Vessel tractography using an intensity based tensor model with branch detection

In this paper, we present a tubular structure seg- mentation method that utilizes a second order tensor constructed from directional intensity measurements, which is inspired from diffusion tensor image (DTI) modeling. The constructed anisotropic tensor which is fit inside a vessel drives the segmen- tation analogously to a tractography approach in DTI. Our model is initialized at a single seed point and is capable of capturing whole vessel trees by an automatic branch detection algorithm developed in the same framework. The centerline of the vessel as well as its thickness is extracted. Performance results within the Rotterdam Coronary Artery Algorithm Evaluation framework are provided for comparison with existing techniques. 96.4% average overlap with ground truth delineated by experts is obtained in addition to other measures reported in the paper. Moreover, we demonstrate further quantitative results over synthetic vascular datasets, and we provide quantitative experiments for branch detection on patient Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) volumes, as well as qualitative evaluations on the same CTA datasets, from visual scores by a cardiologist expert

Vessel tractography using an intensity based tensor model

In this paper, we propose a novel tubular structure segmen- tation method, which is based on an intensity-based tensor that fits to a vessel. Our model is initialized with a single seed point and it is ca- pable of capturing whole vessel tree by an automatic branch detection algorithm. The centerline of the vessel as well as its thickness is extracted. We demonstrated the performance of our algorithm on 3 complex contrast varying tubular structured synthetic datasets for quantitative validation. Additionally, extracted arteries from 10 CTA (Computed Tomography An- giography) volumes are qualitatively evaluated by a cardiologist expert’s visual scores

An automatic branch and stenoses detection in computed tomography angiography

In this work, we present an automatic branch and stenoses de- tection method that is capable of detecting all types of plaques in Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) modality. Our method is based on the vessel extraction algorithm we pro- posed in [1], and detects branches and stenoses in a very fast way. We demonstrate the performance of our branch detection method on 3 complex tubular structured synthetic datasets for quantitative validation. Additionally, we show the preliminary results of stenoses detection algorithm on 11 CTA volumes, which are qualitatively evaluated by a cardiol- ogist expert

Urinary retention in male patient associated with aripiprazole

Urinary retention and / or voiding difficulty are a rare side effect caused by the second generation antipsychotics. Aripiprazole has a lower incidence of adverse effects than other second generation antipsychotics (SGA) and aripiprazole can be used as an alternative treatment on patients who have urinary retention depending on antipsychotic use. Although there are limited data in literature about the effect of aripiprazole on urinary retention, a case was encountered urinary retention with the use of antidepressants and aripiprazole together. Also there is only one case in the literature about urinary retention occurred with aripiprazole. Our case emerged urinary retention with the addition of aripiprazole while under treatment of paroxetine. Patients complaints have stopped with the discontinuation of aripiprazole and never emerged under treatment of paroxetine and risperidone. We aimed to contribute this case because there is limited data in literature about this subject. As a result, adrenergic, cholinergic, serotonergic, dopaminergic and histaminergic pathways have role on control of micturition but it is not clear that on which pathway aripiprazole acts on urination. However there is no symptom of urinary retention after stopping aripiprazole and adding risperidone, shows that there is a different mechanism associated with voiding in this case. Additional studies need to be done to clarify the mechanism. [Med-Science 2016; 5(4.000): 1040-2

Higher order tensor-based segmentation and n-furcation modeling of vascular structures

A new vascular structure segmentation method, which is based on a cylindrical flux-based higher order tensor (HOT), is presented. On a vessel structure, HOT naturally models branching points, which create challenges for vessel segmentation algorithms. In a general linear HOT model, embedded in 3D, one has to work with an even order tensor due to an enforced antipodal-symmetry on the unit sphere in 3D. However, in scenarios such as in a bifurcation, the antipodally-symmetric tensor models of even order will not be useful. In order to overcome that limitation, we embed the tensor in 4D and obtain a structure that can model asymmetric junction scenarios. Thus, we will demonstrate a seed-based vessel segmentation algorithm, which exploits a 3rd or 4th order tensor constructed in 4D. We validate the algorithm on both synthetic complex vascular structures as well as real coronary artery datasets of the Rotterdam Coronary Artery Algorithm Evaluation framework

Severe major depression: a case of neurobrucellosis

Neurobrucellosis (NB) is a rare complication seen in 2-7% of brucellosis cases. Nervous system involvement can cause many neurological and psychiatric disorders and symptoms such as encephalitis, meningoencephalitis, myelitis/myelopathy, spinal epidural abscess, pseudotumor cerebri, Parkinsonism, dementia, neuropathies, subarachnoid hemorrhage, depression, agitation, psychosis, personality disorder, euphoria, and nightmares. These varied manifestations make the diagnosis difficult. We present a case admitted for severe major depression and radiculopathy where the patient recovered rapidly with antibiotherapy. [Med-Science 2017; 6(1.000): 178-9

