Projection image-to-image translation in hybrid X-ray/MR imaging

The potential benefit of hybrid X-ray and MR imaging in the interventional environment is large due to the combination of fast imaging with high contrast variety. However, a vast amount of existing image enhancement methods requires the image information of both modalities to be present in the same domain. To unlock this potential, we present a solution to image-to-image translation from MR projections to corresponding X-ray projection images. The approach is based on a state-of-the-art image generator network that is modified to fit the specific application. Furthermore, we propose the inclusion of a gradient map in the loss function to allow the network to emphasize high-frequency details in image generation. Our approach is capable of creating X-ray projection images with natural appearance. Additionally, our extensions show clear improvement compared to the baseline method.Comment: In proceedings of SPIE Medical Imaging 201

Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Head Motion Using Epipolar Consistency

Open gantry C-arm systems that are placed within the interventional room enable 3-D imaging and guidance for stroke therapy without patient transfer. This can profit in drastically reduced time-totherapy, however, due to the interventional setting, the data acquisition is comparatively slow. Thus, involuntary patient motion needs to be estimated and compensated to achieve high image quality. Patient motion results in a misalignment of the geometry and the acquired image data. Consistency measures can be used to restore the correct mapping to compensate the motion. They describe constraints on an idealized imaging process which makes them also sensitive to beam hardening, scatter, truncation or overexposure. We propose a probabilistic approach based on the Student’s t-distribution to model image artifacts that affect the consistency measure without sourcing from motion

Potential health risks of complementary alternative medicines in cancer patients

Many cancer patients use complementary alternative medicines (CAMs) but may not be aware of the potential risks. There are no studies quantifying such risks, but there is some evidence of patient risk from case reports in the literature. A cross-sectional survey of patients attending the outpatient department at a specialist cancer centre was carried out to establish a pattern of herbal remedy or supplement use and to identify potential adverse side effects or drug interactions with conventional medicines. If potential risks were identified, a health warning was issued by a pharmacist. A total of 318 patients participated in the study. Of these, 164 (51.6%) took CAMs, and 133 different combinations were recorded. Of these, 10.4% only took herbal remedies, 42.1% only supplements and 47.6% a combination of both. In all, 18 (11.0%) reported supplements in higher than recommended doses. Health warnings were issued to 20 (12.2%) patients. Most warnings concerned echinacea in patients with lymphoma. Further warnings were issued for cod liver/fish oil, evening primrose oil, gingko, garlic, ginseng, kava kava and beta-carotene. In conclusion, medical practitioners need to be able to identify the potential risks of CAMs. Equally, patients should be encouraged to disclose their use. Also, more research is needed to quantify the actual health risks

The financialisation of rental housing: A comparative analysis of New York City and Berlin

This paper compares how recent waves of private equity real estate investment have reshaped the rental housing markets in New York and Berlin. Through secondary analysis of separate primary research projects, we explore financialisation’s impact on tenants, neighbourhoods, and urban space. Despite their contrasting market contexts and investor strategies, financialisation heightened existing inequalities in housing affordability and stability, and rearranged spaces of abandonment and gentrification in both cities. Conversely cities themselves also shaped the process of financialisation, with weakened rental protections providing an opening to transform affordable housing into a new global asset class. We also show how financialisation’s adaptability in the face of changing market conditions entails ongoing, but shifting processes of uneven development. Comparative studies of financialisation can help highlight geographically disparate, but similar exposures to this global process, thus contributing to a critical urban politics of finance that crosses boundaries of space, sector and scale