Shape-aware surface reconstruction from sparse 3D point-clouds.

The reconstruction of an object's shape or surface from a set of 3D points plays an important role in medical image analysis, e.g. in anatomy reconstruction from tomographic measurements or in the process of aligning intra-operative navigation and preoperative planning data. In such scenarios, one usually has to deal with sparse data, which significantly aggravates the problem of reconstruction. However, medical applications often provide contextual information about the 3D point data that allow to incorporate prior knowledge about the shape that is to be reconstructed. To this end, we propose the use of a statistical shape model (SSM) as a prior for surface reconstruction. The SSM is represented by a point distribution model (PDM), which is associated with a surface mesh. Using the shape distribution that is modelled by the PDM, we formulate the problem of surface reconstruction from a probabilistic perspective based on a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). In order to do so, the given points are interpreted as samples of the GMM. By using mixture components with anisotropic covariances that are "oriented" according to the surface normals at the PDM points, a surface-based fitting is accomplished. Estimating the parameters of the GMM in a maximum a posteriori manner yields the reconstruction of the surface from the given data points. We compare our method to the extensively used Iterative Closest Points method on several different anatomical datasets/SSMs (brain, femur, tibia, hip, liver) and demonstrate superior accuracy and robustness on sparse data

Altered postural sway in patients suffering from non-specific neck pain and whiplash associated disorder - A systematic review of the literature

To assess differences in center of pressure (COP) measures in patients suffering from non-specific neck pain (NSNP) or whiplash-associated disorder (WAD) compared to healthy controls and any relationship between changes in postural sway and the presence of pain, its intensity, previous pain duration and the perceived level of disability. Summary of Background data: Over the past 20 years, the center of pressure (COP) has been commonly used as an index of postural stability in standing. While several studies investigated COP excursions in neck pain and WAD patients and compared these to healthy individuals, no comprehensive analysis of the reported differences in postural sway pattern exists. Search methods: Six online databases were systematically searched followed by a manual search of the retrieved papers. Selection Criteria: Papers comparing COP measures derived from bipedal static task conditions on a force plate of non-specific neck pain and WAD sufferers to those of healthy controls. Data collection and analysis: Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for relevance. Screening for final inclusion, data extraction and quality assessment were carried out with a third reviewer to reconcile differences

Early gene expression changes with rush immunotherapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To examine whether whole genome expression profiling could reveal changes in mRNA expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from allergic patients undergoing rush immunotherapy (RIT) that might be manifest within the first few months of treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>For this study, PBMC from three allergic patients undergoing RIT were assessed at four timepoints: prior to RIT, at 1 week and 7 week post-RIT, during build-up and at 4 months, after establishment of a maintenance dose. PBMC mRNA gene expression changes over time were determined by oligonucleotide microarrays using the Illumina Human-6 BeadChip Platform, which simultaneously interrogates expression profiles of > 47,000 transcripts. Differentially expressed genes were identified using well-established statistical analysis for microarrays. In addition, we analyzed peripheral blood basophil high-affinity IgE receptor (Fc epsilon RI) expression and T-regulatory cell frequency as detected by expression of CD3⁺CD4⁺CD25bright cells at each timepoint using flow cytometry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In comparing the initial 2 timepoints with the final 2 timepoints and analyzing for genes with ≥1.5-fold expression change (p less than or equal to 0.05, BH-FDR), we identified 507 transcripts. At a 2-fold change (p less than or equal to 0.05, BH-FDR), we found 44 transcripts. Of these, 28 were up-regulated and 16 were down-regulated genes. From these datasets, we have identified changes in immunologically relevant genes from both the innate and adaptive response with upregulation of expressed genes for molecules including IL-1β, IL-8, CD40L, BTK and BCL6. At the 4 month timepoint, we noted a downward trend in Fc epsilon RI expression in each of the three patients and increased allergen-specific IgG4 levels. No change was seen in the frequency of peripheral T-regulatory cells expressed over the four timepoints.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We observed significant changes in gene expression early in peripheral blood samples from allergic patients undergoing RIT. Moreover, serum levels for allergen specific IgG4 also increased over the course of treatment. These studies suggest that RIT induces rapid and dynamic alterations in both innate and adaptive immunity which can be observed in the periphery of allergic patients. These alterations could be directly related to the therapeutic shift in the allergen-specific class of immunoglobulin.</p

