Advances in Pancreatic Imaging: The Expanding Role of Dual-Energy CT in Clinical Diagnosis: A Comprehensive Review.

Dual-energy computed tomography has become a pivotal tool in abdominal imaging, particularly for pancreatic pathologies such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, trauma assessment, and acute pancreatitis. Its ability to provide enhanced contrast resolution, reduce artifacts, and optimize radiation dose makes it invaluable in both acute and non-acute clinical settings. This narrative review summarizes the technological advancements and clinical applications of dual-energy computed tomography in pancreatic imaging.

Aperiodic activity masks sensorimotor mu suppression during human action observation.

In electroencephalography (EEG), action execution (AE) is reliably associated with reductions in the mu rhythm, a periodic oscillation (8-14 Hz) over sensorimotor cortex. Similar patterns of "mu suppression" have been reported during observations of others' actions, leading to claims that the mu rhythm indexes motor contributions to social perception. However, evidence for mu suppression during action observation (AO) is mixed, possibly due to methodological considerations (e.

Improving Patient Throughput in Limited Resource Environments.

Waiting times for medical imaging examinations in Canada are growing as the demand for these tests exceeds current capacity. This document summarizes strategies that may be employed to increase medical imaging patient throughput in an environment of limited resources. This document also advocates for provincial measures to optimize use of resources and national policies that support sustainable radiology services to meet growing demand now and in the future.

Planetary Health and Climate Action in Radiology.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are disrupting earth's biophysical systems, with adverse effects on local and global human health. Planetary health describes the inextricable link between human health and the health of earth's biophysical systems. There is urgent need for a stronger focus on planetary health among healthcare systems and radiology departments.

High-resolution isotopic data link settlement complexification to infant diets within the Roman Empire.

Our study explores the potential relationship between infant feeding practices and settlement complexity in the Roman Empire through high-resolution Bayesian-modeled stable isotope measurements from incremental dentine. We compiled isotopic data from permanent first molars of individuals from various Roman sites: five from Bainesse (UK), 30 from Thessaloniki (Greece), along with new carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses from four individuals from Pompeii and six from Ostia Via del Mare (AVM). Our results reveal significant inter-site variability in breastfeeding durations, ranging from 1.

Value-Based Radiology in Canada: Reducing Low-Value Care and Improving System Efficiency.

Radiology departments are increasingly tasked with managing growing demands on services including long waitlists for scanning and interventional procedures, human health resource shortages, equipment needs, and challenges incorporating advanced imaging solutions. The burden of system inefficiencies and the overuse of "low-value" imaging causes downstream impact on patients at the individual level, the economy and healthcare system at the societal level, and planetary health at an overarching level. Low value imaging includes those performed for an inappropriate clinical indication, with little to no value to the management of the patient, and resulting in healthcare resource waste; it is estimated that up to a quarter of advanced imaging studies in Canada meet this criterion.

A long-term study of stable isotope ratios of fingernail keratin and amino acids in a mother-infant dyad.

Objective: To evaluate the potential of compound-specific isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) for investigating infant feeding practices, we conducted a long-term study that compared infant and maternal amino acid (AA) nitrogen isotope ratios.

Materials And Methods: Fingernail samples were collected from a single mother-infant dyad over 19 months postpartum. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios were measured in the bulk keratin of the fingernail samples.

Canadian Association of Radiologists Statement on Environmental Sustainability in Medical Imaging.

Immediate and strategic action is needed to improve environmental sustainability and reduce the detrimental effects of climate change. Climate change is already adversely affecting the health of Canadians related to worsening air pollution and wildfire smoke, increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and expansion of vector-borne and infectious illnesses. On one hand, radiology contributes to the climate crisis by generating greenhouse gas emissions and waste during the production, manufacture, transportation, and use of medical imaging equipment and supplies.

Bi-parametric prostate MRI with a recall system for contrast enhanced imaging: Improving accessibility while maintaining quality.

Purpose: To review the efficacy of a recall system for bi-parametric non-contrast prostate MRI (bp-MRI).

Methods: A bi-parametric protocol was instituted in July 2020 for all patients who had a prostate MRI requested, excluding those after treatment of prostate cancer, patients with hip prosthesis or pacemaker, and those who lived out-of-town. The protocol consisted of tri-planar T2-weighted and diffusion weighted images (DWI) (b = 50, 800 s/mm for ADC map; b = 1,500 s/mm acquired separately) in accordance with the Prostate Imaging Reporting & Data system (PI-RADS) v2.

Nontargeted Native Renal Biopsy Adequacy: Preintervention Data From a Province-Wide, Multicentre, and Interdepartmental Audit.

Background: Nontargeted renal biopsy is essential to diagnosis, classification, and prognostication of medical renal disease. Inadequate biopsies delay diagnosis, expose the patient to repeated biopsy, and increase costs.

