Low-Echo Sphere Phantoms and Methods for Assessing Imaging Performance of Medical Ultrasound Scanners

Tissue-mimicking phantoms and software for quantifying the ability of human observers to detect small low-echo spheres as a function of depth have been developed. Detectability is related to the imager's ability to delineate the boundary of a 3-D object such as a spiculated tumor. The phantoms accommodate a broad range of transducer shapes and sizes. Three phantoms are described: one with 2-mm-diameter spheres (for higher frequencies), one with 3.2-mm-diameter spheres (for lower frequencies) and one with 4-mm-diameter spheres (for lower frequencies). The spheres are randomly distributed in each phantom. The attenuation coefficients of spheres and surroundings are nearly identical; thus, compromising shadowing or enhancement distal to spheres does not occur. Reproducibility results are given for pairs of independent data sets involving eight different combinations of scanner, transducer and console settings. The following comparison results are also reported: (i) only the selected frequency differs; (ii) transducers and scan parameters are nearly the same but manufacturers differ; (iii) ordinary B-scanning, spatial compounding and tissue harmonic imaging are addressed. The phantoms and software promise to be valuable tools for scanning system and setup comparisons and for acceptance testing.     

2D projection-based software application for mobile C-arms optimises wire placement in the proximal femur – An experimental study

PurposeA new software application can be used without fixed reference markers or a registration process in wire placement. The aim was to compare placement of Kirschner wires (K-wires) into the proximal femur with the software application versus the conventional method without guiding. As study hypothesis, we assumed less placement attempts, shorter procedure time and shorter fluoroscopy time using the software. The same precision inside a proximal femur bone model using the software application was premised.MethodsThe software detects a K-wire within the 2D fluoroscopic image. By evaluating its direction and tip location, it superimposes a trajectory on the image, visualizing the intended direction of the K-wire. The K-wire was positioned in 20 artificial bones with the use of software by one surgeon; 20 bones served as conventional controls. A brass thumb tack was placed into the femoral head and its tip targeted with the wire. Number of placement attempts, duration of the procedure, duration of fluoroscopy time and distance to the target in a postoperative 3D scan were recorded.ResultsCompared with the conventional method, use of the application showed fewer attempts for optimal wire placement (p = 0.026), shorter duration of surgery (p = 0.004), shorter fluoroscopy time (p = 0.024) and higher precision (p = 0.018). Final wire position was achieved in the first attempt in 17 out of 20 cases with the software and in 9 out of 20 cases with the conventional method.ConclusionsThe study hypothesis was confirmed. The new application optimised the process of K-wire placement in the proximal femur in an artificial bone model while also improving precision. Benefits lie especially in the reduction of placement attempts and reduction of fluoroscopy time under the aspect of radiation protection. The software runs on a conventional image intensifier and can therefore be easily integrated into the daily surgical routine.     

A Health Surveillance Software Framework to deliver information on preventive healthcare strategies

A software framework can reduce costs related to the development of an application because it allows developers to reuse both design and code. Recently, companies and research groups have announced that they have been employing health software frameworks. This paper presents the design, proof-of-concept implementations and experimentation of the Health Surveillance Software Framework (HSSF). The HSSF is a framework that tackles the demand for the recommendation of surveillance information aiming at supporting preventive healthcare strategies. Examples of such strategies are the automatic recommendation of surveillance levels to patients in need of healthcare and the automatic recommendation of scientific literature that elucidates epigenetic problems related to patients. HSSF was created from two systems we developed in our previous work on health surveillance systems: the Automatic-SL and CISS systems. The Automatic-SL system aims to assist healthcare professionals in making decisions and in identifying children with developmental problems. The CISS service associates genetic and epigenetic risk factors related to chronic diseases with patient’s clinical records. Towards evaluating the HSSF framework, two new systems, CISS+ and CISS-SW, were created by means of abstractions and instantiations of the framework (design and code). We show that HSSF supported the development of the two new systems given that they both recommend scientific papers using medical records as queries even though they exploit different computational technologies. In an experiment using simulated patients’ medical records, we show that CISS, CISS+, and CISS-SW systems recommended more closely related and somewhat related documents than Google, Google Scholar and PubMed. Considering recall and precision measures, CISS+ surpasses CISS-SW in terms of precision.     

