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GinJinn: An object-detection pipeline for automated feature extraction from herbarium specimens
(2020)
PREMISE:
The generation of morphological data in evolutionary, taxonomic, and ecological studies of plants using herbarium material has traditionally been a labor-intensive task. Recent progress in machine learning using deep artificial neural networks (deep learning) for image classification and object detection has facilitated the establishment of a pipeline for the automatic recognition and extraction of relevant structures in images of herbarium specimens.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
We implemented an extendable pipeline based on state-of-the-art deep-learning object-detection methods to collect leaf images from herbarium specimens of two species of the genus Leucanthemum. Using 183 specimens as the training data set, our pipeline extracted one or more intact leaves in 95% of the 61 test images.
CONCLUSIONS:
We establish GinJinn as a deep-learning object-detection tool for the automatic recognition and extraction of individual leaves or other structures from herbarium specimens. Our pipeline offers greater flexibility and a lower entrance barrier than previous image-processing approaches based on hand-crafted features.
Background and aims
Celiac disease with its endoscopic manifestation of villous atrophy is underdiagnosed worldwide. The application of artificial intelligence (AI) for the macroscopic detection of villous atrophy at routine esophagogastroduodenoscopy may improve diagnostic performance.
Methods
A dataset of 858 endoscopic images of 182 patients with villous atrophy and 846 images from 323 patients with normal duodenal mucosa was collected and used to train a ResNet 18 deep learning model to detect villous atrophy. An external data set was used to test the algorithm, in addition to six fellows and four board certified gastroenterologists. Fellows could consult the AI algorithm’s result during the test. From their consultation distribution, a stratification of test images into “easy” and “difficult” was performed and used for classified performance measurement.
Results
External validation of the AI algorithm yielded values of 90 %, 76 %, and 84 % for sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, respectively. Fellows scored values of 63 %, 72 % and 67 %, while the corresponding values in experts were 72 %, 69 % and 71 %, respectively. AI consultation significantly improved all trainee performance statistics. While fellows and experts showed significantly lower performance for “difficult” images, the performance of the AI algorithm was stable.
Conclusion
In this study, an AI algorithm outperformed endoscopy fellows and experts in the detection of villous atrophy on endoscopic still images. AI decision support significantly improved the performance of non-expert endoscopists. The stable performance on “difficult” images suggests a further positive add-on effect in challenging cases.
Einleitung Die Endoskopische Retrograde Cholangiopankreatikographie (ERCP) ist der Goldstandard in der Diagnostik und Therapie von Erkrankungen des pankreatobiliären Trakts. Jedoch ist sie technisch sehr anspruchsvoll und weist eine vergleichsweise hohe Komplikationsrate auf.
Ziele
In der vorliegenden Machbarkeitsstudie soll geprüft werden, ob mithilfe eines Deep-learning-Algorithmus die Papille und das Ostium zuverlässig detektiert werden können und somit für Endoskopiker mit geringer Erfahrung ein geeignetes Hilfsmittel, insbesondere für die Ausbildungssituation, darstellen könnten.
Methodik
Wir betrachteten insgesamt 606 Bilddatensätze von 65 Patienten. In diesen wurde sowohl die Papilla duodeni major als auch das Ostium segmentiert. Anschließend wurde eine neuronales Netz mittels eines Deep-learning-Algorithmus trainiert. Außerdem erfolgte eine 5-fache Kreuzvaldierung.
Ergebnisse
Bei einer 5-fachen Kreuzvaldierung auf den 606 gelabelten Daten konnte für die Klasse Papille eine F1-Wert von 0,7908, eine Sensitivität von 0,7943 und eine Spezifität von 0,9785 erreicht werden, für die Klasse Ostium eine F1-Wert von 0,5538, eine Sensitivität von 0,5094 und eine Spezifität von 0,9970 (vgl. [Tab. 1]). Unabhängig von der Klasse zeigte sich gemittelt (Klasse Papille und Klasse Ostium) ein F1-Wert von 0,6673, eine Sensitivität von 0,6519 und eine Spezifität von 0,9877 (vgl. [Tab. 2]).
