Microscopic Structure of the Calcium Isotopes

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

Microscopic Structure of the Calcium Isotopes

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY 87-1440

Proton Scattering from 206-Pb: Neutron Densities in the Nuclear Interior

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

Atlas-based quantification of DTI measures in a typically developing pediatric spinal cord

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Multi-parametric MRI, provides a variety of biomarkers sensitive to white matter integrity, However, spinal cord MRI data in pediatrics is rare compared to adults. The purpose of this work was 3-fold: 1) to develop a processing pipeline for atlasbased generation of the typically developing pediatric spinal cord WM tracts, 2) to derive atlas-based normative values of the DTI indices for various WM pathways, and 3) to investigate age-related changes in the obtained normative DTI indices along the extracted tracts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DTI scans of 30 typically developing subjects (age range, 6–16 years) were acquired on a 3T MR imaging scanner. The data were registered to the PAM50 template in the Spinal Cord Toolbox. Next, the DTI indices for various WM regions were extracted at a single section centered at the C3 vertebral body in all the 30 subjects. Finally, an ANOVA test was performed to examine the effects of the following: 1) laterality, 2) functionality, and 3) age, with DTI-derived indices in 34 extracted WM regions. RESULTS: A postprocessing pipeline was developed and validated to delineate pediatric spinal cord WM tracts. The results of ANOVA on fractional anisotropy values showed no effect for laterality (P ¼ .72) but an effect for functionality (P , .001) when comparing the 30 primary WM labels. There was a significant (P , .05) effect of age and maturity of the left spinothalamic tract on mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity values. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed automated pipeline in this study incorporates unique postprocessing steps followed by template registration and quantification of DTI metrics using atlas-based regions. This method eliminates the need for manual ROI analysis of WM tracts and, therefore, increases the accuracy and speed of the measurements

Intracranial Vertebral Artery Dissections: Evolving Perspectives

Intracranial vertebral artery dissection (VAD) represents the underlying etiology in a significant percentage of posterior circulation ischemic strokes and subarachnoid hemorrhages. These lesions are particularly challenging in their diagnosis, management, and in the prediction of long-term outcome. Advances in the understanding of underlying processes leading to dissection, as well as the evolution of modern imaging techniques are discussed. The data pertaining to medical management of intracranial VADs, with emphasis on anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents, is reviewed. Surgical intervention is discussed, including, the selection of operative candidates, open and endovascular procedures, and potential complications. The evolution of endovascular technology and techniques is highlighted

Radiomics and “radi-…omics” in cancer immunotherapy: a guide for clinicians

In recent years the concept of precision medicine has become a popular topic particularly in medical oncology. Besides the identification of new molecular prognostic and predictive biomarkers and the development of new targeted and immunotherapeutic drugs, imaging has started to play a central role in this new era. Terms such as “radiomics”, “radiogenomics” or “radi…-omics” are becoming increasingly common in the literature and soon they will represent an integral part of clinical practice. The use of artificial intelligence, imaging and “-omics” data can be used to develop models able to predict, for example, the features of the tumor immune microenvironment through imaging, and to monitor the therapeutic response beyond the standard radiological criteria. The aims of this narrative review are to provide a simplified guide for clinicians to these concepts, and to summarize the existing evidence on radiomics and “radi…-omics” in cancer immunotherapy.SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Design and Evaluation of Interaction Technology for Medical Team Meetings

Part 2: Long and Short PapersInternational audienceMulti-disciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) are essential in health-care, where medical specialists discuss diagnosis and treatment of patients. We introduce a prototype multi-display groupware system, intended to augment the discussions of medical imagery, through a range of input mechanisms, multi-user interfaces and interaction techniques on multi-touch devices and pen-based technologies. Observations of MDTMs, as well as interviews and observations of surgeons and radiologists, serve as a foundation for guidelines and a set of implemented techniques. We present a detailed analysis of a study where the techniques’ potential was explored with radiologists and surgeons of different specialties and varying expertise. The results show that the implemented technologies have the potential to bring numerous benefits to the team meetings with minimal modification to the current workflow. We discuss how they can augment the expressiveness and communication between meeting participants, facilitate understanding for novices, and improve remote collaboration

Spinal Cord Injury: How Can We Improve the Classification and Quantification of Its Severity and Prognosis?

The preservation of functional neural tissue after spinal cord injury (SCI) is the basis for spontaneous neurological recovery. Some injured patients in the acute phase have more potential for recovery than others. This fact is problematic for the construction of clinical trials because enrollment of subjects with variable recovery potential makes it difficult to detect effects, requires large sample sizes, and risks Type II errors. In addition, the current methods to assess injury and recovery are non-quantitative and not sensitive. It is likely that therapeutic combinations will be necessary to cause substantially improved function after SCI, thus we need highly sensitive techniques to evaluate changes in motor, sensory, autonomic and other functions. We review several emerging neurophysiological techniques with high sensitivity. Quantitative methods to evaluate residual tissue sparing after severe acute SCI have not entered widespread clinical use. This reduces the ability to correlate structural preservation with clinical outcome following SCI resulting in enrollment of subjects with varying patterns of tissue preservation and injury into clinical trials. We propose that the inclusion of additional measures of injury severity, pattern, and individual genetic characteristics may enable stratification in clinical trials to make the testing of therapeutic interventions more effective and efficient. New imaging techniques to assess tract injury and demyelination and methods to quantify tissue injury, inflammatory markers, and neuroglial biochemical changes may improve the evaluation of injury severity, and the correlation with neurological outcome, and measure the effects of treatment more robustly than is currently possible. The ability to test such a multimodality approach will require a high degree of collaboration between clinical and research centers and government research support. When the most informative of these assessments is determined, it may be possible to identify patients with substantial recovery potential, improve selection criteria and conduct more efficient clinical trials