Project description:PurposeTo evaluate the clinical feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of three-dimensional (3D) quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for the assessment of total lesion volume (TLV) and enhancing lesion volume (ELV) before and after uterine artery embolization (UAE).Materials and methodsThis retrospective study included 25 patients with uterine fibroids who underwent UAE and received contrast-enhanced MR imaging before and after the procedure. TLV was calculated using a semiautomated 3D segmentation of the dominant lesion on contrast-enhanced MR imaging, and ELV was defined as voxels within TLV where the enhancement exceeded the value of a region of interest placed in hypoenhancing soft tissue (left psoas muscle). ELV was expressed in relative (% of TLV) and absolute (in cm(3)) metrics. Results were compared with manual measurements and correlated with symptomatic outcome using a linear regression model.ResultsAlthough 3D quantitative measurements of TLV demonstrated a strong correlation with the manual technique (R(2) = 0.93), measurements of ELV after UAE showed significant disagreement between techniques (R(2) = 0.72; residual standard error, 15.8). Six patients (24%) remained symptomatic and were classified as nonresponders. When stratified according to response, no difference in % ELV between responders and nonresponders was observed. When assessed using cm(3) ELV, responders showed a significantly lower mean ELV compared with nonresponders (4.1 cm(3) [range, 0.3-19.8 cm(3)] vs 77 cm(3) [range, 11.91-296 cm(3)]; P < .01).ConclusionsThe use of segmentation-based 3D quantification of lesion enhancement is feasible and diagnostically accurate and could be considered as an MR imaging response marker for clinical outcome after UAE.
Project description:Uterine fibroids (leiomyomas) are the most common benign neoplasm of the female pelvis and have a lifetime prevalence exceeding 80% among African American women and approaching 70% among Caucasian women. Approximately 50% of women with fibroids experience symptoms which may include menorrhagia that may result in anemia, bulk symptoms with bladder and bowel dysfunction and abdominal protrusion, dysmenorrhea, and infertility. Hysterectomy remains the most common treatment option for fibroids and concerns have been raised about the overuse of this procedure. Uterine artery embolization (UAE) is now a well-established uterine preserving and minimally invasive therapy for symptomatic fibroids. Since its introduction, strong evidence for safety and efficacy of UAE has been generated with low rates of complications. This review will discuss UAE for the management of symptomatic uterine fibroids with special focus on emerging technical approaches and novel periprocedural patient care.
Project description:ObjectiveTo present the rationale, design, and methodology of the Fibroid Interventions: Reducing Symptoms Today and Tomorrow (FIRSTT) study.DesignRandomized clinical trial.SettingTwo academic medical centers.Patient(s)Premenopausal women with symptomatic uterine fibroids.Intervention(s)Participants are randomized to two U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved minimally invasive treatments for uterine leiomyomas: uterine artery embolization and magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound.Main outcome measure(s)The primary endpoint is defined as the need for an additional intervention for fibroid symptoms following treatment. Secondary outcomes consist of group differences in symptom alleviation, recovery trajectory, health-related quality of life, impairment of ovarian reserve, treatment complications, and the economic impact of these issues.Result(s)The trial is currently in the phase of active recruitment.Conclusion(s)This randomized clinical trial will provide important evidence-based information for patients and health care providers regarding optimal minimally invasive treatment approach for women with symptomatic uterine leiomyomas.Clinical trial registrationNCT00995878.
Project description:A key mission of the Asia-Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert (APPLE) Association is to ensure a coherent view for management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to advance new treatment for this difficult disease. At the 5th APPLE meeting, held in July 2014 in Taipei, Taiwan, an APPLE consensus development program was established to facilitate discussion among experts in the Asia-Pacific region on pertinent issues for HCC management, including (1) surgery for intermediate/advanced-stage disease, (2) prevention of HCC recurrence after curative treatment, (3) optimizing imaging diagnosis, (4) radiotherapy: current practice and future clinical trials, and (5) the role of cytotoxic chemotherapy. A pre-congress questionnaire was undertaken with the consensus development committee members to help understand the current practice patterns for HCC in the Asia-Pacific region and to identify issues relating to optimal patient care and further clinical trials for which consensus needs to be developed. In this report, the results of the questionnaire are presented, and the pertinent issues identified by each consensus group for further discussion and consensus development are summarized.
