Diagnosing pulmonary thromboembolism: Concerns and controversies

Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is an important cause of mortality/morbidity even today despite advancement in clinical understanding as well as diagnostic facilities. Clinical diagnosis of PTE is often challenging because of nonspecific sign/symptoms. Adherence to clinical decision-making protocols and appropriate use of diagnostic modalities like computed tomography pulmonary angiography can resolve the diagnostic dilemma in most cases and help in the overall management of PTE. This article deals with various concerns as well as controversies surrounding accurate diagnosis of PTE as on date.     

Segmentation of CT Lung Images Using FCM with Active Contour and CNN Classifier

Objective: Lung cancer is one of the unsafe diseases for human which reduces the patient life time. Generally, most of the lung cancers are identified after it has been spread into the lung parts and moreover it is difficult to find the lung cancer at the early stage. It requires radiologist and special doctors to find the tumoral tissue of the lung cancer. For this reason, the recommended work helps to segment the tumoral tissue of CT lung image in an effective way. Methods:  The research work uses hybrid segmentation technique to separate the lung cancer cells to diagnose the lung tumour. It is a technique which combines active contour along with Fuzzy c means to diagnose the tumoral tissue. Further the segmented portion was trained by Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in order to classify the segmented region as normal or abnormal. Results: The evaluation of the proposed method was done by analyzing the results of test image with the ground truth image. Finally, the results of the implemented technique provided good accuracy, Peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), Mean Square Error (MSE) value. In future the other techniques can be utilized to improve the details before segmentation. The proposed work provides 96.67 % accuracy. Conclusion: Hybrid segmentation technique involves several steps like preprocessing, binarization, thresholding, segmentation and feature extraction using GLCM.     

Feasibility of a method for low contrast CT image quality assessment using difference detail curves for abdominal scans

This work describes a measurement method for assessing dose-related image-quality of CT scans based on the difference detail curve (DDC) method, and showcases its use in a low contrast setting. The method is based on a phantom consisting of elliptical slices of different sizes into which contrast object modules can be inserted. These modules contain contrast objects based on (synthetic) resin mixtures with sucrose (native) or sodium iodine (contrast medium). Mixing ratios are provided to achieve a range of clinically relevant CT-numbers with these materials. The phantom is characterized in terms of contrast accuracy, energy dependency and long-term drift with satisfying results. Contrast accuracy and energy dependency are similar to that of water or soft tissue. Image quality of 655 scans of the phantom acquired at 30 different clinical institutions and with 16 different CT scanner models from 4 manufacturers was assessed by calculating a difference detail curve (DDC) from evaluation of up to 5 human observers using a custom-made software (RadiVates) described in this work. Based on these measurements, inter-observer variability was quantified using a bootstrap method and was shown to be a large contributor to the overall variability. This work demonstrates that assessment of CT image quality is feasible with the aforementioned phantom and DDC method.     

Brachytherapy: An emblematic example of extreme hypofractionated regimen

In order to provide more convenient irradiation regimens for patient comfort, radiation facility organization and health expenses, new hypofractionated protocols have been evaluated. Moderately (dose/fraction: 2.3 to 3 Gy), then ultra (dose/fraction: 5.2 to 6.1 Gy) hypofractionated irradiations were first validated. The current question is: is it possible to go forward using extreme hypofractionated regimens (EHR) based on 1 to 3 fractions. Different irradiation techniques are under investigation. However, brachytherapy remains the smartest way to deliver a high dose in a small volume. We report prospective and retrospective study results which evaluated EHR for breast and prostate brachytherapy. While oncological outcome and toxicity profile appear extremely encouraging for low-risk breast cancer after a 1 to 4 fractions (6.25 to 20 Gy/fraction), the use of a single fraction of 19 to 23 Gy appears debatable for prostate cancer. Brachytherapy represents an emblematic example of EHR but longer follow-up and more mature results are awaited in order to specify the right indications and refine the EQD2 calculation method including new biological and technical factors.     