Schlussfolgerung
In vorliegende Machbarkeitsstudie konnte das neuronale Netz die Papilla duodeni major mit einer hohen Sensitivität und sehr hohen Spezifität identifizieren. Bei der Detektion des Ostiums war die Sensitivität deutlich geringer. Zukünftig soll das das neuronale Netz mit mehr Daten trainiert werden. Außerdem ist geplant, den Algorithmus auch auf Videos anzuwenden. Somit könnte langfristig ein geeignetes Hilfsmittel für die ERCP etabliert werden.
Aims
VA is an endoscopic finding of celiac disease (CD), which can easily be missed if pretest probability is low. In this study, we aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for the detection of villous atrophy on endoscopic images.
Methods
858 images from 182 patients with VA and 846 images from 323 patients with normal duodenal mucosa were used for training and internal validation of an AI algorithm (ResNet18). A separate dataset was used for external validation, as well as determination of detection performance of experts, trainees and trainees with AI support. According to the AI consultation distribution, images were stratified into “easy” and “difficult”.
Results
Internal validation showed 82%, 85% and 84% for sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. External validation showed 90%, 76% and 84%. The algorithm was significantly more sensitive and accurate than trainees, trainees with AI support and experts in endoscopy. AI support in trainees was associated with significantly improved performance. While all endoscopists showed significantly lower detection for “difficult” images, AI performance remained stable.
Conclusions
The algorithm outperformed trainees and experts in sensitivity and accuracy for VA detection. The significant improvement with AI support suggests a potential clinical benefit. Stable performance of the algorithm in “easy” and “difficult” test images may indicate an advantage in macroscopically challenging cases.
Forschung 2019
(2019)
Aims
Human-computer interactions (HCI) may have a relevant impact on the performance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Studies show that although endoscopists assessing Barrett’s esophagus (BE) with AI improve their performance significantly, they do not achieve the level of the stand-alone performance of AI. One aspect of HCI is the impact of AI on the degree of certainty and confidence displayed by the endoscopist. Indirectly, diagnostic confidence when using AI may be linked to trust and acceptance of AI. In a BE video study, we aimed to understand the impact of AI on the diagnostic confidence of endoscopists and the possible correlation with diagnostic performance.
Methods
22 endoscopists from 12 centers with varying levels of BE experience reviewed ninety-six standardized endoscopy videos. Endoscopists were categorized into experts and non-experts and randomly assigned to assess the videos with and without AI. Participants were randomized in two arms: Arm A assessed videos first without AI and then with AI, while Arm B assessed videos in the opposite order. Evaluators were tasked with identifying BE-related neoplasia and rating their confidence with and without AI on a scale from 0 to 9.
Results
The utilization of AI in Arm A (without AI first, with AI second) significantly elevated confidence levels for experts and non-experts (7.1 to 8.0 and 6.1 to 6.6, respectively). Only non-experts benefitted from AI with a significant increase in accuracy (68.6% to 75.5%). Interestingly, while the confidence levels of experts without AI were higher than those of non-experts with AI, there was no significant difference in accuracy between these two groups (71.3% vs. 75.5%). In Arm B (with AI first, without AI second), experts and non-experts experienced a significant reduction in confidence (7.6 to 7.1 and 6.4 to 6.2, respectively), while maintaining consistent accuracy levels (71.8% to 71.8% and 67.5% to 67.1%, respectively).
Conclusions
AI significantly enhanced confidence levels for both expert and non-expert endoscopists. Endoscopists felt significantly more uncertain in their assessments without AI. Furthermore, experts with or without AI consistently displayed higher confidence levels than non-experts with AI, irrespective of comparable outcomes. These findings underscore the possible role of AI in improving diagnostic confidence during endoscopic assessment.
Effect of AI on performance of endoscopists to detect Barrett neoplasia: A Randomized Tandem Trial
()
Background and study aims
To evaluate the effect of an AI-based clinical decision support system (AI) on the performance and diagnostic confidence of endoscopists during the assessment of Barrett's esophagus (BE).
Patients and Methods
Ninety-six standardized endoscopy videos were assessed by 22 endoscopists from 12 different centers with varying degrees of BE experience.
The assessment was randomized into two video sets: Group A (review first without AI and second with AI) and group B (review first with AI and second without AI). Endoscopists were required to evaluate each video for the presence of Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia (BERN) and then decide on a spot for a targeted biopsy. After the second assessment, they were allowed to change their clinical decision and confidence level.
