Koirien perinnöllisten luustosairauksien röntgenseulonta

Screening in dog breeding refers to testing or examining individuals for hereditary diseases or faults. Results can help dog breeders in decision-making when selecting breeding material. Radiographic screening for canine elbow dysplasia (ED) began several decades ago, but genetic improvements have been modest. Several reasons for slow progress exist; perhaps one of the most important is that affected individuals continue to be used for breeding. On the other hand, disorders like lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LTV) in several dog breeds and intervertebral disc calcifications in Dachshunds are not widely screened even though this would reduce the incidence of debilitating orthopaedic and neurological diseases caused by these disorders. The aim of this study was to initiate radiographic screening protocols for intervertebral disc calcifications and LTV in Finland and to revise the existing Finnish screening protocol for ED. Breeds used were the miniature long-haired and wire-haired Dachshund, Belgian shepherd dog, Labrador retriever and German shepherd dog. The imaging methods applied were radiography and computed tomography (CT). Occurrence of intervertebral disc calcifications was higher in Finnish miniature Dachshunds than previously reported; 76% of longhaired and 87% of wirehaired variety had at least one calcification. Therefore screening protocol excluding every dog with calcifications from breeding would not be possible. The number of calcifications varied between none and 13, and therefore radiographic screening, together with favouring dogs with fewer calcified discs in breeding, is suggested. Accuracy of the Finnish screening protocol for mild (grade 1) ED differed between the two breeds studied. In Belgian shepherd dogs, the Finnish protocol based mainly on evaluation of osteophytes was inaccurate, as 47% of the joints free of ED were incorrectly graded as dysplastic and 40% of dysplastic joints were graded as normal. On the other hand, assessment of the radiographic signs indicative of medial coronoid process disease proved to be accurate in this breed; sensitivity and specificity of blurring of the cranial border of the medial coronoid process were 80% and 90%, respectively. In Labrador retrievers, the Finnish protocol proved to be accurate, as sensitivity of grading was 79% and specificity 92%. Osteophytes seen in the supplemental craniocaudal oblique radiographic projection was the most reliable sign of ED in Labrador retrievers with sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 92%. Adding this view might be a valuable addition to the screening protocol. Labrador retrievers with grade 1 ED should not be used for breeding since most of them have ED, as was clearly demonstrated in the study. LTV was common in Finnish German shepherd dogs studied with occurrence of 40%. A laterolateral (LL) radiograph appeared to be a useful supplement to the currently used ventrodorsal (VD) radiograph in diagnosis of LTV. Sensitivity of the diagnosis based on the VD projection alone was 90% increasing to 100% when LL projection was used together with the VD projection. Additionally, diagnosis of the eighth lumbar vertebra (L8) was only possible based on the LL projection. It is therefore suggested for inclusion in the radiographic screening protocol. The L8 resembled an LTV, and is therefore proposed as a part of the LTV-complex and for consideration when screening for LTV.Koiranjalostuksessa seulontatutkimus tarkoittaa yksilön tutkimista jonkin perinnöllisen sairauden tai vian osalta. Nämä tulokset voivat auttaa koirankasvattajia jalostusvalintojen teossa. Kyynärnivelen kasvuhäiriön (ED) röntgenseulonta aloitettiin jo useita vuosikymmeniä sitten, mutta geneettinen eteneminen on ollut melko vähäistä. Syitä tähän on useita, mutta ehkä tärkein on se, että sairaita yksilöitä käytetään edelleen jalostukseen. Välimuotoinen lanne-ristinikama (LTV) ja mäyräkoirien selkänikamien välilevykalkkeutumat ovat esimerkkejä vioista, joiden röntgenseulonta on harvinaista, vaikka se vähentäisi näistä vioista johtuvia vakavia ortopedisiä ja neurologisia sairauksia. Tutkimuksen päämääränä oli aloittaa mäyräkoirien välilevykalkkeutumien ja LTV:n röntgenseulonta Suomessa ja tarkistaa käytössä olevaa suomalaista ED:n röntgenseulontaprotokollaa. Tutkimukset tehtiin pitkä- ja karkeakarvaisilla kääpiömäyräkoirilla, belgianpaimenkoirilla ja labradorinnoutajilla. Kuvantamismenetelmät olivat röntgenkuvaus ja tietokonetomografia. Välilevykalkkeutumat olivat suomalaisissa kääpiömäyräkoirissa yleisempiä kuin aikaisemmissa tutkimuksissa: 76 %:lla pitkäkarvaisista ja 87 %:lla karkeakarvaisista kääpiömäyräkoirista oli ainakin yksi kalkkeutunut välilevy ja, enimmillään niitä oli 13. Näin ollen kaikkia mäyräkoiria, joilla on kalkkeutuneita välilevyjä ei voida sulkea jalostuksesta. Tutkimuksen perusteella ehdotetaan, että röntgenseulonta aloitetaan ja jalostuksessa suositaan koiria, joilla on vähän kalkkeutuneita välilevyjä. Lievän (aste 1) ED:n seulonnassa suomalaisen protokollan luotettavuus erosi tutkittujen rotujen välillä. Belgianpaimenkoirilla nivelrikon arviointiin painottuva suomalainen protokolla oli epäluotettava, koska 47 % terveistä nivelistä arvioitiin sairaiksi ja 40 % sairaista nivelistä terveiksi. Sen sijaan sisemmän varislisäkkeen sairauteen viittaavat röntgenlöydökset osoittautuivat tässä rodussa luotettaviksi kyynärnivelen tilan mittareiksi. Toisin kuin belgianpaimenkoirilla, suomalainen protokolla osoittautui luotettavaksi labradorinnoutajien lievän ED:n seulonnassa. Edestäpäin otetussa röntgenkuvassa näkyvä uudisluumuodostus oli luotettavin osoitus ED:stä, ja siksi tämän kuvaussuunnan lisääminen seulontaprotokollaan olisi hyödyllistä. Labradorinnoutajia, joilla on lievä kyynärnivelen kasvuhäiriö ei pitäisi käyttää jalostukseen. Tämä tutkimus osoitti selvästi, että suurimmalla osalla niistä on ED. LTV oli yleinen suomalaisilla saksanpaimenkoirilla (esiintyvyys 40 %). Sivukuva osoittautui hyödylliseksi yleisesti käytetyn selällään otetun (ventrodorsaali, VD) kuvan lisäksi. Kahdeksannen lannenikaman (L8) diagnoosi oli mahdollista ainoastaan sivukuvan perusteella ja siksi sen mukaan ottamista seulontaprotokollaan ehdotetaan. L8 muistutti LTV:tä ja sen liittämistä osaksi LTV-kompleksia ja -seulontaa suositellaan

