to all subjects to deplete the ATP reserve, and follow-up nuclear magnetic resonance spectra was obtained at 5-min intervals for the ensuing hour. AST and ALT were determined at 24 h to assess whether ATP depletion caused any appreciable hepatocyte injury. RESULTS: Among the 19 subjects who participated in the study, five had BMI of < or =25, seven had BMI between 25-30, and seven had BMI of >30. The baseline ATP content was inversely related to BMI (correlation coefficient -0.63, p = 0.02), decreasing steadily with increasing BMI. Fructose injection decreased hepatic ATP stores in all subjects and did not increase transaminases in anyone. Neither the postfructose ATP nadir values nor the extent of ATP recovery correlated with BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced hepatic ATP stores are more prevalent in overweight and obese subjects than in lean subjects. However, a cause-effect relationship between these abnormalities was not demonstrated by our study.
Benign and malignant breast lesions: diagnosis with multiparametric MR imaging.
PURPOSE: To both develop and use a tissue signature method for the identification and classification of breast lesions and healthy breast tissue with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-six patients underwent breast MR imaging (T1- and T2-weighted imaging and three-dimensional T1-weighted imaging with and without contrast material enhancement), followed by biopsy or mastectomy and histopathologic analysis. Tissue cluster analysis was performed by using the iterative self-organizing data technique to identify glandular, adipose, and lesion tissue signature vectors. Glandular and lesion tissue vectors were characterized by angular separation from the reference adipose tissue vector. Differences in angular separation of histologically proved benign and malignant lesion groups were evaluated with an independent t test. The usefulness of the angular separation model for distinguishing benign from malignant lesions was evaluated with nonparametric receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS: The model enabled successful identification and characterization of breast lesion tissue clusters in all patients; 18 lesions were benign, and 18 were malignant. Angular separation +/- SD was 17.8 degrees +/- 6.1 degrees between adipose tissue and malignant lesions and 29.0 degrees +/- 11.2 degrees between adipose tissue and benign lesions. Angular separations of benign lesions and malignant lesions were significantly different (P =.002), with a specificity of 78% and sensitivity of 89% at a cutoff value of 21 degrees. Significant differences in angular separation from adipose tissue also were found between glandular tissue and lesion tissue (P <.001) and, in glandular tissue, between patients with benign lesions and those with malignant lesions (P =.04). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.84. CONCLUSION: Multispectral analysis of conventional breast MR images based on the iterative self-organizing data model and on measurement of angular separation between tissue signature vectors may enable automated lesion identification and classification.