| 41. |
- Norrman, Eva, et al.
(author)
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Optimization of image process parameters through factorial experiments using a flat panel detector
- 2007
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In: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - Bristol : IOP publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 52:17, s. 5263-5276
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the optimization process of lumbar spine examinations, factorial experiments were performed addressing the question of whether the effective dose can be reduced and the image quality maintained by adjusting the image processing parameters. A 2(k)-factorial design was used which is a systematic and effective method of investigating the influence of many parameters on a result variable. Radiographic images of a Contrast Detail phantom were exposed using the default settings of the process parameters for lumbar spine examinations. The image was processed using different settings of the process parameters. The parameters studied were ROI density, gamma, detail contrast enhancement (DCE), noise compensation, unsharp masking and unsharp masking kernel (UMK). The images were computer analysed and an image quality figure (IQF) was calculated and used as a measurement of the image quality. The parameters with the largest influence on image quality were noise compensation, unsharp masking, unsharp masking kernel and detail contrast enhancement. There was an interaction between unsharp masking and kernel indicating that increasing the unsharp masking improved the image quality when combined with a large kernel size. Combined with a small kernel size however the unsharp masking had a deteriorating effect. Performing a factorial experiment gave an overview of how the image quality was influenced by image processing. By adjusting the level of noise compensation, unsharp masking and kernel, the IQF was improved to a 30% lower effective dose.
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| 42. |
- Nocum, D. J., et al.
(author)
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Predictors of radiation dose for uterine artery embolisation are angiography system-dependent
- 2022
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In: Journal of Radiological Protection. - : IOP Publishing. - 0952-4746 .- 1361-6498. ; 42:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study sought to achieve radiation dose reductions for patients receiving uterine artery embolisation (UAE) by evaluating radiation dose measurements for the preceding generation (Allura) and upgraded (Azurion) angiography system. Previous UAE regression models in the literature could not be applied to this centre's practice due to being based on different angiography systems and radiation dose predictor variables. The aims of this study were to establish whether radiation dose is reduced with the upgraded angiography system and to develop a regression model to determine predictors of radiation dose specific to the upgraded angiography system. A comparison between Group I (Allura, n = 95) and Group II (Azurion, n = 95) demonstrated a significant reduction in kerma-area product (KAP) and Ka, r (reference air kerma) by 63% (143.2 Gy cm(2) vs 52.9 Gy cm(2); P < 0.001, d = 0.8) and 67% (0.6 Gy vs 0.2 Gy; P < 0.001, d = 0.8), respectively. The multivariable linear regression (MLR) model identified the UAE radiation dose predictors for KAP on the upgraded angiography system as total fluoroscopy dose, Ka, r, and total uterus volume. The predictive accuracy of the MLR model was assessed using a Bland-Altman plot. The mean difference was 0.39 Gy cm(2) and the limits of agreement were +28.49 and -27.71 Gy cm(2), and thus illustrated no proportional bias. The resultant MLR model was considered system-dependent and validated the upgraded angiography system and its advance capabilities to significantly reduce radiation dose. Interventional radiologist and interventional radiographer familiarisation of the system's features and the implementation of the newly established MLR model would further facilitate dose optimisation for all centres performing UAE procedures using the upgraded angiography system.
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| 43. |
- Nocum, D. J., et al.
(author)
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UTERINE ARTERY EMBOLISATION: CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT REDUCES RADIATION DOSE WHILE MAINTAINING IMAGE QUALITY
- 2021
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In: Radiation Protection Dosimetry. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0144-8420 .- 1742-3406. ; 196:3-4, s. 159-166
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this study was to introduce a continuous quality improvement (CQI) program for radiation dose optimisation during uterine artery embolisation (UAE) and assess its impact on dose reduction and image quality. The CQI program investigated the effects of optimising radiation dose parameters on the kerma-area product (KAP) and image quality when comparing a 'CQI intervention' group (n = 50) and 'Control' group (n = 50). Visual grading characteristics (VGC) analysis was used to assess image quality, using the 'Control' group as a reference. A significant reduction in KAP by 17% ( P = 0.041, d = 0.2) and reference air kerma (Ka, r) by 20% (P = 0.027, d = 0.2) was shown between the two groups. The VGC analysis resulted in an area under the VGC curve (AUCVGC) of 0.54, indicating no significant difference in image quality between the two groups (P = 0.670). The implementation of the CQI program and optimisation of radiation dose parameters improved the UAE radiation dose practices at our centre. The dose reduction demonstrated no detrimental effects on image quality.
