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arXiv2013

Top-level Design and Pilot Analysis of Low-end CT Scanners Based on Linear Scanning for Developing Countries

Purpose: The goal is to develop a new architecture for computed tomography (CT) which is at an ultra-low-dose for developing countries, especially in rural areas. Methods: The proposed scheme is inspired by the recently developed compressive sensing and interior tomography techniques, where the data acquisition system targets a region of interest (ROI) to acquire limited and truncated data. The source and detector are translated in opposite directions for either ROI reconstruction with one or more localized linear scans or global reconstruction by combining multiple ROI reconstructions. In other words, the popular slip ring is replaced by a translation based setup, and the instrumentation cost is reduced by a relaxation of the imaging speed requirement. Results: The various translational scanning modes are theoretically analyzed, and the scanning parameters are optimized. The numerical simulation results from different numbers of linear scans confirm the feasibility of the proposed scheme, and suggest two preferred low-end systems for horizontal and vertical patient positions respectively. Conclusion: Ultra-low-cost x-ray CT is feasible with our proposed combination of linear scanning, compressive sensing, and interior tomography. The proposed architecture can be tailored into permanent, movable, or reconfigurable systems as desirable. Advanced image registration and spectral imaging features can be included as well.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2013

Attenuation map reconstruction from TOF PET data

To reconstruct a radioactive tracer distribution with positron emission tomography (PET), the background attenuation correction is needed to eliminate image artifacts. Recent research shows that time-of-flight (TOF) PET data determine the attenuation sinogram up to a constant, and its gradient can be computed using an analytic algorithm. In this paper, we study a direct estimation of the sinogram only from TOF PET data. First, the gradient of the attenuation sinogram is estimated using the aforementioned algorithm. Then, a relationship is established to link the differential attenuation sinogram and the underlying attenuation background. Finally, an iterative algorithm is designed to determine the attenuation sinogram accurately and stably. A 2D numerical simulation study is conducted to verify the correctness of our proposed approach.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2013

Percentage depth dose distributions in inhomogeneous phantoms with lung and bone equivalent media for small fields of CyberKnife

The percentage depth dose distributions in inhomogeneous phantoms with lung and bone equivalent media are studied. For lung equivalent media a Balsa wood is used, and for a soft bone equivalent media a compound material with epoxy resin, hardener and calcium carbonate is used. Polystyrene slabs put together with these materials are used as an inhomogeneous phantom. Dose measurements are performed with Gafchromic EBT film by using photon beams from 6MV CyberKnife at the Seoul Uridul Hospital. The cone sizes of the photon beams are varied from 5, 10 to 30 mm. As a simulation tool GEANT4 Monte Carlo code v9.4.p02 is used. When the Balsa wood is inserted in the phantom, the dose measured with EBT film is found to be significantly different from the dose without the EBT film in and beyond the Balsa wood region, particularly for small field sizes. On the other hand, when the soft bone equivalent material is inserted in the phantom, discrepancy between the dose measured with EBT film and the dose without EBT film can be seen only in the region of bone equivalent material. GEANT4 simulations are done with and without the EBT film to compare the simulation results with measurements. We find that the simulations including EBT film agree with the measurements for all the cases within an error of $2.2\%$. Also, we find the "doses to phantom" without the EBT film differ from the "doses to film" up to $29\%$, which shows that for accurate dose estimations for inhomogeneous phantoms with EBT film the presence of the EBT film needs to be taken into account properly in particular for small fields.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2013

Time series analysis of Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

The aim of this paper is to study the (clinical) time-series data of three diseases with complex dynamics: Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. For this purpose, first all of the time series data are embedded in a vector space of suitable dimension and then the correlation dimension of the above mentioned diseases is estimated. The results are also compared with healthy control subjects. At the next step, existence of chaos in these diseases is investigated by means of the so-called 0-1 test. The simulations show that none of the above mentioned diseases are chaotic.