Project description:Uterine leiomyoma is a common condition affecting women that occurs in more than 70% of females. Women with leiomyomas overall have lower quality of life and deficiency in many specific spheres of life including work-related productivity, sexuality, relationships, social-emotional health, and physical well-being that might be present even in pre-and extended throughout early postmenopausal life. Choices for symptomatic fibroid management include medical, interventional radiology procedures, surgical, and expectant management. The uterine artery embolization (UAE) procedure has gained justified popularity for myoma management. Growth factors, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and tumor growth factor β (TGF-β), hold an important role in leiomyoma progression. However, blood levels of VEGF and TGF-β in patients before and after UAE are not fully investigated and the possible relationship with myoma shrinkage has not been evaluated. Therefore, this study aims to assess menorrhagia score and quality of life improvement after UAE for uterine fibroids and compare blood levels of VEGF and TGF-β in patients with uterine leiomyoma before and after UAE. This cross-sectional study will be performed at the University Medical Center, Astana, Kazakhstan. Women undergoing the UAE procedure for uterine leiomyoma will be involved in the study following the precisely defined inclusion/exclusion criteria. Uterine leiomyoma nodules' structural changes after UAE will be assessed along with the blood levels of growth factors (VEGF and TGF-β), menorrhagia score, and quality of life. An important outcome of this project will be an investigation of the blood levels of growth factors (VEGF and TGF-β) before and after the procedure and their association with leiomyoma shrinkage in correlation with the menorrhagia score and quality of life alterations among patients undergoing UAE.
Project description:We conducted a follow-up association study across extended candidate chromosomal regions for uterine leiomyoma (UL), or fibroids, to search for loci influencing the size of UL in 916 premenopausal North American women participants to the NIEHS uterine fibroid study. Proportional odds models with adjustments for confounders were fitted to evaluate the association of a final set of 2,484 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the size of uterine fibroids measured by transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasounds. SNP association with UL size was tested in a case-only design comparing three categories of tumor size (small, medium and large tumors) and in a design that included UL-free controls as the lowest category of a four-level ordinal outcome to account for misclassifications due to small, undetected tumors. In the case-only design, rs2285789 in SORCS2 (sortilin-related VPS10 domain containing receptor 2) was the sole variant that remained significant after correction for multiple testing (Bonferroni-adjusted P=0.037). Several other SNPs, namely those located in MYT1L, TMCC1 and BRCA1, reached promising associations. In the design that included the controls, several genes of potential relevance to UL pathogenesis were associated (Bonferroni-unadjusted P < 0.01) with tumor size, particularly LIFR-AS1 (leukemia inhibitory factor receptor alpha-antisense RNA 1), which showed the strongest association (Bonferroni-unadjusted P=0.0006) among the genes with regulated expression in UL. In conclusion, SORCS2, a known GWAS candidate for circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3, may act through IGF-I signaling to affect the size of fibroids. Through down-regulation of LIFR, LIFR-AS1 may mediate the inhibitory action of LIF (leukemia inhibitory factor), a cytokine involved in embryonic uterine development. Replication analyses are needed to substantiate our reported associations of SORCS2 and LIFR-AS1 with the size of fibroids.
Project description:ObjectiveTo evaluate the safety and efficacy of using highly compressible calibrated microspheres in uterine artery embolization (UAE) for the treatment of uterine fibroids.Materials and methodsThis was a prospective multicenter study. Thirty-two women with symptomatic uterine fibroids were selected for UAE between January 2019 and March 2020. The participants completed the Uterine Fibroid Symptom and Quality of Life (UFS-QOL) questionnaire, underwent contrast-enhanced pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and were submitted to anti-Müllerian hormone measurement, subsequently undergoing UAE with Embosoft microspheres. After six months, the patients again completed the UFS-QOL questionnaire and underwent pelvic MRI.ResultsThe most common symptoms were abnormal uterine bleeding (in 81.3% of the cases), pelvic pain (in 81.3%), and compression (in 46.9%). Of the 32 patients evaluated, 12 (37.5%) had anemia due to abnormal uterine bleeding. Thirty patients completed the study. Among those patients, we observed median reductions of 21.4% in uterine volume and 15.9% in dominant fibroid volume. We identified no adverse events that could be attributed to the material itself, although there were events attributed to the UAE procedure in general.ConclusionFor the treatment of uterine fibroids, UAE using Embosoft microspheres shows satisfactory results, providing reductions in uterine and dominant fibroid volumes, with a low rate of adverse events, and improving patient quality of life, as well as demonstrating safety and efficacy.
Project description:Uterine artery embolization has Level A data supporting excellent safety and efficacy in treating symptomatic uterine leiomyomata. However, there is a perception that either postprocedural pain is severe or poorly managed by the physician performing these procedures. This has led some primary care physicians to omit this procedure from the patients' options or to steer patients away from this procedure. A few simple techniques (pruning of the vascular tree and embolizing to 5-10 beat stasis) and fastidious pre-, intra-, and post-procedural management can nearly eliminate significant pain associated with embolization. Specifically, early implementation of long-acting low-dose narcotics, antiemetics and anti-inflammatory medications is critical. Finally, the use of a superior hypogastric nerve block, which takes minutes to perform and carries a very low risk, significantly reduces pain and diminishes the need for narcotics; when this technique was used in a prospective study, all patients were able to be discharged the day of the procedure. In the authors' experience, patients treated in this manner largely recover completely within 5 days and have a far less traumatic experience than patients traditionally treated with only midazolam (Versed) and fentanyl citrate (fentanyl) intraprocedurally, and narcotics and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs postprocedurally.