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| 44. |
- Arnoldussen, Ilse A. C., et al.
(author)
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Adiposity is related to cerebrovascular and brain volumetry outcomes in the RUN DMC study
- 2019
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In: Neurology. - : Wolters Kluwer. - 0028-3878 .- 1526-632X. ; 93:9, s. e864-e878
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Adiposity predictors, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and blood leptin and total adiponectin levels were associated with components of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and brain volumetry in 503 adults with CSVD who were ≥50 years of age and enrolled in the Radboud University Nijmegen Diffusion Tensor and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Cohort (RUN DMC).METHODS: RUN DMC participants were followed up for 9 years (2006-2015). BMI, WC, brain imaging, and dementia diagnoses were evaluated at baseline and follow-up. Adipokines were measured at baseline. Brain imaging outcomes included CSVD components, white matter hyperintensities, lacunes, microbleeds, gray and white matter, hippocampal, total brain, and intracranial volumes.RESULTS: Cross-sectionally among men at baseline, higher BMI, WC, and leptin were associated with lower gray matter and total brain volumes, and higher BMI and WC were associated with lower hippocampal volume. At follow-up 9 years later, higher BMI was cross-sectionally associated with lower gray matter volume, and an obese WC (>102 cm) was protective for ≥1 lacune or ≥1 microbleed in men. In women, increasing BMI and overweight or obesity (BMI ≥25 kg/m2 or WC >88 cm) were associated with ≥1 lacune. Longitudinally, over 9 years, a baseline obese WC was associated with decreasing hippocampal volume, particularly in men, and increasing white matter hyperintensity volume in women and men.CONCLUSIONS: Anthropometric and metabolic adiposity predictors were differentially associated with CSVD components and brain volumetry outcomes by sex. Higher adiposity is associated with a vascular-neurodegenerative spectrum among adults at risk for vascular forms of cognitive impairment and dementias.
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| 45. |
- Chiesa, C., et al.
(author)
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EANM dosimetry committee series on standard operational procedures: a unified methodology for Tc-99m-MAA pre- and Y-90 peri-therapy dosimetry in liver radioembolization with Y-90 microspheres
- 2021
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In: Ejnmmi Physics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2197-7364. ; 8:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this standard operational procedure is to standardize the methodology employed for the evaluation of pre- and post-treatment absorbed dose calculations in Y-90 microsphere liver radioembolization. Basic assumptions include the permanent trapping of microspheres, the local energy deposition method for voxel dosimetry, and the patient-relative calibration method for activity quantification.The identity of Tc-99m albumin macro-aggregates (MAA) and Y-90 microsphere biodistribution is also assumed. The large observed discrepancies in some patients between Tc-99m-MAA predictions and actual Y-90 microsphere distributions for lesions is discussed. Absorbed dose predictions to whole non-tumoural liver are considered more reliable and the basic predictors of toxicity. Treatment planning based on mean absorbed dose delivered to the whole non-tumoural liver is advised, except in super-selective treatments. Given the potential mismatch between MAA simulation and actual therapy, absorbed doses should be calculated both pre- and post-therapy. Distinct evaluation between target tumours and non-tumoural tissue, including lungs in cases of lung shunt, are vital for proper optimization of therapy. Dosimetry should be performed first according to a mean absorbed dose approach, with an optional, but important, voxel level evaluation. Fully corrected Tc-99m-MAA Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) and Y-90 TOF PET/CT are regarded as optimal acquisition methodologies, but, for institutes where SPECT/CT is not available, non-attenuation corrected Tc-99m-MAA SPECT may be used. This offers better planning quality than non dosimetric methods such as Body Surface Area (BSA) or mono-compartmental dosimetry. Quantitative Y-90 bremsstrahlung SPECT can be used if dedicated correction methods are available. The proposed methodology is feasible with standard camera software and a spreadsheet. Available commercial or free software can help facilitate the process and improve calculation time.