q-bio.OT↗

arXiv2016

Direct determination of internal radiation dose in human blood

The purpose of this study is to measure the internal radiation dose using a human blood sample. In the literature, there is no process that allows the direct measurement of the internal radiation dose received by a person. The luminescence counts from a blood sample having a laboratory-injected radiation dose and the waste blood of the patient injected with a radiopharmaceutical for diagnostic purposes were both measured. The decay and dose-response curves were plotted for the different doses. The doses received by the different blood aliquots can be determined by interpolating the luminescence counts to the dose-response curve. This study shows that the dose received by a person can be measured directly, simply and retrospectively by using only a very small amount of blood sample. The results will have important ramifications for the medicine and healthcare fields in particular. This will also be very important in cases of suspicion of radiation poisoning, malpractice and so on.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2014

Patient-specific simulation of stent-graft deployment within an abdominal aortic aneurysm

In this study, finite element analysis is used to simulate the surgical deployment procedure of a bifurcated stent-graft on a real patient's arterial geometry. The stent-graft is modeled using realistic constitutive properties for both the stent and most importantly for the graft. The arterial geometry is obtained from pre-operative imaging exam. The obtained results are in good agreement with the post-operative imaging data. As the whole computational time was reduced to less than 2 hours, this study constitutes an essential step towards predictive planning simulations of aneurysmal endovascular surgery

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2013

Anisotropy mapping in rat brains using Intermolecular Multiple Quantum Coherence Effects

This document reports an unconventional and rapidly developing approach to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using intermolecular multiple-quantum coherences (iMQCs). Rat brain images are acquired using iMQCs. We detect iMQCs between spins that are 10 μm to 500 μm apart. The interaction between spins is dependent on different directions. We can choose the directions on physical Z, Y and X axis by choosing correlation gradients along those directions. As an important application, iMQCs can be used for anisotropy mapping. In the rat brains, we investigate tissue microstructure. We simulated images expected from rat brains without microstructure. We compare those with experimental results to prove that the dipolar field from the overall shape only has small contributions to the experimental iMQC signal. Because of the underlying low signal to noise ratio (SNR) in iMQCs, this anisotropy mapping method still has comparatively large potentials to grow. The ultimate goal of my project is to develop creative and effective methods of tissue microstructure anisotropy mapping. Recently we found that combining phase data of iMQCs images with phase data of modified-crazed images is very promising to construct microstructure maps. Some information and initial results are shown in this document.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2014

Predicting the steady state thickness of passive films in order to prevent degradations of implant

Some implants have approximately a lifetime of 15 years. The femoral stem, for example, should be made of 316L/316LN stainless steel. Fretting corrosion, friction under small displacements, should occur during human gait, due to repeated loadings and un-loadings, between stainless steel and bone for instance. Some experimental investigations of fretting corrosion have been practiced. As well known, metallic alloys and especially stainless steels are covered with a passive film that prevents from the corrosion and degradation. This passive layer of few nanometers, at ambient temperature, is the key of our civilization according to some authors. This work is dedicated to predict the passive layer thicknesses of stainless steel under fretting corrosion with a specific emphasis on the role of proteins. The model is based on the Point Defect Model (micro scale) and an update of the model on the friction process (micro-macro scale). Genetic algorithm was used for finding solution of the problem. The major results are, as expected from experimental results, albumin prevents from degradation at the lowest concentration of chlorides; an incubation time is necessary for degrading the passive film; under fretting corrosion and high concentration of chlorides the passive behavior is annihilated.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2014

Nonlinear Acoustics FDTD method including Frequency Power Law Attenuation for Soft Tissue Modeling

This paper describes a model for nonlinear acoustic wave propagation through absorbing and weakly dispersive media, and its numerical solution by means of finite differences in time domain method (FDTD). The attenuation is based on multiple relaxation processes, and provides frequency dependent absorption and dispersion without using computational expensive convolutional operators. In this way, by using an optimization algorithm the coefficients for the relaxation processes can be obtained in order to fit a frequency power law that agrees the experimentally measured attenuation data for heterogeneous media over the typical frequency range for ultrasound medical applications. Our results show that two relaxation processes are enough to fit attenuation data for most soft tissues in this frequency range including the fundamental and the first ten harmonics. Furthermore, this model can fit experimental attenuation data that do not follow exactly a frequency power law over the frequency range of interest. The main advantage of the proposed method is that only one auxiliary field per relaxation process is needed, which implies less computational resources compared with time-domain fractional derivatives solvers based on convolutional operators.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2016