Computer-aided techniques for assessment of MRI-detected inflammation for early identification of inflammatory arthritis

Inflammatory arthritis comprises a group of diseases in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues. Two prevalent types of inflammatory arthritis are rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). Clinical research points to the importance of early diagnosis, as treatment in early disease stages increases chances of better outcome and improved quality of life for patients. To this end, the diagnostic potential of imaging modalities sensitive to local inflammation, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), is of great interest. The goal of this thesis was to develop computer-aided methods for assessment of MRI-detected inflammation with the aim of aiding early diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis. In particular, we focused on the tasks of comparative visualization, automatic quantification, and feature selection. The presented studies showcase the potential of comparative visualization and automatic quantification to overcome the limitations of visual scoring and lay out a fertile ground for future improvements. Additionally, the understanding of the diagnostic role of individual inflammatory features in prediction of RA development is further advanced. Collectively, these findings can help facilitate the use of MRI for early diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis and potentially increase chances of better outcome and quality of life for patients.This research was supported by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW, under grant number 13329. STW (currently TTW) is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), which is partly funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.LUMC / Geneeskunde Repositoriu

Book of Abstracts 15th International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering and 3rd Conference on Imaging and Visualization

In this edition, the two events will run together as a single conference, highlighting the strong connection with the Taylor & Francis journals: Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering (John Middleton and Christopher Jacobs, Eds.) and Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging and Visualization (JoãoManuel R.S. Tavares, Ed.). The conference has become a major international meeting on computational biomechanics, imaging andvisualization. In this edition, the main program includes 212 presentations. In addition, sixteen renowned researchers will give plenary keynotes, addressing current challenges in computational biomechanics and biomedical imaging. In Lisbon, for the first time, a session dedicated to award the winner of the Best Paper in CMBBE Journal will take place. We believe that CMBBE2018 will have a strong impact on the development of computational biomechanics and biomedical imaging and visualization, identifying emerging areas of research and promoting the collaboration and networking between participants. This impact is evidenced through the well-known research groups, commercial companies and scientific organizations, who continue to support and sponsor the CMBBE meeting series. In fact, the conference is enriched with five workshops on specific scientific topics and commercial software.info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

Non-contact measures to monitor hand movement of people with rheumatoid arthritis using a monocular RGB camera

Hand movements play an essential role in a person’s ability to interact with the environment. In hand biomechanics, the range of joint motion is a crucial metric to quantify changes due to degenerative pathologies, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is a chronic condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks the joints, particularly those in the hands. Optoelectronic motion capture systems are gold-standard tools to quantify changes but are challenging to adopt outside laboratory settings. Deep learning executed on standard video data can capture RA participants in their natural environments, potentially supporting objectivity in remote consultation. The three main research aims in this thesis were 1) to assess the extent to which current deep learning architectures, which have been validated for quantifying motion of other body segments, can be applied to hand kinematics using monocular RGB cameras, 2) to localise where in videos the hand motions of interest are to be found, 3) to assess the validity of 1) and 2) to determine disease status in RA. First, hand kinematics for twelve healthy participants, captured with OpenPose were benchmarked against those captured using an optoelectronic system, showing acceptable instrument errors below 10°. Then, a gesture classifier was tested to segment video recordings of twenty-two healthy participants, achieving an accuracy of 93.5%. Finally, OpenPose and the classifier were applied to videos of RA participants performing hand exercises to determine disease status. The inferred disease activity exhibited agreement with the in-person ground truth in nine out of ten instances, outperforming virtual consultations, which agreed only six times out of ten. These results demonstrate that this approach is more effective than estimated disease activity performed by human experts during video consultations. The end goal sets the foundation for a tool that RA participants can use to observe their disease activity from their home.Open Acces

Development of a multi-wavelength diffuse optical tomography system for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis: simulation, phantoms and healthy human studies

A multi-wavelength diffuse optical tomography (DOT) system has been developed to directly extract physiological information, such as total haemoglobin concentration, from tissue in human hand joints. Novel methods for 3D surface imaging and spectrally constrained image reconstruction are introduced and their potential application to imaging of rheumatoid arthritis is discussed. Results are presented from simulation studies as well as experiments using phantoms and data from imaging of three healthy volunteers. The image features are recovered partially for phantom data using transmission measurements only. Images that reveal joint regions and surrounding features within the hand are shown to co-register with co–acquired ultrasound images which are shown to be related to total haemoglobin concentration