影像学文档及数据资料计算机管理系统(VMIS)

目的 :设计一套用于快速处理和管理各种影像学诊断文档信息和数据资料的计算机应用程序。方法 :利用影像学诊断的各种文档信息和数据资料 ,通过建立标准和实用的相关数据库的方法 ,采用 FOX数据库系统设计出适用于快速处理影像学诊断文档信息和数据资料的应用软件。结果 :该软件具有存储容量大、可备份保存、标准信息代码库及数据库等功能 ,适用于 CT或 MRI诊断的预约登记、检查申请和诊断报告的快速查询和检索、疾病分类快速检索和统计、诊断报告快速规范地打印、检查经费及日常管理工作量和综合信息的快速统计等工作。结论 :该软件系统采用全屏幕中文显示工作方式 ,操纵简便 ,信息处理和数据统计快速、准确 ,具有较高的实用价值和推广应用价值。     

个性化正畸牙弓形态计算机辅助设计软件的应用

目的：开发一个实用性的个性化正畸形牙弓形态学计算机辅助设计软件。方法：利用Ｐｅｎｔｉｕｍ３５０、１２８Ｍ计算机,在ＷＩＮＤＯＷＳ９８环境下用Ｂｏｒｌａｎｄ Ｄｅｐｐｈｉ ５．０语言进行研制、开发。结果：该系统具有①牙弓形态的预测以及间隙分析和计算,有利于提高诊断的准确性,治疗方案制定的合理性,以及疗效分析的客观性;②图文并茂的多媒体用户界面,提高了操作的人机互动性,提高了效率和准确性;③运用计算机     

构建中国男性青少年人体静态平衡能力的软件评价平台

以目前平衡能力测试技术、计算机软件编程为平台,构建适合中国男性少年平衡能力的评价体系及配套软件的平台。分别运用因子分析、探索性分析、离差评分等数理统计方法对测试数据进行统计学分析,建立14~18岁男性少年平衡能力评级体系。运用VC++6.0和VC++2005等计算机技术,解决从信息提取、指标细化、分析处理、模块构建、多目标参数融合等一系列关键问题。少年期静态平衡能力评价系统,让人体平衡能力的评价更加方便、更加快捷。     

结核病监测基本数据集标准的制定与验证

为适应新型结核病防治服务模式,指导各地结核病信息系统改造,中国疾病预防控制中心根据全民健康保障信息化工程建设的基本思路,顶层设计制定了结核病监测基本数据集。作者主要介绍结核病监测基本数据集的制定原则、基本结构、数据元标准、值域标准及基本数据集在实践中的验证。     

Orion: A Web-Based Application Designed to Monitor Resident and Fellow Performance On-Call

Radiology residency and fellowship training provides a unique opportunity to evaluate trainee performance and determine the impact of various educational interventions. We have developed a simple software application (Orion) using open-source tools to facilitate the identification and monitoring of resident and fellow discrepancies in on-call preliminary reports. Over a 6-month period, 19,200 on-call studies were interpreted by 20 radiology residents, and 13,953 on-call studies were interpreted by 25 board-certified radiology fellows representing eight subspecialties. Using standard review macros during faculty interpretation, each of these reports was classified as “agreement”, “minor discrepancy”, and “major discrepancy” based on the potential to impact patient management or outcome. Major discrepancy rates were used to establish benchmarks for resident and fellow performance by year of training, modality, and subspecialty, and to identify residents and fellows demonstrating a significantly higher major discrepancy rate compared with their classmates. Trends in discrepancies were used to identify subspecialty-specific areas of increased major discrepancy rates in an effort to tailor the didactic and case-based curriculum. A series of missed-case conferences were developed based on trends in discrepancies, and the impact of these conferences is currently being evaluated. Orion is a powerful information technology tool that can be used by residency program directors, fellowship programs directors, residents, and fellows to improve radiology education and training.