Objective: The purpose of this project is to characterize nontargeted renal biopsy specimen adequacy and identify areas for improvement.

Diastereoselective Synthesis of Cyclopropanes from Carbon Pronucleophiles and Alkenes.

Cyclopropanes are desirable structural motifs with valuable applications in drug discovery and beyond. Established alkene cyclopropanation methods give rise to cyclopropanes with a limited array of substituents, are difficult to scale, or both. Herein, we disclose a new cyclopropane synthesis through the formal coupling of abundant carbon pronucleophiles and unactivated alkenes.

Species-specific reservoir effect estimates: A case study of archaeological marine samples from the Bering Strait.

Due to the marine reservoir effect, radiocarbon dates of marine samples require a correction. Marine reservoir effects, however, may vary among different marine species within a given body of water. Factors such as diet, feeding depth and migratory behaviour all affect the C date of a marine organism.

Specialist care of children with complex needs: Insights from comparison of child development and child mental health clinics.

Aim: Paediatricians and child psychiatrists review children with complex comorbidity, noting similarities between tertiary Child Development Service (CDS) and Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) cohorts. Mental health comorbidity is common in developmental services. Developmental comorbidity in mental health cohorts is uncharacterised.

Peak frequency of the sensorimotor mu rhythm varies with autism-spectrum traits.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by impairments in social perception and communication. Growing evidence suggests that the relationship between deficits in social perception and ASD may extend into the neurotypical population. In electroencephalography (EEG), high autism-spectrum traits in both ASD and neurotypical samples are associated with changes to the mu rhythm, an alpha-band (8-12 Hz) oscillation measured over sensorimotor cortex which typically shows reductions in spectral power during both one's own movements and observation of others' actions.

Treatment with IgM-enriched intravenous immunoglobulins enhances clearance of stroke-associated bacterial lung infection.

Post-stroke infection is a common complication of stroke that is associated with poor outcome. We previously reported that stroke induces an ablation of multiple sub-populations of B cells and reduces levels of immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody, which coincides with the development of spontaneous bacterial pneumonia. The loss of IgM after stroke could be an important determinant of infection susceptibility and highlights this pathway as a target for intervention.

A modern baseline for the paired isotopic analysis of skin and bone in terrestrial mammals.

We present the isotopic discrimination between paired skin and bone collagen from animals of known life history, providing a modern baseline for the interpretation of archaeological isotopic data. At present, the interpretation of inter-tissue variation (Δ) in mummified remains is based on comparisons with other archaeological material, which have attributed divergence to their contrasting turnover rates, with rapidly remodelling skin collagen incorporating alterations in environmental, cultural and physiological conditions in the months prior to death. While plausible, the lack of baseline data from individuals with known life histories has hindered evaluation of the explanations presented.

What's new in the hot gallbladder: the evolving radiologic diagnosis and management of acute cholecystitis.

Acute cholecystitis (AC) is a common condition and its incidence is rising. New technologies have advanced the imaging diagnosis of AC, providing more structural and functional information as well as allowing the radiologist to distinguish AC from mimics and identify complications from both the disease and its management. Dual energy CT aids in detecting gallstones and gallbladder wall enhancement, which helps to diagnose AC and identify its complications.

Second-opinion reads in prostate MRI: added value of subspecialty interpretation and review at multidisciplinary rounds.

Purpose: This study evaluates the impact of second-opinion review of multiparametric prostate MRI for cancer detection by a multidisciplinary review board at a tertiary care center when compared with the initial community radiologist interpretation.

Methods: Cases were collected retrospectively from multidisciplinary prostate MRI rounds from 2017 to 2020 at a single tertiary care center. Patients with suspected prostate cancer or on active surveillance were referred for consideration of TRUS/MRI-fusion biopsy based on community-read prostate MRIs.

Distinct Patterns of P1 and C2 VEP Potentiation and Attenuation in Visual Snow: A Case Report.

Visual snow syndrome, characterized by persistent flickering dots throughout the visual field, has been hypothesized to arise from abnormal neuronal responsiveness in visual processing regions. Previous research has reported a lack of typical VEP habituation to repeated stimulus presentation in patients with visual snow. Yet these studies generally used pattern-reversal paradigms, which are suboptimal for measuring cortical responses to the onset of foveal stimulation.

Temporal dynamics of decision making: A synthesis of computational and neurophysiological approaches.

As interest in the temporal dynamics of decision-making has grown, researchers have increasingly turned to computational approaches such as the drift diffusion model (DDM) to identify how cognitive processes unfold during choice. At the same time, technological advances in noninvasive neurophysiological methods such as electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography now allow researchers to map the neural time course of decision making with millisecond precision. Combining these approaches can potentially yield important new insights into how choices emerge over time.