The ToolCAP cohort study is a prospective, observational, multi-site platform study designed to collect harmonized, high-quality clinical, imaging, and biological data on children with IMCI-defined pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The primary objective is to inform the development and validation of diagnostic and prognostic tools, including lung ultrasound (LUS), point-of-care biomarkers, and AI-based models, to improve pneumonia diagnosis, management, and antimicrobial stewardship. This statistical analysis plan (SAP) outlines the analytic strategy for describing the study population, assessing the performance of candidate diagnostic tools, and enabling data sharing in support of secondary research questions and AI model development. Children under 12 years presenting with suspected pneumonia are enrolled within 24 hours of presentation and undergo clinical assessment, digital auscultation, LUS, and optional biological sampling. Follow-up occurs on Day 8 and Day 29 to assess outcomes including recovery, treatment response, and complications. The SAP details variable definitions, data management strategies, and pre-specified analyses, including descriptive summaries, sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tools against clinical reference standards, and exploratory subgroup analyses.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) remains a critical condition that demands rapid and accurate diagnosis, for which computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is widely recognized as the diagnostic gold standard. However, recent advancements in imaging technologies-such as dual-energy computed tomography (DECT), photon-counting CT (PCD-CT), and artificial intelligence (AI)-offer promising enhancements to traditional diagnostic methods. This study reviews past, current and emerging technologies, focusing on their potential to optimize diagnostic accuracy, reduce contrast volumes and radiation doses, and streamline clinical workflows. DECT, with its dual-energy imaging capabilities, enhances image clarity even with lower contrast media volumes, thus reducing patient risk. Meanwhile, PCD-CT has shown potential for dose reduction and superior image resolution, particularly in challenging cases. AI-based tools further augment diagnostic speed and precision by assisting radiologists in image analysis, consequently decreasing workloads and expediting clinical decision-making. Collectively, these innovations hold promise for improved clinical management of PE, enabling not only more accurate diagnoses but also safer, more efficient patient care. Further research is necessary to fully integrate these advancements into routine clinical practice, potentially redefining diagnostic workflows for PE and enhancing patient outcomes.

Diagnosis of hydrocephalus involves a careful check of the patient's history and thorough neurological assessment. The traditional diagnosis has predominantly depended on the professional judgment of physicians based on clinical experience, but with the advancement of precision medicine and individualized treatment, such experience-based methods are no longer sufficient to keep pace with current clinical requirements. To fit this adjustment, the medical community actively devotes itself to data-driven intelligent diagnostic solutions. Building a prognosis prediction model for hydrocephalus has thus become a new focus, among which intelligent prediction systems supported by deep learning offer new technical advantages for clinical diagnosis and treatment decisions. Over the past several years, algorithms of deep learning have demonstrated conspicuous advantages in medical image analysis. Studies revealed that the accuracy rate of the diagnosis of hydrocephalus by magnetic resonance imaging can reach 90% through convolutional neural networks, while their sensitivity and specificity are also better than these of traditional methods. With the extensive use of medical technology in terms of deep learning, its successful use in modeling hydrocephalus prognosis has also drawn extensive attention and recognition from scholars. This review explores the application of deep learning in hydrocephalus diagnosis and prognosis, focusing on image-based, biochemical, and structured data models. Highlighting recent advancements, challenges, and future trajectories, the study emphasizes deep learning's potential to enhance personalized treatment and improve outcomes.

The role of imaging in diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension is multifaceted, spanning from estimation of pulmonary arterial pressures, understanding pulmonary artery-right ventricular interaction, and identification of the cause. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of multimodality imaging in evaluation of pulmonary hypertension as well as the novel applications of imaging techniques that have improved our detection and understanding of pulmonary hypertension. There are diverse imaging modalities available for comprehensive assessment of pulmonary hypertension that are expanding with new tracers (e.g., hyperpolarized xenon gas, 129Xe) and imaging techniques (C-arm cone-bean computed tomography). Artificial intelligence applications may improve efficiency and accuracy of screening for pulmonary hypertension as well as further characterize pulmonary vasculopathies using computed tomography of the chest. In the face of increasing imaging options, a "value-based imaging" approach should be adopted to reduce unnecessary burden on the patient and the healthcare system without compromising the accuracy and completeness of diagnostic assessment. Future studies are needed to optimize use of multimodality imaging and artificial intelligence in comprehensive evaluation of patients with pulmonary hypertension.