NEMA NU 2-2018标准在PET/CT系统性能测试中的作用评价

目的 评价美国国家电器制造协会(National Electrical Manufactures Association, NEMA)最新标准(NU 2-2018)在正电子发射型计算机断层显像/电子计算机断层显像(positron emission tomography/computed tomography, PET/CT)设备性能检测中的作用。 方法 依据最新的NEMA NU 2-2018标准,检测西门子Biograph Vision PET/CT的空间分辨率、灵敏度、散射分数、计数丢失、随机符合、飞行时间分辨率、计数丢失率和随机符合校正精度、图像质量、衰减和散射校正精度及PET与CT配准精度指标。 结果 距视野中心1 cm处横向和轴向空间分辨率分别为3.75 mm和3.76 mm;在视野中心和轴向10 cm处的灵敏度分别为16.83 kcps/MBq和16.67 kcps/MBq;放射性浓度为27.37 kBq/mL时,最大等效噪声计数率为258.26 kcps,散射分数为38.58%;系统时间分辨率为209.82 ps;图像质量模型的对比度恢复系数范围为88.9%~96.2%,背景变异系数范围为2.05%~6.80%,平均肺插件残余误差为2.43%;计数丢失和随机符合校正最大误差为3.9%;距离床板末端 5 cm 和 100 cm处,在距视野中心Y轴1 cm处,PET和CT的配准精度分别为0.46 mm和1.07 mm,在距视野中心X轴20 cm处,PET和CT的配准精度分别为1.06 mm和1.45 mm,在距视野中心Y轴20 cm处PET和CT的配准精度分别为0.85 mm和1.15 mm。 结论 NEMA NU 2-2018标准检测条件更加接近临床,能更好地反映PET/CT设备的系统性能。     

乙肝相关性肝癌临床病理学特征与高敏C反应蛋白和溶血磷脂酸表达的相关性

目的探讨乙肝相关性肝癌临床病理学特征与溶血磷脂酸(LPA)和高敏C反应蛋白(hs-CRP)表达的相关性。方法选取2019年1月至2020年1月间河南省驻马店市中心医院收治的198例乙肝相关性肝癌患者作为乙肝组,198例酒精相关性肝癌患者作为酒精组。两组患者都进行血清hs-CRP和LPA表达检测,调查患者的病理学特征并进行相关性分析。结果乙肝组患者血清hs-CRP和LPA含量均高于酒精组,差异均有统计学意义(均P <0.05)。两组患者血清ALP、AFP、ALT、AST和GGT含量比较,差异均无统计学意义(P> 0.05)。乙肝组不同临床分期和组织学分化患者的血清hs-CRP和LPA含量比较,差异均有统计学意义(均P <0.05)。乙肝组患者的临床分期和组织学分化与血清hs-CRP和LPA表达均存在相关性,差异均有统计学意义(均P <0.05)。患者的临床分期和组织学分化均为影响hs-CRP和LPA表达的重要因素,差异均有统计学意义(均P <0.05)。结论相对于酒精相关性肝癌,乙肝相关性肝癌的血清hs-CRP和LPA呈现高表达,与患者的临床病理学特征存在相关性。     

Enlarged high frequency oscillations of the median nerve somatosensory evoked potential and survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

ObjectiveA large N20 and P25 of the median nerve somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) predicts short survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We investigated whether high frequency oscillations (HFOs) over N20 are enlarged and associated with survival in ALS.MethodsA total of 145 patients with ALS and 57 healthy subjects were studied. We recorded the median nerve SEP and measured the onset-to-peak amplitude of N20 (N20o-p), and peak-to-peak amplitude between N20 and P25 (N20p-P25p). We obtained early and late HFO potentials by filtering SEP between 500 and 1 kHz, and measured the peak-to-peak amplitude. We followed up patients until endpoints (death or tracheostomy) and analyzed the relationship between SEP or HFO amplitudes and survival using a Cox analysis.ResultsPatients showed larger N20o-p, N20p-P25p, and early and late HFO amplitudes than the control values. N20p-P25p was associated with survival periods (p = 0.0004), while early and late HFO amplitudes showed no significant association with survival (p = 0.4307, and p = 0.6858, respectively).ConclusionsThe HFO amplitude in ALS is increased, but does not predict survival.SignificanceThe enlarged HFOs in ALS might be a compensatory phenomenon to the hyperexcitability of the sensory cortex pyramidal neurons.