“
“Parallel transmission is a very

promising candidate technology to mitigate the inevitable radio-frequency (RF) field inhomogeneity in magnetic resonance imaging at ultra-high field. For the first few years, pulse design utilizing this technique was expressed as a least Z-DEVD-FMK molecular weight squares problem with crude power regularizations aimed at controlling the specific absorption rate (SAR), hence the patient safety. This approach being suboptimal for many applications sensitive mostly to the magnitude of the spin excitation, and not its phase, the magnitude least squares (MLS) problem then was first formulated in 2007. Despite its importance and the availability of other powerful numerical optimization methods, the MLS problem yet has been faced almost exclusively by the pulse designer with the so-called variable exchange method. In this paper, we investigate various two-stage strategies consisting of different initializations and nonlinear programming approaches, and

incorporate directly the strict SAR and hardware constraints. Several schemes such as sequential quadratic programming, interior point methods, semidefinite programming and magnitude squared least squares relaxations are studied both in the small and large tip angle regimes with RF Belnacasan nmr and static field maps obtained in vivo on a human brain at 7T. Convergence and robustness of the different approaches are AZD1480 supplier analyzed, and recommendations to tackle this specific problem are finally given. Small tip angle and inversion pulses are returned in a few seconds and in under a minute respectively while

respecting the constraints, allowing the use of the proposed approach in routine.”
“Aim: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common pregnancy condition with long-term complications. We examined the association between inflammatory mediators and early atherosclerosis process by measuring the flow mediated dilatation (FMD) of brachial artery and carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) in women with previous GDM (pGDM). Material and Methods: Women with and without pGDM with an average of 4 years following the indexed pregnancy, participated in this study. Serum levels of IL-6, hs-CRP, adiponectin, homocystein and other biomedical parameters were measured. The existence of early atherogenesis process was evaluated by measuring CIMT and FMD. Results: HOMA-IR and insulin were significantly higher in women with pGDM. Women with pGDM had slightly higher CIMT and significantly lower percent of brachial FMD. FMD and CIMT, adjusted for age and blood pressure, showed the same pattern. FMD showed no correlation with biochemical or inflammatory markers. Conclusion: Follow-up of this group of women, who are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, with FMD should be considered.