Ultrasound Imaging

Ultrasound Imaging - Current Topics presents complex and current topics in ultrasound imaging in a simplified format. It is easy to read and exemplifies the range of experiences of each contributing author. Chapters address such topics as anatomy and dimensional variations, pediatric gastrointestinal emergencies, musculoskeletal and nerve imaging as well as molecular sonography. The book is a useful resource for researchers, students, clinicians, and sonographers looking for additional information on ultrasound imaging beyond the basics

Recent Advances in Machine Learning Applied to Ultrasound Imaging

Machine learning (ML) methods are pervading an increasing number of fields of application because of their capacity to effectively solve a wide variety of challenging problems. The employment of ML techniques in ultrasound imaging applications started several years ago but the scientific interest in this issue has increased exponentially in the last few years. The present work reviews the most recent (2019 onwards) implementations of machine learning techniques for two of the most popular ultrasound imaging fields, medical diagnostics and non-destructive evaluation. The former, which covers the major part of the review, was analyzed by classifying studies according to the human organ investigated and the methodology (e.g., detection, segmentation, and/or classification) adopted, while for the latter, some solutions to the detection/classification of material defects or particular patterns are reported. Finally, the main merits of machine learning that emerged from the study analysis are summarized and discussed. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Advancements and Breakthroughs in Ultrasound Imaging

Ultrasonic imaging is a powerful diagnostic tool available to medical practitioners, engineers and researchers today. Due to the relative safety, and the non-invasive nature, ultrasonic imaging has become one of the most rapidly advancing technologies. These rapid advances are directly related to the parallel advancements in electronics, computing, and transducer technology together with sophisticated signal processing techniques. This book focuses on state of the art developments in ultrasonic imaging applications and underlying technologies presented by leading practitioners and researchers from many parts of the world

Mammography

In this volume, the topics are constructed from a variety of contents: the bases of mammography systems, optimization of screening mammography with reference to evidence-based research, new technologies of image acquisition and its surrounding systems, and case reports with reference to up-to-date multimodality images of breast cancer. Mammography has been lagged in the transition to digital imaging systems because of the necessity of high resolution for diagnosis. However, in the past ten years, technical improvement has resolved the difficulties and boosted new diagnostic systems. We hope that the reader will learn the essentials of mammography and will be forward-looking for the new technologies. We want to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation?to all the co-authors who have contributed their work to this volume

Image texture analysis of transvaginal ultrasound in monitoring ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of all gynaecologic cancers and is the fifth most common cancer in UK women. It has been dubbed “the silent killer” because of its non-specific symptoms. Amongst various imaging modalities, ultrasound is considered the main modality for ovarian cancer triage. Like other imaging modalities, the main issue is that the interpretation of the images is subjective and observer dependent. In order to overcome this problem, texture analysis was considered for this study. Advances in medical imaging, computer technology and image processing have collectively ramped up the interest of many researchers in texture analysis. While there have been a number of successful uses of texture analysis technique reported, to my knowledge, until recently it has yet to be applied to characterise an ovarian lesion from a B-mode image. The concept of applying texture analysis in the medical field would not replace the conventional method of interpreting images but is simply intended to aid clinicians in making their diagnoses. Five categories of textural features were considered in this study: grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), Run Length Matrix (RLM), gradient, auto-regressive (AR) and wavelet. Prior to the image classification, the robustness or how well a specific textural feature can tolerate variation arises from the image acquisition and texture extraction process was first evaluated. This includes random variation caused by the ultrasound system and the operator during image acquisition. Other factors include the influence of region of interest (ROI) size, ROI depth, scanner gain setting, and „calliper line‟. Evaluation of scanning reliability was carried out using a tissue-equivalent phantom as well as evaluations of a clinical environment. iii Additionally, the reliability of the ROI delineation procedure for clinical images was also evaluated. An image enhancement technique and semi-automatic segmentation tool were employed in order to improve the ROI delineation procedure. The results of the study indicated that two out of five textural features, GLCM and wavelet, were robust. Hence, these two features were then used for image classification purposes. To extract textural features from the clinical images, two ROI delineation approaches were introduced: (i) the textural features were extracted from the whole area of the tissue of interest, and (ii) the anechoic area within the normal and malignant tissues was excluded from features extraction. The results revealed that the second approach outperformed the first approach: there is a significant difference in the GLCM and wavelet features between the three groups: normal tissue, cysts, and malignant. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was carried out to determine the discriminatory ability of textural features, which was found to be satisfactory. The principal conclusion was that GLCM and wavelet features can potentially be used as computer aided diagnosis (CAD) tools to help clinicians in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer

Proceedings of the International Workshop on Medical Ultrasound Tomography: 1.- 3. Nov. 2017, Speyer, Germany

Ultrasound Tomography is an emerging technology for medical imaging that is quickly approaching its clinical utility. Research groups around the globe are engaged in research spanning from theory to practical applications. The International Workshop on Medical Ultrasound Tomography (1.-3. November 2017, Speyer, Germany) brought together scientists to exchange their knowledge and discuss new ideas and results in order to boost the research in Ultrasound Tomography

National eHealth system – platform for preventive, predictive and personalized diabetes care

National eHealth System, covering all citizens and all healthcare levels in Republic of Macedonia, was introduced in July 2013, has been internationally recognized System for successful reduction of waiting times and instrumental in the management of national healthcare resources. For the first time, National Diabetes Committee, formed in February 2015 according to the Law on healthcare and being overall responsible for the diabetes care in the country, was able to derive exact figures on the national diabetes prevalence from the System, instead of extrapolations used before, serving as a basis for development of strategies for prediction and prevention of diabetic complications, as well as for personalized diabetes care. Number of diabetes cases identified through the National eHealth System in June 2015 was 84,568 (4.02 % of total population), 36,119 males (3.42 % of total male population) and 48,449 females (4.61% of total female population). Age stratified diabetes prevalence was as follows: less than 20 years – 549 cases (0.11 % of respective population), 20-39 years – 3,202 (0.49 %), 40-59 years – 26,561 (4.58 %), 60-79 years – 48,470 (14.57 %), 80 years or more – 5,786 (12.96 %). Addition of parameters for metabolic control and diabetic complications in the System is under way, further facilitating the modeling of diabetes treatment, metabolic control and the outcomes. Inclusion of pre-diabetes patients (IGT and IFG) is also planned, thus providing opportunity to also focus healthcare activities for prevention of progression into overt type 2 diabetes