Frontiers in endocrinology
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Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) · Jan 2020
Automatic Vertebral Body Segmentation Based on Deep Learning of Dixon Images for Bone Marrow Fat Fraction Quantification.
Background: Bone marrow fat (BMF) fraction quantification in vertebral bodies is used as a novel imaging biomarker to assess and characterize chronic lower back pain. However, manual segmentation of vertebral bodies is time consuming and laborious. Purpose: (1) Develop a deep learning pipeline for segmentation of vertebral bodies using quantitative water-fat MRI. (2) Compare BMF measurements between manual and automatic segmentation methods to assess performance. ⋯ Automatic segmentation was also feasible in 16 ± 1 s. Conclusion: Our results have demonstrated the feasibility of automated segmentation of vertebral bodies using deep learning models on water-fat MR (Dixon) images to define vertebral regions of interest with high specificity. These regions of interest can then be used to quantify BMF with comparable results as manual segmentation, providing a framework for completely automated investigation of vertebral changes in CLBP.
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Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) · Jan 2020
Left Heart Dysfunction in Acromegaly Revealed by Novel Echocardiographic Methods.
Background: Acromegaly is a rare disease that requires modern treatment to decrease the risk of mortality, mainly from vascular diseases. Identifying acromegalic patients with increased cardiovascular risk is challenging. Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) is a modern, well-validated, and reproducible method of assessing left ventricular longitudinal deformation and providing a sensitive assessment of myocardial contractility. ⋯ Results: The ACRO group, compared to the CONTROL group, presented: (1) higher left ventricular mass (left ventricular mass index: 132 vs. 108 g/m2, p < 0.001) and, in consequence, more frequent LV hypertrophy (80.0 vs. 53.3%; p = 0.028); (2) impaired LV systolic function measured by both left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (63.4 vs. 66.9%, p < 0.001) and global longitudinal strain (GLS) (-18.1 vs. -19.4%, p = 0.023); (3) greater LA anteroposterior diameter (40.3 vs. 36.9 mm, p = 0.003) and indexed left atrial volume (37.9 vs. 27.6 ml/m2, p < 0.001); and (4) impaired echocardiographic strain parameters corresponding with LA function. Conclusions: Acromegaly, even in young patients with good blood pressure control, may be associated with left ventricular hypertrophy and subclinical impairment of the left ventricular and left atrial mechanical function, which may be identified by speckle-tracking echocardiography. Further research in this area is necessary to clarify the prognostic value of these phenomena.
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Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) · Jan 2020
The Impact of Physical Activity on Glycemic Variability Assessed by Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review.
Aim: Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) have increased risk of developing vascular complications due to chronic hyperglycemia. Glycemic variability (GV) has been suggested to play an even more important role in the risk of developing diabetic complications than sustained hyperglycemia. Physical activity (PA) has shown reducing effects on mean plasma glucose; however, the effect on GV in T2DM needs further description. ⋯ Conclusion: The systematic literature search revealed limited and biased evidence showing that acute PA numerically reduced GV in patients with T2DM. PA reduced GV independently of PA intensity and T2DM progression. Prolonged RCTs with low ROB are needed to confirm reducing effects of PA on GV and to assess the influence of patient- and intervention characteristics on the effect of PA on GV.
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Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) · Jan 2020
Cumulative Live Birth Rate and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone-Antagonist Protocol and Multiple Minimal Ovarian Stimulation in Poor Responders.
The overall cumulative live birth rate (CLBR) of poor ovarian responders (POR) is extremely low. Minimal ovarian stimulation (MOS) provides a relatively realistic solution for ovarian stimulation in POR. Our study aimed to investigate whether multiple MOS strategies resulted in higher CLBR compared to conventional gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists in POR. ⋯ Both minimal ovarian stimulation (MOS) and GnRH-antagonists provide low chances of live birth in poor responders. The GnRH antagonist protocol is considered a suitable choice for PORs with comparable CLBR, shorter times to live birth, and similar financial expenditure compared to repeated MOS.
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Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) · Jan 2020
Observational StudyAssociation Between Diabetes and COVID-19: A Retrospective Observational Study With a Large Sample of 1,880 Cases in Leishenshan Hospital, Wuhan.
Aims: This study aimed to investigate the clinical courses and outcomes of diabetes mellitus patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan. Methods: This study enrolled 1,880 consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Leishenshan Hospital. We collected and analyzed their data, including demographic data, history of comorbidity, clinical symptoms, laboratory tests, chest computed tomography (CT) images, treatment options, and survival. ⋯ Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses and the Kaplan-Meier curves did not show any statistically significant differences between patients with and without diabetes (all p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our study results suggested that diabetes had no effect on the prognosis of COVID-19 patients but had a negative association with their clinical courses. These results may be useful for clinicians in the management of diabetic patients with COVID-19.