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| 46. |
- Edvardsson, A., et al.
(author)
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Breathing-motion induced interplay effects for stereotactic body radiotherapy of liver tumours using flattening-filter free volumetric modulated arc therapy
- 2019
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In: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 64:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this study was to investigate breathing-motion induced interplay effects for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) of liver tumours treated with flattening-filter free (FFF) volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Ten patients previously treated with liver SBRT were included in this study. All patients had four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) scans acquired prior to treatment. The 4DCT was sorted into 8-10 phases covering an equal time interval. A FFF VMAT plan was created for one fraction in the mid-ventilation phase for each patient. To generate dose distributions including both interplay effects and dose blurring, a sub-plan was calculated for each phase. The total dose distributions were accumulated to the mid-ventilation phase using the deformed vector fields (DVF) from deformable image registration between the corresponding CT and the mid-ventilation phase CT. A blurred dose distribution, not including interplay effects, was also obtained by distributing the delivery of the whole plan uniformly on all phases, and was similarly accumulated to the mid-ventilation phase. To isolate interplay effects, this blurred dose distribution was subtracted from the total dose distribution with interplay effects. The near minimum dose (D-98%), mean dose (D-mean), heterogeneity index (HI), and the near minimum dose difference (Delta D-98%) between the accumulated dose distributions with and without interplay effects were calculated within the gross tumour volume (GTV) for each patient. Comparing the accumulated dose distributions with and without interplay effects, the D-98(%) decreased for nine of the ten patients and the HI increased for all patients. The median and minimum differences in D-98(%) were -2.1% and -5.0% (p = 0.006), respectively, and the median HI significantly increased from 6.2% to 12.2% (p = 0.002). The median Delta D-98% was -4.0% (range - 7% to - 1.5%). In conclusion, statistically significant breathing-induced interplay effects were observed for a single fraction of FFF VMAT liver SBRT, resulting in heterogeneous dose distributions within the GTV.
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| 47. |
- Sarve, Hamid, et al.
(author)
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Extracting 3D information on bone remodeling in the proximity of titanium implants in SRμCT image volumes.
- 2011
-
In: Computer methods and programs in biomedicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-7565 .- 0169-2607. ; 102:1, s. 25-34
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bone-implant integration is measured in several ways. Traditionally and routinely, 2D histological sections of samples, containing bone and the biomaterial, are stained and analyzed using a light microscope. Such histological section provides detailed cellular information about the bone regeneration in the proximity of the implant. However, this information reflects the integration in only a very small fraction, a 10 μm thick slice, of the sample. In this study, we show that feature values quantified on 2D sections are highly dependent on the orientation and the placement of the section, suggesting that a 3D analysis of the whole sample is of importance for a more complete judgment of the bone structure in the proximity of the implant. We propose features describing the 3D data by extending the features traditionally used for 2D-analysis. We present a method for extracting these features from 3D image data and we measure them on five 3D SRμCT image volumes. We also simulate cuts through the image volume positioned at all possible section positions. These simulations show that the measurement variations due to the orientation of the section around the center line of the implant are about 30%.
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| 48. |
- Saboori, Arash, et al.
(author)
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Unsupervised segmentation and data augmentation in image sequences of skeletal muscle contraction by cycle-consistent generative adversarial network
- 2023
-
In: 2023 international conference on modeling, simulation & intelligent computing (MoSICom). - : IEEE. - 9798350393415 - 9798350393422 ; , s. 474-479
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper investigates a method addressing the unsupervised segmentation and joint data augmentation in medical ultrasound imaging based on the modified CycleGAN. Accurate quantification of fascia and muscle is the key for the diagnostics of neuromuscular disorders based on the analysis of image sequences of skeletal muscle contraction. Although the Deep Learning (DL) models represent encouraging results, some challenges exist. The traditional models don't consider the complex interaction between tissues within a muscle and its surroundings, which reduces the performance of the fascia segmentation. Also, the DL requires many annotated datasets, which ignores dealing with noisy and complex ultrasound images. To overcome these issues, we propose a method to generate realistic images, and then present an unsupervised fascia segmentation method. The results show that our method improves the segmentation accuracy in noisy and complex ultrasound images compared to the traditional methods.
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| 49. |
- Trägårdh, Elin, et al.
