DEVELOPING NOVEL COMPUTER-AIDED DETECTION AND DIAGNOSIS SYSTEMS OF MEDICAL IMAGES

Reading medical images to detect and diagnose diseases is often difficult and has large inter-reader variability. To address this issue, developing computer-aided detection and diagnosis (CAD) schemes or systems of medical images has attracted broad research interest in the last several decades. Despite great effort and significant progress in previous studies, only limited CAD schemes have been used in clinical practice. Thus, developing new CAD schemes is still a hot research topic in medical imaging informatics field. In this dissertation, I investigate the feasibility of developing several new innovative CAD schemes for different application purposes. First, to predict breast tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and reduce unnecessary aggressive surgery, I developed two CAD schemes of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to generate quantitative image markers based on quantitative analysis of global kinetic features. Using the image marker computed from breast MRI acquired pre-chemotherapy, CAD scheme enables to predict radiographic complete response (CR) of breast tumors to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, while using the imaging marker based on the fusion of kinetic and texture features extracted from breast MRI performed after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, CAD scheme can better predict the pathologic complete response (pCR) of the patients. Second, to more accurately predict prognosis of stroke patients, quantifying brain hemorrhage and ventricular cerebrospinal fluid depicting on brain CT images can play an important role. For this purpose, I developed a new interactive CAD tool to segment hemorrhage regions and extract radiological imaging marker to quantitatively determine the severity of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage at presentation and correlate the estimation with various homeostatic/metabolic derangements and predict clinical outcome. Third, to improve the efficiency of primary antibody screening processes in new cancer drug development, I developed a CAD scheme to automatically identify the non-negative tissue slides, which indicate reactive antibodies in digital pathology images. Last, to improve operation efficiency and reliability of storing digital pathology image data, I developed a CAD scheme using optical character recognition algorithm to automatically extract metadata from tissue slide label images and reduce manual entry for slide tracking and archiving in the tissue pathology laboratories. In summary, in these studies, we developed and tested several innovative approaches to identify quantitative imaging markers with high discriminatory power. In all CAD schemes, the graphic user interface-based visual aid tools were also developed and implemented. Study results demonstrated feasibility of applying CAD technology to several new application fields, which has potential to assist radiologists, oncologists and pathologists improving accuracy and consistency in disease diagnosis and prognosis assessment of using medical image

Carbon Dating Analysis of Manuscripts Kept in the Central Library of the University of Tehran

Objective: This paper will present and analyzes the results of the carbon dating campaign carried out in the project “Irankoran” at the Central Library of the University of Tehran (hereafter, CLUT). During the last years, the project “Corpus Coranicum” has undertaken systematic approaches for dating (mostly Qur’anic) manuscripts by the analysis of carbon dating with its focus on the first millennium. Manuscripts presented here consist of one quiet old fragment of the Qur'ān on parchment dated before the year 1000 CE and a selection of precious and diverse manuscripts from Iranian and Islamic heritage, including the Arabic dictionary Muǧmal al-Luġah, the medical Encyclopaedia Ḏaḫīra-ye Khwārazmšāhī, the poetry Panǧ Ganǧ of Neẓāmī, Ādāb al-Falāsifah attributed to Syriac scholar Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq (d. 873 CE), and one of the oldest versions of the Avesta Wīdēwdād. Methods: Since the dates of these documents have been the subject of discussions and disputes among philologists and scholars, the results of the carbon dating analysis presented here can help us enhance our understanding of the history of these manuscripts. Results: The results of the carbon dating of the selected objects clearly show that, with the exception of the Ādāb al-Falāsifah, the authenticity of its date had been already doubted by the specialists of the field manuscript studies, the colophons of other manuscripts, even in cases where they were suspected of being tampered with, present most likely the accurate original dates of the corresponding manuscripts. Conclusions: Thus, the current carbon dating results offer perspectives on documents mainly from the second millennium

BreastScreening: On the Use of Multi-Modality in Medical Imaging Diagnosis

This paper describes the field research, design and comparative deployment of a multimodal medical imaging user interface for breast screening. The main contributions described here are threefold: 1) The design of an advanced visual interface for multimodal diagnosis of breast cancer (BreastScreening); 2) Insights from the field comparison of single vs multimodality screening of breast cancer diagnosis with 31 clinicians and 566 images, and 3) The visualization of the two main types of breast lesions in the following image modalities: (i) MammoGraphy (MG) in both Craniocaudal (CC) and Mediolateral oblique (MLO) views; (ii) UltraSound (US); and (iii) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). We summarize our work with recommendations from the radiologists for guiding the future design of medical imaging interfaces.Comment: AVI 2020 Short Papers, 5 pages, 2 figures, for associated files, see https://github.com/MIMBCD-UI/avi-2020-short-pape

The Impact of Healthcare Reform Plan on the Rate of Vaginal Delivery and Cesarean Section in Shiraz (Iran) in 2015

Abstract Introduction: The uncontrolled increase in the rate of cesarean section is one of the most controversial issues, and is a primary challenge among health policy makers. This study was conducted to examine the impact of the Iranian health evolution plan on vaginal delivery rate and cesarean section. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2014. Maternal health data for 2013 and 2014 were used in this study and changes in vaginal delivery and cesarean section were compared before and after the reform, using t-test and Wilkinson test. Results: According to the findings of this study, 64.7% of deliveries in 2013 were performed using cesarean section while it was 58.6% in 2014 (p= 0.772), of which no significant changes were observed. In addition, the percentage of vaginal delivery in 2013 and 2014 were 35.3% and 41.4% respectively (p= 0.00), so a significant increase was found for vaginal delivery. Conclusion: Healthcare reform has led to an increase in the number of vaginal deliveries in hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS). Due to the limited number of hospitals adhering to the healthcare reform plan to increase vaginal delivery (using private midwife and implementing painless delivery), the reform for decreasing the cesarean rate was not effective enoug

Radiocarbon Dating Of Manuscripts Kept In The Central Library Of The University Of Tehran

This article discusses radiocarbon dating results of documents preserved at the Central Library of the University of Tehran (hereafter, CLUT) as part of the project "Irankoran." The paper adds new evidence to an ongoing campaign of dating Qur'ans and Oriental manuscripts by the Corpus Coranicum Project. The dated manuscripts include one kufi fragment of the Qur'an on parchment (no. 10950) and a selection of Islamic and Persian manuscripts, all from the second millennium: the Arabic dictionary Mugmal al-Lugah (Meskat no. 203), the medical encyclopedia Dahirah-ye Kh(w)arazmsahi (no. 5156), the epic Pang Gang of Nezami (no. 5179), the book of wisdom Adab al-Falasifah (no. 2165) attributed to Hunayn b. Ishaq (d. 873 CE), and one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Avesta Widewdad (no. 11263). Although the authenticity of their colophons is disputed, radiocarbon dating supports the dates of the colophons; even in cases where they were suspected of being tampered with, they most likely present the accurate original dates of the corresponding manuscripts. Only in the case of Adab al-Falasifah (no. 2165), radiocarbon dating of the parchment has identified the manuscript as non-authentic. Inconsistent carbon dating results of two samples taken from Dahirah-ye Khwarazmsahi (no. 5156) and Pang Gang (no. 5179) provide evidence of later replaced/added leaves.ISSN:0033-822