Direct determination of external radiation dose in human blood

In this study it was shown that it is possible to determine radiation doses from external beam therapy both directly and retrospectively from a human blood sample. To the best of our knowledge no other studies exist on the direct measurement of doses received by a person from external beam therapy. Optically stimulated luminescence counts from a healthy blood sample exposed to an external radiation source were measured. Blood aliquots were given 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100 and 200Gy beta doses and their decay and dose-response curves were plotted. While the luminescence intensities were found to be relatively low for the doses smaller than 10Gy, they were measured considerably higher for doses greater than 10Gy. The dose received by the blood aliquots was determined by interpolating the luminescence counts of 10Gy to the dose-response curve. This study has important ramifications for healthcare, medicine and radiation protection

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2014

Raman spectroscopic detection of rapid, reversible, early-stage inflammatory cytokine-induced apoptosis of adult hippocampal progenitors/stem cells

The role of neuro-inflammation in diverse, acute and chronic brain pathologies is being increasingly recognized. Neuro-inflammation is accompanied by increased levels of both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines; these have deleterious as well as protective/reparative effects. Inflammation has varying effects on neurogenesis and is a subject of intense contemporary interest. We show that TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma, used concomitantly, cause apoptosis of adult rat hippocampal progenitor/stem cells in vitro as detected by the TUNEL and MTT assays on time scales of several hours. We have coupled Raman spectroscopy to an optical trap to probe early changes of apoptosis in single, live neural stem cells that have been treated with pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma. Changes caused by inflammation-induced denaturation of DNA are observed in the Raman spectra that correspond to very early stages of apoptosis, occurring on very fast time scales: as short as 10 minutes. Addition of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 either 10-30 min before or 10-30 min after treatment with TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma reverses the changes substantially. Our findings imply that inflammation can induce very rapid changes leading to cell death but that these are reversible, in the early stages at least.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2014

3D conformal planning using low segment multi-criteria IMRT optimization

Purpose: To evaluate automated multicriteria optimization (MCO)-- designed for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), but invoked with limited segmentation -- to efficiently produce high quality 3D conformal treatment (3D-CRT) plans. Methods: Ten patients previously planned with 3D-CRT were replanned with a low-segment inverse multicriteria optimized technique. The MCO-3D plans used the same number of beams, beam geometry and machine parameters of the corresponding 3D plans, but were limited to an energy of 6 MV. The MCO-3D plans were optimized using a fluence-based MCO IMRT algorithm and then, after MCO navigation, segmented with a low number of segments. The 3D and MCO-3D plans were compared by evaluating mean doses to individual organs at risk (OARs), mean doses to combined OARs, homogeneity indexes (HI), monitor units (MUs), physician preference, and qualitative assessments of planning time and plan customizability. Results: The MCO-3D plans significantly reduced the OAR mean doses and monitor units while maintaining good coverage and homogeneity of target volumes. MCO allows for more streamlined plan customization. All MCO-3D plans were preferred by physicians over their corresponding 3D plans. Conclusion: High quality 3D plans can be produced using IMRT optimization technology, resulting in automated field-in-field type plans with good monitor unit efficiency. Adopting this technology in a clinic could streamline treatment plan production.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2014

Feasibility-Seeking and Superiorization Algorithms Applied to Inverse Treatment Planning in Radiation Therapy

We apply the recently proposed superiorization methodology (SM) to the inverse planning problem in radiation therapy. The inverse planning problem is represented here as a constrained minimization problem of the total variation (TV) of the intensity vector over a large system of linear two-sided inequalities. The SM can be viewed conceptually as lying between feasibility-seeking for the constraints and full-fledged constrained minimization of the objective function subject to these constraints. It is based on the discovery that many feasibility-seeking algorithms (of the projection methods variety) are perturbation-resilient, and can be proactively steered toward a feasible solution of the constraints with a reduced, thus superiorized, but not necessarily minimal, objective function value.