To review the latest developments in self-supervised deep learning (DL) techniques for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstruction, emphasizing their potential to overcome the limitations of supervised methods dependent on fully sampled k-space data. While DL has significantly advanced MRI, supervised approaches require large amounts of fully sampled k-space data for training-a major limitation given the impracticality and expense of acquiring such data clinically. Self-supervised learning has emerged as a promising alternative, enabling model training using only undersampled k-space data, thereby enhancing feasibility and driving research interest. We conducted a comprehensive literature review to synthesize recent progress in self-supervised DL for MRI reconstruction. The analysis focused on methods and architectures designed to improve image quality, reduce scanning time, and address data scarcity challenges, drawing from peer-reviewed publications and technical innovations in the field. Self-supervised DL holds transformative potential for MRI reconstruction, offering solutions to data limitations while maintaining image quality and accelerating scans. Key challenges include robustness across diverse anatomies, standardization of validation, and clinical integration. Future research should prioritize hybrid methodologies, domain-specific adaptations, and rigorous clinical validation. This review consolidates advancements and unresolved issues, providing a foundation for next-generation medical imaging technologies.

With the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for image analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the lack of training data has become an issue. Realistic synthetic MRI images can serve as a solution and generative models have been proposed. This study investigates the most recent advances on synthetic brain MRI image generation with AI-based generative models. A search has been conducted on the relevant studies published within the last three years, followed by a narrative review on the identified articles. Popular models from the search results have been discussed in this study, including Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), diffusion models, Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), and transformers.

This paper presents the results of a scoping review that examines potentials of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in early diagnosis of Cognitive Decline (CD), which is regarded as a key issue in elderly health. The review encompasses peer-reviewed publications from 2020 to 2025, including scientific journals and conference proceedings. Over 70% of the studies rely on using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the input to the AI models, with a high diagnostic accuracy of 98%. Integration of the relevant clinical data and electroencephalograms (EEG) with deep learning methods enhances diagnostic accuracy in the clinical settings. Recent studies have also explored the use of natural language processing models for detecting CD at its early stages, with an accuracy of 75%, exhibiting a high potential to be used in the appropriate pre-clinical environments.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly prevalent within interventional radiology (IR) research and clinical practice, steps must be taken to ensure the robustness of novel technological systems presented in peer-reviewed journals. This report introduces comprehensive standards and an evaluation checklist (iCARE) that covers the application of modern AI methods in IR-specific contexts. The iCARE checklist encompasses the full "code-to-clinic" pipeline of AI development, including dataset curation, pre-training, task-specific training, explainability, privacy protection, bias mitigation, reproducibility, and model deployment. The iCARE checklist aims to support the development of safe, generalizable technologies for enhancing IR workflows, the delivery of care, and patient outcomes.

Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is widely used in dentistry, surgery, radiotherapy and other medical fields. However, repeated CBCT scans expose patients to additional radiation doses, increasing the risk of secondary malignant tumors. Low-dose CBCT image reconstruction technology, which employs advanced algorithms to reduce radiation dose while enhancing image quality, has emerged as a focal point of recent research. This review systematically examined deep learning-based methods for low-dose CBCT reconstruction. It compared different network architectures in terms of noise reduction, artifact removal, detail preservation, and computational efficiency, covering three approaches: image-domain, projection-domain, and dual-domain techniques. The review also explored how emerging technologies like multimodal fusion and self-supervised learning could enhance these methods. By summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches, this work provides insights to optimize low-dose CBCT algorithms and support their clinical adoption.

The emergence of new-generation artificial intelligence technology has brought numerous innovations to the healthcare field, including telemedicine and intelligent care. However, the artificial intelligent medical device sector still faces significant challenges, such as data privacy protection and algorithm reliability. This study, based on invention patent analysis, revealed the technological innovation trends in the field of artificial intelligent medical devices from aspects such as patent application time trends, hot topics, regional distribution, and innovation players. The results showed that global invention patent applications had remained active, with technological innovations primarily focused on medical image processing, physiological signal processing, surgical robots, brain-computer interfaces, and intelligent physiological parameter monitoring technologies. The United States and China led the world in the number of invention patent applications. Major international medical device giants, such as Philips, Siemens, General Electric, and Medtronic, were at the forefront of global technological innovation, with significant advantages in patent application volumes and international market presence. Chinese universities and research institutes, such as Zhejiang University, Tianjin University, and the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, had demonstrated notable technological innovation, with a relatively high number of patent applications. However, their overseas market expansion remained limited. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the technological innovation trends in the artificial intelligent medical device field and offers valuable information support for industry development from an informatics perspective.