Results
AI had a standalone sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 92.2%, 68.9%, and 81.6%, respectively. Without AI, BE experts had an overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 83.3%, 58.1 and 71.5%, respectively. With AI, BE nonexperts showed a significant improvement in sensitivity and specificity when videos were assessed a second time with AI (sensitivity 69.7% (95% CI, 65.2% - 74.2%) to 78.0% (95% CI, 74.0% - 82.0%); specificity 67.3% (95% CI, 62.5% - 72.2%) to 72.7% (95 CI, 68.2% - 77.3%). In addition, the diagnostic confidence of BE nonexperts improved significantly with AI.
Conclusion
BE nonexperts benefitted significantly from the additional AI. BE experts and nonexperts remained below the standalone performance of AI, suggesting that there may be other factors influencing endoscopists to follow or discard AI advice.
The endoscopic features associated with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) may be missed during routine endoscopy. We aimed to develop and evaluate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm for detecting and quantifying the endoscopic features of EoE in white light images, supplemented by the EoE Endoscopic Reference Score (EREFS). An AI algorithm (AI-EoE) was constructed and trained to differentiate between EoE and normal esophagus using endoscopic white light images extracted from the database of the University Hospital Augsburg. In addition to binary classification, a second algorithm was trained with specific auxiliary branches for each EREFS feature (AI-EoE-EREFS). The AI algorithms were evaluated on an external data set from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), and compared with the performance of human endoscopists with varying levels of experience. The overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of AI-EoE were 0.93 for all measures, while the AUC was 0.986. With additional auxiliary branches for the EREFS categories, the AI algorithm (AI-EoEEREFS) performance improved to 0.96, 0.94, 0.95, and 0.992 for sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC, respectively. AI-EoE and AI-EoE-EREFS performed significantly better than endoscopy beginners and senior fellows on the same set of images. An AI algorithm can be trained to detect and quantify endoscopic features of EoE with excellent performance scores. The addition of the EREFS criteria improved the performance of the AI algorithm, which performed significantly better than endoscopists with a lower or medium experience level.
In this study, we aimed to develop an artificial intelligence clinical decision support solution to mitigate operator-dependent limitations during complex endoscopic procedures such as endoscopic submucosal dissection and peroral endoscopic myotomy, for example, bleeding and perforation. A DeepLabv3-based model was trained to delineate vessels, tissue structures and instruments on endoscopic still images from such procedures. The mean cross-validated Intersection over Union and Dice Score were 63% and 76%, respectively. Applied to standardised video clips from third-space endoscopic procedures, the algorithm showed a mean vessel detection rate of 85% with a false-positive rate of 0.75/min. These performance statistics suggest a potential clinical benefit for procedure safety, time and also training.
Aims
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is easily missed during endoscopy, either because physicians are not familiar with its endoscopic features or the morphologic changes are too subtle. In this preliminary paper, we present the first attempt to detect EoE in endoscopic white light (WL) images using a deep learning network (EoE-AI).
Methods
401 WL images of eosinophilic esophagitis and 871 WL images of normal esophageal mucosa were evaluated. All images were assessed for the Endoscopic Reference score (EREFS) (edema, rings, exudates, furrows, strictures). Images with strictures were excluded. EoE was defined as the presence of at least 15 eosinophils per high power field on biopsy. A convolutional neural network based on the ResNet architecture with several five-fold cross-validation runs was used. Adding auxiliary EREFS-classification branches to the neural network allowed the inclusion of the scores as optimization criteria during training. EoE-AI was evaluated for sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score. In addition, two human endoscopists evaluated the images.
Results
EoE-AI showed a mean sensitivity, specificity, and F1 of 0.759, 0.976, and 0.834 respectively, averaged over the five distinct cross-validation runs. With the EREFS-augmented architecture, a mean sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score of 0.848, 0.945, and 0.861 could be demonstrated respectively. In comparison, the two human endoscopists had an average sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score of 0.718, 0.958, and 0.793.
Conclusions
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of deep learning to endoscopic images of EoE which were also assessed after augmentation with the EREFS-score. The next step is the evaluation of EoE-AI using an external dataset. We then plan to assess the EoE-AI tool on endoscopic videos, and also in real-time. This preliminary work is encouraging regarding the ability for AI to enhance physician detection of EoE, and potentially to do a true “optical biopsy” but more work is needed.
