Design, tuning and performance evaluation of an automated pulmonary nodule detection system

Radiologists miss about 25-30% of all pulmonary nodules smaller than 1.0 cm. in mass screenings. A system for the automated detection of the pulmonary nodule based on that of Hallard has been designed, tuned, and tested on a 43 chest radiographs [Ballard, 1973). The goal of this system is to aid the radiologist in locating a pulmonary nodule by indicating a few sites in the radiograph that are most likely to be nodules. Computer image analysis programs that respond to specific types of anatomic features have been devised and are incorporated in a pattern recognizer, which uses linear discriminant analysis to classify the candidate nodule sites. Candidate nodule sites that are not classified as nodules are eliminated from the list of sites that are presented to the radiologist for inspection. The pattern recognizer was trained with the features from 2750 candidate nodules, which came from 37 films and another pattern recognizer was trained with the features from 402 candidate nodules from 9 films. This research demonstrates that pattern recognition techniques and procedurally driven image experts are capable of reducing the number of candidate nodule sites that a radiologist must inspect from at most 12 to at most 4 if he is to be 99% confident of having inspected any nodule detected by the system which was trained with 37 films. The radiologist must be willing to accept a film true positive rate of 88% (as opposed to a film true positive rate of 92%) for the convenience of having fewer points to inspect. These film true positive rates are derived from 37 films which contain nodules that were evaluated by the system. The particular contributions of this work lies in the implementation and testing of a spline filter, a preprocessing step, which removes background variations in the radiograph so that nodules are more visible; the development of Vascularity and Rib Experts which recognize these classes of candidate nodules; and in die implementation of the particular features that are extracted from the candidate nodule and used by the pattern classifier

Zwillingsgeburten in einer fleckvieh-fleischrinderherde

International audienc

Genetic influences of the intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) gene polymorphisms in development of Type 1 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy

AIM: The intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) gene is located on chromosome 19p13, which is linked to Type 1 diabetes (T1D). ICAM-1 expression is related to development of T1D and diabetic nephropathy. The present study aims to evaluate the genetic influence of ICAM-1 gene polymorphisms on the development of T1D and diabetic nephropathy. METHODS: Five valid single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in 432 T1D patients (196 patients had diabetic nephropathy) and 187 non-diabetic control subjects by using dynamic allele-specific hybridization (DASH) and pyrosequencing. RESULTS: SNPs rs281432(C/G) and rs5498 E469K(A/G) had high heterozygous indexes. They were significantly associated with T1D [P = 0.026, OR = 1.644 (95% CI 1.138–2.376) and P < 0.001, OR = 2.456 (1.588–3.8)]. Frequencies of the C allele in SNP rs281432(C/G) and the A allele in SNP rs5498 E469K(A/G) increased stepwise from non-diabetic control subjects to T1D patients without diabetic nephropathy and T1D patients with diabetic nephropathy. Further analysis for these two SNPs indicated that T1D patients had increased frequency of the common haplotype C-A, in comparison with non-diabetic control subjects (38.1 vs. 32.1%, P = 0.035). CONCLUSION: The present study provided evidence that SNPs rs281432(C/G) and rs5498 E469K(A/G) in the ICAM-1 gene confer susceptibility to the development of T1D and might also be associated with diabetic nephropathy in Swedish Caucasians

Evidence of increased islet cell proliferation in patients with recent-onset type 1 diabetes.

addresses: Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Science, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (University of Exeter), Tamar Science Park, Derriford, Plymouth, UK.The final publication is available at link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00125-010-1817-6In adults, the rate of beta cell replication is normally very low, but recent evidence suggests that it may increase during insulitis. We therefore studied tissue from donors with recent-onset type 1 diabetes to establish whether islet cell proliferation is increased during the disease process