37,946 research outputs found
Non-Gaussian Anisotropic Diffusion Processing for Medical Imagining Using the OsiriX DICOM Viewer
Medical imaging is a fertile area for computer graphics, image processing and real time visualization. In this paper we present a method for reducing noise in CT (Computed Tomography) and MR (Magnetic Resonance) images that (in addition to other noise sources) is characteristic of the numerical procedures required to construct the images, namely, the (inverse) Radon Transform. In both cases, MR imaging in particular, an additional noise source is due to the process of diffusion thereby predicating use of the Anisotropic Diffusion method for noise suppression. This method is based on a diffusion model for noise generation where the Diffusivity is taken to be non-isotropic (inhomogeneous) or anisotropic and is, in the absence of a priori information, computed through application of an edge detection algorithm. In this paper we extend the approach to include theeffect of fractional diffusion (when the underlying statistical model associated with the diffusion process is non-Gaussian) and derive a corresponding Finite Impulse Response Filter. The algorithms developed are implemented using the OsiriX DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine), a high performance open source image data visualization system for the development of processing and visualization tools
3D tensor normalization for improved accuracy in DTI tensor registration methods
pre-printThis paper presents a method for normalization of diffusion tensor images (DTI) to a xed DTI template, a pre-processing step to improve the performance of full tensor based registration methods. The proposed method maps the individual tensors of the subject image in to the template space based on matching the cumulative distribution function and the fractional anisotrophy values. The method aims to determine a more accurate deformation field from any full tensor registration method by applying the registration algorithm on the normalized DTI rather than the original DTI. The deformation field applied to the original tensor images are compared to the deformed image without normalization for 11 different cases of mapping seven subjects (neonate through 2 years) to two different atlases. The method shows an improvement in DTI registration based on comparing the normalized fractional anisotropy values of major fiber tracts in the brain
Segmentation of ultrasound images of thyroid nodule for assisting fine needle aspiration cytology
The incidence of thyroid nodule is very high and generally increases with the
age. Thyroid nodule may presage the emergence of thyroid cancer. The thyroid
nodule can be completely cured if detected early. Fine needle aspiration
cytology is a recognized early diagnosis method of thyroid nodule. There are
still some limitations in the fine needle aspiration cytology, and the
ultrasound diagnosis of thyroid nodule has become the first choice for
auxiliary examination of thyroid nodular disease. If we could combine medical
imaging technology and fine needle aspiration cytology, the diagnostic rate of
thyroid nodule would be improved significantly. The properties of ultrasound
will degrade the image quality, which makes it difficult to recognize the edges
for physicians. Image segmentation technique based on graph theory has become a
research hotspot at present. Normalized cut (Ncut) is a representative one,
which is suitable for segmentation of feature parts of medical image. However,
how to solve the normalized cut has become a problem, which needs large memory
capacity and heavy calculation of weight matrix. It always generates over
segmentation or less segmentation which leads to inaccurate in the
segmentation. The speckle noise in B ultrasound image of thyroid tumor makes
the quality of the image deteriorate. In the light of this characteristic, we
combine the anisotropic diffusion model with the normalized cut in this paper.
After the enhancement of anisotropic diffusion model, it removes the noise in
the B ultrasound image while preserves the important edges and local details.