(author)
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RECOMIA-a cloud-based platform for artificial intelligence research in nuclear medicine and radiology
- 2020
-
In: Ejnmmi Physics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2197-7364. ; 7:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is about to transform medical imaging. The Research Consortium for Medical Image Analysis (RECOMIA), a not-for-profit organisation, has developed an online platform to facilitate collaboration between medical researchers and AI researchers. The aim is to minimise the time and effort researchers need to spend on technical aspects, such as transfer, display, and annotation of images, as well as legal aspects, such as de-identification. The purpose of this article is to present the RECOMIA platform and its AI-based tools for organ segmentation in computed tomography (CT), which can be used for extraction of standardised uptake values from the corresponding positron emission tomography (PET) image. Results: The RECOMIA platform includes modules for (1) local de-identification of medical images, (2) secure transfer of images to the cloud-based platform, (3) display functions available using a standard web browser, (4) tools for manual annotation of organs or pathology in the images, (5) deep learning-based tools for organ segmentation or other customised analyses, (6) tools for quantification of segmented volumes, and (7) an export function for the quantitative results. The AI-based tool for organ segmentation in CT currently handles 100 organs (77 bones and 23 soft tissue organs). The segmentation is based on two convolutional neural networks (CNNs): one network to handle organs with multiple similar instances, such as vertebrae and ribs, and one network for all other organs. The CNNs have been trained using CT studies from 339 patients. Experienced radiologists annotated organs in the CT studies. The performance of the segmentation tool, measured as mean Dice index on a manually annotated test set, with 10 representative organs, was 0.93 for all foreground voxels, and the mean Dice index over the organs were 0.86 (0.82 for the soft tissue organs and 0.90 for the bones). Conclusion: The paper presents a platform that provides deep learning-based tools that can perform basic organ segmentations in CT, which can then be used to automatically obtain the different measurement in the corresponding PET image. The RECOMIA platform is available on request atfor research purposes.
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| 50. |
- Ahlander, Britt-Marie, 1954-
(author)
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Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Heart : Image quality, measurement accuracy and patient experience
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background: Non-invasive diagnostic imaging of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) is frequently carried out with cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) or myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (MPS). CMR is the gold standard for the evaluation of scar after myocardial infarction and MPS the clinical gold standard for ischemia. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is at times difficult for patients and may induce anxiety while patient experience of MPS is largely unknown.Aims: To evaluate image quality in CMR with respect to the sequences employed, the influence of atrial fibrillation, myocardial perfusion and the impact of patient information. Further, to study patient experience in relation to MRI with the goal of improving the care of these patients.Method: Four study designs have been used. In paper I, experimental cross-over, paper (II) experimental controlled clinical trial, paper (III) psychometric crosssectional study and paper (IV) prospective intervention study. A total of 475 patients ≥ 18 years with primarily cardiac problems (I-IV) except for those referred for MRI of the spine (III) were included in the four studies.Result: In patients (n=20) with atrial fibrillation, a single shot steady state free precession (SS-SSFP) sequence showed significantly better image quality than the standard segmented inversion recovery fast gradient echo (IR-FGRE) sequence (I). In first-pass perfusion imaging the gradient echo-echo planar imaging sequence (GREEPI) (n=30) had lower signal-to-noise and contrast–to-noise ratios than the steady state free precession sequence (SSFP) (n=30) but displayed a higher correlation with the MPS results, evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively (II). The MRIAnxiety Questionnaire (MRI-AQ) was validated on patients, referred for MRI of either the spine (n=193) or the heart (n=54). The final instrument had 15 items divided in two factors regarding Anxiety and Relaxation. The instrument was found to have satisfactory psychometric properties (III). Patients who prior CMR viewed an information video scored significantly (lower) better in the factor Relaxation, than those who received standard information. Patients who underwent MPS scored lower on both factors, Anxiety and Relaxation. The extra video information had no effect on CMR image quality (IV).Conclusion: Single shot imaging in atrial fibrillation produced images with less artefact than a segmented sequence. In first-pass perfusion imaging, the sequence GRE-EPI was superior to SSFP. A questionnaire depicting anxiety during MRI showed that video information prior to imaging helped patients relax but did not result in an improvement in image quality.
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