Current Medical Imaging - Volume 10, Issue 4, 2014

Extended-Field-of-View (EFOV) ultrasound (US) generates panoramic ultrasound images based on a procedure of image registration applied to a sequence of collected 2D B-scans. In order to improve the imaging accuracy, we propose a novel image registration method combining scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) and random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm for the EFOV sonography. Meanwhile, due to the l Read More

Advances in muscle imaging have led to an increasing number of studies relating non-invasive measurements of muscle-tendon complex architecture parameters. Ultrasonagraphy has been shown to be a feasible method to measure muscle morphological changes after neurological diseases such as stroke, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injury, thus, may help to enhance the understanding of the mechanism underlyi Read More

Body weight support treadmill training (BWSTT) can improve motor function of lower limb in stroke patients, but it is not clear the underlying biomechanical contributors to these improvements. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes of thigh muscle architecture parameters after stroke and compare the effect of BWSTT and traditional walking training at muscle fascicle level by using ultrasonography. This stu Read More

Since tendons store and release elastic energy, changes in tendon length are important in the performance of human movements. Various methods have been used for evaluating changes in the Achilles tendon length in both static and dynamic conditions. However, thus far, a direct measurement of changes in the Achilles tendon length during dynamic movements has not been performed. In this review article, we di Read More

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive musculoskeletal disease which leads to chronic pain and functional impairment of the involved joint and negatively affects life quality. Degeneration of articular cartilage is one of main OA changes at tissue level. Quantitative ultrasound imaging (QUI) has been developed as a potential technique for evaluation of cartilage quality and diagnosis of OA. The aims of this study are to quantit Read More

The aim of this study is to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic value of 320-slice coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease when compared to invasive coronary angiography. A search of different databases was conducted to identify studies investigating the diagnostic value of 320-slice coronary CT angiography. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and Read More

Invention of diffusion imaging has empowered the neuro-scientists with maps of microscopic structural information that could be taken in vivo. Different diffusion models have been proposed since the inception of the diffusion tensor imaging. Diffusion models have been mainly used for visualizing the brain tissues as precise as possible. However, information about underlying structure of the fiber structures is required fo Read More

In recent years a great work of the research in the field of medical imaging was focused on the brain tumor segmentation. In this paper, a novel region based active contour model for Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) brain tumor segmentation based on a level set origination is proposed and implemented. The image intensities are explained based on the Gaussian distributions through diverse means and variances. The at Read More

The study of optospectral techniques for the non-invasive, in vivo diagnosis of skin diseases has intensified in the last years. Optical diagnosis methods have already started to prove their ability to reveal specific skin functions and to identify skin lesions and their various stages, allowing for the early diagnosis of skin diseases and monitoring of their treatments. At the moment, these techniques have great inter and intra-pati Read More