Einleitung
Die Differenzierung zwischen nicht dysplastischem Barrett-Ösophagus (NDBE) und mit Barrett-Ösophagus assoziierten Neoplasien (BERN) während der endoskopischen Inspektion erfordert viel Expertise. Die frühe Diagnosestellung ist wichtig für die weitere Prognose des Barrett-Karzinoms. In Deutschland werden Patient:innen mit einem Barrett-Ösophagus (BE) in der Regel im niedergelassenen Sektor überwacht.
Ziele
Ziel ist es, den Einfluss von einem auf Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) basierenden klinischen Entscheidungsunterstützungssystems (CDSS) auf die Performance von niedergelassenen Gastroenterolog:innen (NG) bei der Evaluation von Barrett-Ösophagus (BE) zu untersuchen.
Methodik
Es erfolgte die prospektive Sammlung von 96 unveränderten hochauflösenden Videos mit Fällen von Patient:innen mit histologisch bestätigtem NDBE und BERN. Alle eingeschlossenen Fälle enthielten mindestens zwei der folgenden Darstellungsmethoden: HD-Weißlichtendoskopie, Narrow Band Imaging oder Texture and Color Enhancement Imaging. Sechs NG von sechs unterschiedlichen Praxen wurden als Proband:innen eingeschlossen. Es erfolgte eine permutierte Block-Randomisierung der Videofälle in entweder Gruppe A oder Gruppe B. Gruppe A implizierte eine Evaluation des Falls durch Proband:innen zunächst ohne KI und anschließend mit KI als CDSS. In Gruppe B erfolgte die Evaluation in umgekehrter Reihenfolge. Anschließend erfolgte eine zufällige Wiedergabe der so entstandenen Subgruppen im Rahmen des Tests.
Ergebnis
In diesem Test konnte ein von uns entwickeltes KI-System (Barrett-Ampel) eine Sensitivität von 92,2%, eine Spezifität von 68,9% und eine Accuracy von 81,3% erreichen. Mit der Hilfe von KI verbesserte sich die Sensitivität der NG von 64,1% auf 71,2% (p<0,001) und die Accuracy von 66,3% auf 70,8% (p=0,006) signifikant. Eine signifikante Verbesserung dieser Parameter zeigte sich ebenfalls, wenn die Proband:innen die Fälle zunächst ohne KI evaluierten (Gruppe A). Wurde der Fall jedoch als Erstes mit der Hilfe von KI evaluiert (Gruppe B), blieb die Performance nahezu konstant.
Schlussfolgerung
Es konnte ein performantes KI-System zur Evaluation von BE entwickelt werden. NG verbessern sich bei der Evaluation von BE durch den Einsatz von KI.
Aims
Evaluation of the add-on effect an artificial intelligence (AI) based clinical decision support system has on the performance of endoscopists with different degrees of expertise in the field of Barrett's esophagus (BE) and Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia (BERN).
Methods
The support system is based on a multi-task deep learning model trained to solve a segmentation and several classification tasks. The training approach represents an extension of the ECMT semi-supervised learning algorithm. The complete system evaluates a decision tree between estimated motion, classification, segmentation, and temporal constraints, to decide when and how the prediction is highlighted to the observer. In our current study, ninety-six video cases of patients with BE and BERN were prospectively collected and assessed by Barrett's specialists and non-specialists. All video cases were evaluated twice – with and without AI assistance. The order of appearance, either with or without AI support, was assigned randomly. Participants were asked to detect and characterize regions of dysplasia or early neoplasia within the video sequences.
Results
Standalone sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the AI system were 92.16%, 68.89%, and 81.25%, respectively. Mean sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of expert endoscopists without AI support were 83,33%, 58,20%, and 71,48 %, respectively. Gastroenterologists without Barrett's expertise but with AI support had a comparable performance with a mean sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 76,63%, 65,35%, and 71,36%, respectively.
Conclusions
Non-Barrett's experts with AI support had a similar performance as experts in a video-based study.
The German workshop on medical image computing (BVM) has been held in different locations in Germany for more than 20 years. In terms of content, BVM focused on the computer-aided analysis of medical image data with a wide range of applications, e.g. in the area of imaging, diagnostics, operation planning, computer-aided intervention and visualization.
During this time, there have been remarkable methodological developments and upheavals, on which the BVM community has worked intensively. The area of machine learning should be emphasized, which has led to significant improvements, especially for tasks of classification and segmentation, but increasingly also in image formation and registration. As a result, work in connection with deep learning now dominates the BVM. These developments have also contributed to the establishment of medical image processing at the interface between computer science and medicine as one of the key technologies for the digitization of the health system.
