Automatic Image Analysis and Recognition for Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment in Cardiac, Obstetrics and Radiology

Ultrasound image analysis and recognition techniques for improving workflow in diagnosis and treatment are introduced. Fully automatic techniques for applications of cardiac plane extraction, foetal weight measurement and ultrasound-CT image registration for liver surgery navigation are included. For standard plane extraction in 3D cardiac ultrasound, multiple cardiac landmarks defined in ultrasound cardiac examination guidelines are detected and localized by a Hough-forest-based detector, and by six standard cardiac planes, cardiac diagnosis is extracted following the guideline. For automatic foetal weight measurement, biparietal diameter (BPD), femur length (FL) and abdominal circumference (AC) are estimated by segmenting corresponding organs and regions from foetal ultrasound images. For ultrasound-CT liver image registration, initial alignment is obtained by localizing a corresponding portal vein branch from an intraoperative ultrasound and preoperative CT image pair. Then portal vein regions of the ultrasound-CT image pair are extracted by a machine learning method and are used for image registration

The dilemma of nurses in the field of lifesaving：Literature review

The purpose of this study was to clarify the dilemmas that nurses have in the field of lifesaving through a literature review in Japan. As a result of analysis and discussion, it was found that there are four aspects to the dilemma that nurses have: “dilemma of giving priority to lifesaving,” “dilemma of performing the role as a nurse in a team,” “dilemma of the difficulty of practicing nursing under severe conditions,” and “dilemma of confronting oneself. It was inferred that these four aspects were related to each other. In addition, these dilemmas have two characteristics: social conflicts felt in the organization and intra-individual conflicts felt in oneself. Dilemmas are not necessarily harmful, even moderate dilemmas have positive aspects of functioning. By examining and managing dilemmas embraced by nurses, it is suggested that dilemmas can lead to their technical and spiritual growth, their improvement in the quality of nursing, and ultimately their organizational development

The safety for drinking of hot spring hydrogen water

The safety for drinking of hot spring hydrogen water was examined for 27 healthy women. The research method was the crossover comparison examination of hot spring hydrogen water and tap water for four weeks. The blood cell count, liver function, kidney function, plasma lipids, and electrolytes were measured before and after drinking. Mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration significantly decreased after drinking of hot spring hydrogen water and tap water. The plasma total protein, blood urea nitrogen, and total cholesterol significantly decreased after drinking the hot spring hydrogen water. Other data showed no significant changes. These results suggested that the drinking of hot spring hydrogen water was almost safe