Targeted Vessel Reconstruction in Non-Contrast-Enhanced Steady-State Free Precession Angiography

Image quality in non-contrast-enhanced (NCE) angiograms is often limited by scan time constraints. An effective solution is to undersample angiographic acquisitions and to recover vessel images with penalized reconstructions. However, conventional methods leverage penalty terms with uniform spatial weighting, which typically yield insufficient suppression of aliasing interference and suboptimal blood/background contrast. Here we propose a two-stage strategy where a tractographic segmentation is employed to auto-extract vasculature maps from undersampled data. These maps are then used to incur spatially adaptive sparsity penalties on vascular and background regions. In vivo steady-state free precession angiograms were acquired in the hand, lower leg and foot. Compared with regular non-adaptive compressed sensing (CS) reconstructions (CSlow), the proposed strategy improves blood/background contrast by 71.3 +/- 28.9% in the hand (mean +/- s.d. across acceleration factors 1-8), 30.6 +/- 11.3% in the lower leg and 28.1 +/- 7.0% in the foot (signed-rank test, P<0.05 at each acceleration). The proposed targeted reconstruction can relax trade-offs between image contrast, resolution and scan efficiency without compromising vessel depiction. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Wo

Asymmetric Orientation Distribution Functions (AODFs) revealing intravoxel geometry in diffusion MRI

Characterization of anisotropy via diffusion MRI reveals fiber crossings in a substantial portion of voxels within the white-matter (WM) regions of the human brain. A considerable number of such voxels could exhibit asymmetric features such as bends and junctions. However, widely employed reconstruction methods yield symmetric Orientation Distribution Functions (ODFs) even when the underlying geometry is asymmetric. In this paper, we employ inter-voxel directional filtering approaches through a cone model to reveal more information regarding the cytoarchitectural organization within the voxel. The cone model facilitates a sharpening of the ODFs in some directions while suppressing peaks in other directions, thus yielding an Asymmetric ODF (AODF) field. We also show that a scalar measure of AODF asymmetry can be employed to obtain new contrast within the human brain. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated on in vivo data obtained from the MGH-USC Human Connectome Project (HCP) and Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) Project database. Characterizing asymmetry in neural tissue cytoarchitecture could be important for localizing and quantitatively assessing specific neuronal pathways

A National Registry of Thalassemia in Turkey: Demographic and Disease Characteristics of Patients, Achievements, and Challenges in Prevention

WOS: 000426572200002PubMed ID: 28404539Objective: The Turkish Society of Pediatric Hematology set up a National Hemoglobinopathy Registry to demonstrate the demographic and disease characteristics of patients and assess the efficacy of a hemoglobinopathy control program (HCP) over 10 years in Turkey. Materials and Methods: A total of 2046 patients from 27 thalassemia centers were registered, of which 1988 were eligible for analysis. This cohort mainly comprised patients with beta-thalassemia major (n = 1658, 83.4%) and intermedia (n = 215, 10.8%). Results: The majority of patients were from the coastal areas of Turkey. The high number of patients in Southeastern Anatolia was due to that area having the highest rates of consanguineous marriage and fertility. The most common 11 mutations represented 90% of all beta-thalassemia alleles and 47% of those were IVS1-110(G->A) mutations. The probability of undergoing splenectomy within the first 10 years of life was 20%, a rate unchanged since the 1980s. Iron chelators were administered as monotherapy regimens in 95% of patients and deferasirox was prescribed in 81.3% of those cases. Deferasirox administration was the highest (93.6%) in patients aged <10 years. Of the thalassemia major patients, 5.8% had match-related hemopoietic stem cell transplantation with a success rate of 77%. Cardiac disease was detected as a major cause of death and did not show a decreasing trend in 5-year cohorts since 1999. Conclusion: While the HCP has been implemented since 2003, the affected births have shown a consistent decrease only after 2009, being at lowest 34 cases per year. This program failure resulted from a lack of premarital screening in the majority of cases. Additional problems were unawareness of the risk and misinformation of the at-risk couples. In addition, prenatal diagnosis was either not offered to or was not accepted by the at-risk families. This study indicated that a continuous effort is needed for optimizing the management of thalassemia and the development of strategies is essential for further achievements in the HCP in Turkey.Ege Children's Foundation; Novartis Pharmaceuticals CorporationNovartisThe authors thank Caglar Serdar, Aylin Gokduman, and Tolga Turgay of Plexus Information Technologies for their website support. The current study and the work presented here are from an Investigator Initiated Trial, which was sponsored by the Ege Children's Foundation and funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation