143 research outputs found
Computer assisted characterization of cervical intervertebral disc degeneration in MRI
No full textA texture-based pattern recognition system is proposed for the automatic characterization of cervical intervertebral disc degeneration from saggital magnetic resonance images of the spine. A case sample of 50 manually segmented ROIs, corresponding to 25 normal and 25 degenerated discs, was analyzed and textural features were generated from each disc-ROI. Student's t-test verified the existence of statistically significant differences between textural feature values generated from normal and degenerated discs. This finding is indicative of disc image texture differentiation due to the degeneration of the disc. The generated features were employed in the design of a pattern recognition system based on the Least Squares Minimum Distance classifier. The system achieved a classification accuracy of 94{%} and it may be of value to physicians for the assessment of cervical intervertebral disc degeneration in MRI
A study in the reconstruction of a three-dimensional object from its two-dimensional emission images, with application to the human heart
No full textThe intention of this thesis is to examine the problematic nature of Emission Imagery (El) in its application to medicine, analyse and provide solutions to the inherent processes of El that degrade valuable information carried by the emitted gamma-photons, study the problem of the reconstruction of a three-dimensional (3—D) object from its emitted 2-D images, and develop digital processing methods, which determine the 3-D distribution of gamma emitting radionuclides in the human heart from a small number of projected gamma images. The objective is to map areas of heart muscle which have ceased to function, due to failure of blood supply following a coronary infarction, and tnus provide the cardiologist with valuable information concerning the location and extent of cardiac infarcts in the myocardium.
Patient-examination involved injecting the patient intravenously with 201-Thallium, which accumulates in regions of the heart muscle which are active but not in those which are defunct. The 3-D distribution of the gamma ray emissivity, and hence the heart muscle activity, was then reconstructed from three 2-D gamma images, collected by an Anger camera at different angles around the patient chest wall.
Attention was concentrated on the Left Ventricle (LV) of the myocardium, where most of the infarcts occur. A 2-D filter, based on the 'inverse-filter' principle, was used to remove the imaging system point spread function from the images and a boundary detection technique to detect the image-boundaries and correlate the images. Two-algorithms, the Straight Pseudoinverse (SP) and the Minimum Least Square Estimate (MLSE) were employed to reconstruct the radioisotope distribution in the LV. Both algorithms provided significant compensation for attenuation, scattering, and Poisson noise. Image processing and reconstruction algorithms were first validated on a phantom consisting of a thick walled hollow cone filled with a solution of the radioisotope and a non-emitting rubber wedge to simulate cardiac infarcts. Then, successful reconstructions of healthy and infarcted hearts were obtained by both algorithms revealing the location and extent of infarcts with an estimated 15 min. computer processing time employing the SP-algorithm
Using handheld devices for real-time wireless teleconsultation
No full textRecent advances in the hardware of handheld devices, opened up the way for newer applications in the healthcare sector, and more specifically, in the teleconsultation field. Out of these devices, this paper focuses on the services that personal digital assistants and smartphones can provide to improve the speed, quality and ease of delivering a medical opinion from a distance and laying the ground for an all-wireless hospital. In that manner, PDAs were used to wirelessly support the viewing of digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) images and to allow for mobile videoconferencing while within the hospital. Smartphones were also used to carry still images, multiframes and live video outside the hospital. Both of these applications aimed at increasing the mobility of the consultant while improving the healthcare service
Computerized Interactive Gaming via Supporting Vector Machines
No full textComputerized interactive gaming requires automatic processing of large volume of random data produced by players on spot, such as shooting, football kicking, and boxing. This paper describes a supporting vector machine-based artificial intelligence algorithm as one of the possible solutions to the problem of random data processing and the provision of interactive indication for further actions. In comparison with existing techniques, such as rule-based and neural networks, and so forth, our SVM-based interactive gaming algorithm has the features of (i) high-speed processing, providing instant response to the players, (ii) winner selection and control by one parameter, which can be predesigned and adjusted according to the needs of interaction and game design or specific level of difficulties, and (iii) detection of interaction points is adaptive to the input changes, and no labelled training data is required. Experiments on numerical simulation support that the proposed algorithm is robust to random noise, accurate in picking up winning data, and convenient for all interactive gaming designs
Mobile consultant: Evaluation of additional services
No full textAs the need for mobility in the medical world increases, newer systems and applications came to light; many of them based on wireless and mobile networks. PDA based systems were presented in the past, capable of videoconferencing and transmitting high quality images between a roaming consultant and a fixed point in the hospital. These systems not only had desirable characteristics but also incorporated additional services that were found of value: paging, Voice over IP calling, Internet, email, intranet, patient record update, etc. This paper presents an engineering and clinical evaluation of those additional services based on both objective and subjective criteria. It concludes that such complementary services can be desirable as they increase personnel mobility, utilize the hospital resources more efficiently while at the same time increase productivity and decrease the cost of hardware and communications
A prognostic-classification system based on a probabilistic NN for predicting urine bladder cancer recurrence
No full textAutomated diagnosis of brain tumours using a novel density estimation method for image segmentation and independent component analysis combined with support vector machines for image classification
No full textAutomated diagnosis of brain tumours astrocytomas using probabilistic neural network clustering and support vector machines
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