Segmentation of abdominal ultrasound images of the prostate using a priori information and an adapted noise filter.

This article discusses a method for the automatic segmentation of trans-abdominal ultrasound images of the prostate. Segmentation begins with the application of a filter to enhance the contours without modifying the image information. It combines adaptive morphological filtering and median filtering to detect the noise-containing regions and smooth them. A heuristic optimization algorithm searches for the contour initialized from a prostate model. The performance of the algorithm was tested by comparing the resulting contours with those obtained by manual segmentation. The average distance between the contours was 2.5 mm and the average coverage index was 93%.     

Photodynamic therapy and urothelial carcinoma

PurposePhotodynamic therapy (PDT) is an innovative therapeutic modality in urologic oncology.Material and methodsWe reviewed the current literature on principles and modalities of PDT in urothelial and penile oncology.ResultsPDT has been tested for the treatment recurrent superficial bladder tumors and in situ carcinoma. Carcinologic efficacy has been observed with first generation photosensitizer. The lack of selectivity for tumoral cells was responsible of serious adverse events. Development of selective photosensitizers has reduced the importance of side effects. Data concerning PDT for upper urinary tract urethra and carcinoma are still limited.ConclusionFirst PDT clinical applications in urothelial oncology have shown some effectiveness at the cost of significant morbidity. The development of selective photosensitizers should help to reduce side effects.     

Pre-therapy 18F-FDG PET quantitative parameters help in predicting the response to radioimmunotherapy in non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Purpose  

Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) is a new treatment option for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Response to RIT currently remains difficult to predict using conventional prognostic factors and could be refined using functional imaging. The goal of this work is to evaluate the value of ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) in predicting response to Yttrium 90-labeled monoclonal antibodies for patients with NHL.     

A method for paraplegic upper-body posture estimation during standing: a pilot study for rehabilitation purposes

This paper presents a contribution for restoring standing in paraplegia while using functional electrical stimulation (FES). Movement generation induced by FES remains mostly open looped and stimulus intensities are tuned empirically. To design an efficient closed-loop control, a preliminary study has been carried out to investigate the relationship between body posture and voluntary upper body movements. A methodology is proposed to estimate body posture in the sagittal plane using force measurements exerted on supporting handles during standing. This is done by setting up constraints related to the geometric equations of a two-dimensional closed chain model and the hand–handle interactions. All measured quantities are subject to an uncertainty assumed unknown but bounded. The set membership estimation problem is solved via interval analysis. Guaranteed uncertainty bounds are computed for the estimated postures. In order to test the feasibility of our methodology, experiments were carried out with complete spinal cord injured patients.

Corneal radius of curvature after anterior lamellar versus penetrating keratoplasty

Background

Keratoplasty may induce major spherical refractive error related to abnormal corneal radius of curvature (CRC).

Methods

Two hundred and thirty-eight consecutive eyes of 238 patients with clear graft and at least one postoperative Orbscan examination performed after suture removal (average follow-up time, 86 months) were retrospectively analyzed. Anterior lamellar keratoplasties (ALK group, n?=?119) and penetrating keratoplasties (PK group, n?=?119) were matched for preoperative diagnosis and lens status.

Results

The average postoperative, suture-out, Orbscan 3-mm CRC was 7.17 mm with a wide 95 % confidence interval [6.26 mm; 8.37 mm]. It was 7.05 mm in the ALK group and 7.31 mm in the PK group (p?<?0.01). In the ALK group, this figure was 7.00 mm for oversized grafts and 7.67 mm for non-oversized grafts (p?<?0.001). CRC values were significantly lower for eyes with keratoconus (7.00 mm) or stromal scar after infectious keratitis (7.06 mm) compared with stromal scar after trauma (7.74 mm) or stromal dystrophies (8.17 mm). Values were significantly lower for big-bubble ALKs (6.92 mm) and manual dissection-ALKs (7.14 mm) compared with PKs (7.31 mm) and microkeratome-assisted ALKs (7.45 mm). The average Orbscan 3-mm SimK cylinder, irregularity, and refractive power symmetry index were, respectively, 4.7 D/4.8 D/1.9 D for ALKs and 5.2 D/4.8 D/1.8 D for PKs (p?=?0.99).

Conclusions

The CRC is lower after ALK compared with PK, and features important variability. In eyes with ALK, non-oversized grafts result in postoperative CRC close to normal values and corneal diseases associated with stromal thinning and DALK result in lower postoperative CRC.     

Variation of chemical composition of essential oils in wild populations of Thymus algeriensis Boiss. et Reut., a North African endemic Species

Background

Thymus algeriensis is an endemic aromatic plant to Tunisia largely used in folk medicine and as a culinary herb. The bulks aromatic plants come from wild populations whose essential oils compositions as well as their biological properties are severely affected by the geographical location and the phase of the plant development. Therefore, the aim of the present work is to provide more information on the variation of essential oil composition of T. algeriensis collected during the vegetative and the flowering phases and from eight different geographical regions. Besides, influence of population location and phenological stage on yield and metal chelating activity of essential oils is also assessed.

Methods

The essential oil composition of Thymus algeriensis was determined mainly by GC/FID and GC/MS. The chemical differentiation among populations performed on all compounds was assessed by linear discriminate analysis and cluster analysis based on Euclidean distance.

Results

A total of 71 compounds, representing 88.99 to 99.76% of the total oil, were identified. A significant effect of the population location on the chemical composition variability of T. algeriensis oil was observed. Only 18 out of 71 compounds showed a statistically significant variation among population locations and phenological stages. Chemical differentiation among populations was high. Minor compounds play an important role to distinguish between chemical groups. Five chemotypes according to the major compounds have been distinguished. Chemotypes distribution is linked to the population location and not to bioclimate, indicating that local selective environmental factors acted on the chemotype diversity.

Conclusions

The major compounds at the species level were ??-pinene (7.41-13.94%), 1,8-cineole (7.55-22.07%), cis-sabinene hydrate (0.10-12.95%), camphor (6.8-19.93%), 4-terpineol (1.55-11.86%), terpenyl acetate (0-14.92%) and viridiflorol (0-11.49%). Based on major compounds, the populations were represented by (??-pinene/1,8-cineole/cis-sabinene hydrate/camphor/viridiflorol), (1,8-cineole/camphor/terpenyl acetate), (??-pinene/1,8-cineole/camphor), (1,8-cineole/camphor/4-terpineol) and (??-pinene/1,8-cineole/cis-sabinene hydrate/camphor/4-terpineol) chemotypes. Variation of phenological stage did not have a statistically significant effect on the yield and metal chelating activity of the essential oil. These results can be used to investigate the geographical location and the harvesting time of this plant for relevant industries.