In addition to the presentation of current research results, a central aspect of the BVM is primarily the promotion of young scientists from the diverse BVM community, covering not only Germany but also Austria, Switzerland, The Netherland and other European neighbors. The conference serves primarily doctoral students and postdocs, but also students with excellent bachelor and master theses as a platform to present their work, to enter into professional discourse with the community, and to establish networks with specialist colleagues. Despite the many conferences and congresses that are also relevant for medical image processing, the BVM has therefore lost none of its importance and attractiveness and has retained its permanent place in the annual conference rhythm.
Building on this foundation, there are some innovations and changes this year. The BVM 2021 was organized for the first time at the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg (OTH Regensburg, a technical university of applied sciences). After Aachen, Berlin, Erlangen, Freiburg, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Lübeck, and Munich, Regensburg is not just a new venue. OTH Regensburg is the first representative of the universities of applied sciences (HAW) to organize the conference, which differs to universities, university hospitals, or research centers like Fraunhofer or Helmholtz. This also considers the further development of the research landscape in Germany, where HAWs increasingly contribute to applied research in addition to their focus on teaching. This development is also reflected in the contributions submitted to the BVM in recent years.
At BVM 2021, which was held in a virtual format for the first time due to the Corona pandemic, an attractive and high-quality program was offered. Fortunately, the number of submissions increased significantly. Out of 97 submissions, 26 presentations, 51 posters and 5 software demonstrations were accepted via an anonymized reviewing process with three reviews each. The three best works have been awarded BVM prizes, selected by a separate committee.
Based on these high-quality submissions, we are able to present another special issue in the International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (IJCARS). Out of the 97 submissions, the ones with the highest scores have been invited to submit an extended version of their paper to be presented in IJCARS. As a result, we are now able to present this special issue with seven excellent articles. Many submissions focus on machine learning in a medical context.
Einleitung:
Blutdruck gilt als sogenannter Vitalparameter als einer der grundlegenden Indikatoren für den Gesundheitszustand einer Person. Sowohl zu niedriger als auch zu hoher Blutdruck kann lebensbedrohend sein, letzerer ist darüber hinaus ein Risikofaktor insbesondere für Herz-Kreislauferkrankungen, die trotz wichtiger Fortschritte in der Behandlung immer noch die häufigste Todesursache in Deutschland darstellen. Die Hämodynamik, also die raumzeitliche Dynamik des Blutflusses, und der Gefäßzustand sind eng verbunden mit dem Blutdruck und ebenfalls von hoher klinischer Relevanz, u.a. zur Identifikation von Durchblutungsstörungen und ungünstigen Druckverteilungen der Gefäßwand. Innovationen in der Messtechnik als auch in der Datenanalyse bieten heute neue Möglichkeiten der Erfassung und Bewertung von Blutdruck, Hämodynamik und Gefäßzustand [1], [2], [3], [4].
Methodik:
In einer gemeinsamen Workshopserie der AG Medizinische Bild- und Signalverarbeitung der GMDS und des Fachausschusses Biosignale der DGBMT werden wir neue Ansätze und Lösungen für Mess- und Analyseverfahren zu Blutdruck und -fluss sowie zum Gefäßzustand vorstellen und diskutieren. Dabei stehen im ersten Workshop auf der GMDS Jahrestagung Bildbasierte Verfahren im Zentrum, während der zweite Workshop auf der DGBMT Jahrestagung den Fokus auf Biosignalbasierten Verfahren legt. Es werden aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse vorgestellt und diskutiert. Es sind jeweils mehrere Vorträge geplant mit ausreichend Zeit zur Diskussion. Folgende Vorträge sind geplant (Arbeitstitel):
Sebastian Zaunseder: Videobasierte Erfassung des Blutdrucks
Anja Hennemuth: A Visualization Toolkit for the Analysis of Aortic Anatomy and Pressure Distribution
Lars Krenkel: Numerische Analyse der Rupturwahrscheinlichkeit zerebraler Aneurysmata
Susanne Schnell: Messung des Blutflusses und hämodynamischer Parameter mit 4D flow MRI: Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen
Ergebnisse:
Ziel des Workshops ist die Identifikation von innovativen Ansätzen und neuen Methoden zur qualitativen und quantitativen Bestimmung von hämodynamischen Parametern sowie deren kritische Bewertung durch die Community für die Eignung in der klinischen Entscheidungsunterstützung.