Acceleration of tissue phase mapping with sensitivity encoding at 3T

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of sensitivity encoding on the quantitative assessment of cardiac motion in black blood cine tissue phase mapping (TPM) sequences. Up to now whole volume coverage of the heart is still limited by the long acquisition times. Therefore, a significant increase in imaging speed without deterioration of quantitative motion information is indispensable.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>20 volunteers were enrolled in this study. Each volunteer underwent myocardial short-axis TPM scans with different SENSE acceleration factors. The influence of SENSE acceleration on the measured motion curves was investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It is demonstrated that all TPM sequences with SENSE acceleration have only minimum influence on the motion curves. Even with a SENSE factor of four, the decrease in the amplitude of the motion curve was less than 3%. No significant difference was observed for the global correlation coefficient and deviation between the motion curves obtained by the reproducibility and the SENSE accelerated measurements.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It is feasible to accelerate myocardial TPM measurements with SENSE factors up to 4 without losing substantial information of the motion pattern.</p

Minimizing the source of nociception and its concurrent effect on sensory hypersensitivity: An exploratory study in chronic whiplash patients

Abstract. Background. The cervical zygapophyseal joints may be a primary source of pain in up to 60% of individuals with chronic whiplash associated disorders (WAD) and may be a contributing factor for peripheral and centrally mediated pain (sensory hypersensitivity). Sensory hypersensitivity has been associated with a poor prognosis. The purpose of the study was to determine if there is a change in measures indicative of sensory hypersensitivity in patients with chronic WAD grade II following a medial branch block (MBB) procedure in the cervical spine. Methods. Measures of sensory hypersensitivity were taken via quantitative sensory testing (QST) consisting of pressure pain thresholds (PPT's) and cold pain thresholds (CPT's). In patients with chronic WAD (n = 18), the measures were taken at three sites bilaterally, pre- and post- MBB. Reduced pain thresholds at remote sites have been considered an indicator of central hypersensitivity. A healthy age and gender matched comparison group (n = 18) was measured at baseline. An independent t-test was applied to determine if there were any significant differences between the WAD and normative comparison groups at baseline with respect to cold pain and pressure pain thresholds. A dependent t-test was used to determine whether there were any significant differences between the pre and post intervention cold pain and pressure pain thresholds in the patients with chronic WAD. Results. At baseline, PPT's were decreased at all three sites in the WAD group (p < 0.001). Cold pain thresholds were increased in the cervical spine in the WAD group (p < 0.001). Post-MBB, the WAD group showed significant increases in PPT's at all sites (p < 0.05), and significant decreases in CPT's at the cervical spine (p < 0.001). Conclusions. The patients with chronic WAD showed evidence of widespread sensory hypersensitivity to mechanical and thermal stimuli. The WAD group revealed decreased sensory hypersensitivity following a decrease in their primary source of pain stemming from the cervical zygapophyseal joints

Biomimetic self-assembling copolymer-hydroxyapatite nanocomposites with the nanocrystal size controlled by citrate

Citrate binds strongly to the surface of calcium phosphate (apatite) nanocrystals in bone and is thought to prevent crystal thickening. In this work, citrate added as a regulatory element enabled molecular control of the size and stability of hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocrystals in synthetic nanocomposites, fabricated with self-assembling block copolymer templates. The decrease of the HAp crystal size within the polymer matrix with increasing citrate concentration was documented by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD), while the shapes of HAp nanocrystals were determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Advanced NMR techniques were used to characterize the interfacial species and reveal enhanced interactions between mineral and organic matrix, concomitant with the size effects. The surface-to-volume ratios determined by NMR spectroscopy and long-range 31P{1H} dipolar dephasing show that 2, 10, and 40 mM citrate changes the thicknesses of the HAp crystals from 4 nm without citrate to 2.9, 2.8, and 2.3 nm, respectively. With citrate concentrations comparable to those in body fluids, HAp nanocrystals of sizes and morphologies similar to those in avian and bovine bones have been produced