math.OC↗

arXiv2014

Performance of Hull-Detection Algorithms For Proton Computed Tomography Reconstruction

Proton computed tomography (pCT) is a novel imaging modality developed for patients receiving proton radiation therapy. The purpose of this work was to investigate hull-detection algorithms used for preconditioning of the large and sparse linear system of equations that needs to be solved for pCT image reconstruction. The hull-detection algorithms investigated here included silhouette/space carving (SC), modified silhouette/space carving (MSC), and space modeling (SM). Each was compared to the cone-beam version of filtered backprojection (FBP) used for hull-detection. Data for testing these algorithms included simulated data sets of a digital head phantom and an experimental data set of a pediatric head phantom obtained with a pCT scanner prototype at Loma Linda University Medical Center. SC was the fastest algorithm, exceeding the speed of FBP by more than 100 times. FBP was most sensitive to the presence of noise. Ongoing work will focus on optimizing threshold parameters in order to define a fast and efficient method for hull-detection in pCT image reconstruction.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2014

Sliding window and compressive sensing for low-field dynamic magnetic resonance imaging

We describe an acquisition/processing procedure for image reconstruction in dynamic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The approach requires sliding window to record a set of trajectories in the k-space, standard regularization to reconstruct an estimate of the object and compressed sensing to recover image residuals. We validated this approach in the case of specific simulated experiments and, in the case of real measurements, we showed that the procedure is reliable even in the case of data acquired by means of a low-field scanner.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2014

First CT-MRI Scanner for Multi-dimensional Synchrony and Multi-physical Coupling

We propose to prototype the first CT-MRI scanner for radiation therapy and basic research, demonstrate its transformative biomedical potential, and initiate a paradigm shift in multimodality imaging. Our design consists of a double donut-shaped pair of permanent magnets to form a regionally uniform ~0.5T magnetic field and leave room for a stationary 9-source interior CT gantry at 3 tube voltages (triple-energy CT). Image reconstruction will be in a compressive sensing framework. Please discuss with Dr. Ge Wang (ge-wang@ieee.org) if you are interested in collaborative opportunities.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2014

First steps to Virtual Mammography: Simulating external compressions of the breast with the Surface Evolver

In this paper we introduce a computational modelling that reproduces the breast compression processes used to obtain the mammogram. The main result is a programme in which one can track the first steps of virtual mammography. On the one hand, our modelling enables addition of structures that represent different tissues, muscles and glands in the breast. On the other hand, we shall validate and implement it by means of laboratory tests with phantoms. To the best of our knowledge, these two characteristics do confer originality to our research. This is because their interrelation seems not to be properly established elsewhere yet. We conclude that our model reproduces the same shapes and measurements really taken from the volunteer's breasts.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2014

A new calculation formula of the nuclear cross-section of therapeutic protons

We have previously developed for nuclear cross-sections of therapeutic protons a calculation model, which is founded on the collective model as well as a quantum mechanical many particle problem to derive the S matrix and transition probabilities. In this communication, we show that the resonances can be derived by shifted Gaussian functions, whereas the unspecific nuclear interaction compounds can be represented by an error function, which also provides the asymptotic behavior. The energy shifts can be interpreted in terms of necessary domains of energy to excite typical nuclear processes. Thus the necessary formulas referring to previous calculations of nuclear cross-sections will be represented in section 2. The mass number AN determines the strong interaction range. The threshold energy ETh of the energy barrier is determined by the condition Estrong = ECoulomb. A linear combination of Gaussians, which contain additional energy shifts, and an error function incorporate a possible representation of Fermi-Dirac statistics, which is applied here to nuclear excitations and reaction with release of secondary particles. The new calculation formula provides a better understanding of different types of resonances occurring in nuclear interactions with protons. The present study is mainly a continuation of previous papers.

physics.med-ph↗