This reduces the amount of computation in constructing the weight matrix of the
improved normalized cut and improves the accuracy of the final segmentation
results. The feasibility of the method is proved by the experimental results.Comment: 15pages,13figure
Voxel-wise comparisons of cellular microstructure and diffusion-MRI in mouse hippocampus using 3D Bridging of Optically-clear histology with Neuroimaging Data (3D-BOND)
A key challenge in medical imaging is determining a precise correspondence between image properties and tissue microstructure. This comparison is hindered by disparate scales and resolutions between medical imaging and histology. We present a new technique, 3D Bridging of Optically-clear histology with Neuroimaging Data (3D-BOND), for registering medical images with 3D histology to overcome these limitations. Ex vivo 120 × 120 × 200 μm resolution diffusion-MRI (dMRI) data was acquired at 7 T from adult C57Bl/6 mouse hippocampus. Tissue was then optically cleared using CLARITY and stained with cellular markers and confocal microscopy used to produce high-resolution images of the 3D-tissue microstructure. For each sample, a dense array of hippocampal landmarks was used to drive registration between upsampled dMRI data and the corresponding confocal images. The cell population in each MRI voxel was determined within hippocampal subregions and compared to MRI-derived metrics. 3D-BOND provided robust voxel-wise, cellular correlates of dMRI data. CA1 pyramidal and dentate gyrus granular layers had significantly different mean diffusivity (p > 0.001), which was related to microstructural features. Overall, mean and radial diffusivity correlated with cell and axon density and fractional anisotropy with astrocyte density, while apparent fibre density correlated negatively with axon density. Astrocytes, axons and blood vessels correlated to tensor orientation
A Total Fractional-Order Variation Model for Image Restoration with Non-homogeneous Boundary Conditions and its Numerical Solution
To overcome the weakness of a total variation based model for image
restoration, various high order (typically second order) regularization models
have been proposed and studied recently. In this paper we analyze and test a
fractional-order derivative based total -order variation model, which
can outperform the currently popular high order regularization models. There
exist several previous works using total -order variations for image
restoration; however first no analysis is done yet and second all tested
formulations, differing from each other, utilize the zero Dirichlet boundary
conditions which are not realistic (while non-zero boundary conditions violate
definitions of fractional-order derivatives). This paper first reviews some
results of fractional-order derivatives and then analyzes the theoretical
properties of the proposed total -order variational model rigorously.
It then develops four algorithms for solving the variational problem, one based
on the variational Split-Bregman idea and three based on direct solution of the
discretise-optimization problem. Numerical experiments show that, in terms of
restoration quality and solution efficiency, the proposed model can produce
highly competitive results, for smooth images, to two established high order
models: the mean curvature and the total generalized variation.Comment: 26 page
Distributed Unmixing of Hyperspectral Data With Sparsity Constraint
Spectral unmixing (SU) is a data processing problem in hyperspectral remote
sensing. The significant challenge in the SU problem is how to identify
endmembers and their weights, accurately. For estimation of signature and
fractional abundance matrices in a blind problem, nonnegative matrix
factorization (NMF) and its developments are used widely in the SU problem. One
of the constraints which was added to NMF is sparsity constraint that was
regularized by L 1/2 norm. In this paper, a new algorithm based on distributed
optimization has been used for spectral unmixing. In the proposed algorithm, a
network including single-node clusters has been employed. Each pixel in
hyperspectral images considered as a node in this network. The distributed
unmixing with sparsity constraint has been optimized with diffusion LMS
strategy, and then the update equations for fractional abundance and signature
matrices are obtained. Simulation results based on defined performance metrics,
illustrate advantage of the proposed algorithm in spectral unmixing of
hyperspectral data compared with other methods. The results show that the AAD
and SAD of the proposed approach are improved respectively about 6 and 27
percent toward distributed unmixing in SNR=25dB.Comment: 6 pages, conference pape
Structural network efficiency is associated with cognitive impairment in small-vessel disease.
To characterize brain network connectivity impairment in cerebral small-vessel disease (SVD) and its relationship with MRI disease markers and cognitive impairment.METHODS: A cross-sectional design applied graph-based efficiency analysis to deterministic diffusion tensor tractography data from 115 patients with lacunar infarction and leukoaraiosis and 50 healthy individuals. Structural connectivity was estimated between 90 cortical and subcortical brain regions and efficiency measures of resulting graphs were analyzed. Networks were compared between SVD and control groups, and associations between efficiency measures, conventional MRI disease markers, and cognitive function were tested.RESULTS: Brain diffusion tensor tractography network connectivity was significantly reduced in SVD: networks were less dense, connection weights were lower, and measures of network efficiency were significantly disrupted. The degree of brain network disruption was associated with MRI measures of disease severity and cognitive function. In multiple regression models controlling for confounding variables, associations with cognition were stronger for network measures than other MRI measures including conventional diffusion tensor imaging measures. A total mediation effect was observed for the association between fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity measures and executive function and processing speed.CONCLUSIONS: Brain network connectivity in SVD is disturbed, this disturbance is related to disease severity, and within a mediation framework fully or partly explains previously observed associations between MRI measures and SVD-related cognitive dysfunction. These cross-sectional results highlight the importance of network disruption in SVD and provide support for network measures as a disease marker in treatment studies
- …