Diskussion:
Der Workshop leistet inhaltlich einen Beitrag zu zentralen Aspekten für die Herz-Kreislauf-Medizin. Er bringt dabei Expertise aus verschiedenen Bereichen zusammen und schlägt die Brücke zwischen Kardiologie, Medizininformatik und Medizintechnik.
Schlussfolgerung:
Innovative Technologien aus Medizintechnik und Informatik ermöglichen zunehmend einfache und raumzeitlich aufgelöste Erfassung und Bewertung wichtiger Informationen zur Unterstützung von Diagnose und Therapieverfolgung.
[1] Zaunseder S, Trumpp A, Wedekind D, Malberg H. Cardiovascular assessment by imaging photoplethysmography - a review. Biomed Tech (Berl). 2018 Oct 25;63(5):617–34.
[2] Huellebrand M, Messroghli D, Tautz L, Kuehne T, Hennemuth A. An extensible software platform for interdisciplinary cardiovascular imaging research. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2020 Feb;184:105277.
[3] Schmitter S, Adriany G, Waks M, Moeller S, Aristova M, Vali A, et al. Bilateral Multiband 4D Flow MRI of the Carotid Arteries at 7T. Magn Reson Med. 2020 Oct;84(4):1947–60.
[4] Birkenmaier C, and Krenkel, L. Flow in Artificial Lungs. In: New Results in Numerical and Experimental Fluid Mechanics XIII. Contributions to the 22nd STAB/DGLR Symposium. Springer; 2021.
Semantic segmentation is an essential task in medical imaging research. Many powerful deep-learning-based approaches can be employed for this problem, but they are dependent on the availability of an expansive labeled dataset. In this work, we augment such supervised segmentation models to be suitable for learning from unlabeled data. Our semi-supervised approach, termed Error-Correcting Mean-Teacher, uses an exponential moving average model like the original Mean Teacher but introduces our new paradigm of error correction. The original segmentation network is augmented to handle this secondary correction task. Both tasks build upon the core feature extraction layers of the model. For the correction task, features detected in the input image are fused with features detected in the predicted segmentation and further processed with task-specific decoder layers. The combination of image and segmentation features allows the model to correct present mistakes in the given input pair. The correction task is trained jointly on the labeled data. On unlabeled data, the exponential moving average of the original network corrects the student’s prediction. The combined outputs of the students’ prediction with the teachers’ correction form the basis for the semi-supervised update. We evaluate our method with the 2017 and 2018 Robotic Scene Segmentation data, the ISIC 2017 and the BraTS 2020 Challenges, a proprietary Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection dataset, Cityscapes, and Pascal VOC 2012. Additionally, we analyze the impact of the individual components and examine the behavior when the amount of labeled data varies, with experiments performed on two distinct segmentation architectures. Our method shows improvements in terms of the mean Intersection over Union over the supervised baseline and competing methods. Code is available at https://github.com/CloneRob/ECMT.
Background: Currently, it is common practice to use three-dimensional (3D) printers not only for rapid prototyping in the industry, but also in the medical area to create medical applications for training inexperienced surgeons. In a clinical training simulator for minimally invasive bone drilling to fix hand fractures with Kirschner-wires (K-wires), a 3D-printed hand phantom must not only be geometrically but also haptically correct. Due to a limited view during an operation, surgeons need to perfectly localize underlying risk structures only by feeling of specific bony protrusions of the human hand.
Methods: The goal of this experiment is to imitate human soft tissue with its haptic and elasticity for a realistic hand phantom fabrication, using only a dual-material 3D printer and support-material-filled metamaterial between skin and bone. We present our workflow to generate lattice structures between hard bone and soft skin with iterative cube edge (CE) or cube face (CF) unit cells. Cuboid and finger shaped sample prints with and without inner hard bone in different lattice thickness are constructed and 3D printed.
Results: The most elastic available rubber-like material is too firm to imitate soft tissue. By reducing the amount of rubber in the inner volume through support material (SUP), objects become significantly softer. Without metamaterial, after disintegration, the SUP can be shifted through the volume and thus the body loses its original shape. Although the CE design increases the elasticity, it cannot restore the fabric form. In contrast to CE, the CF design increases not only the elasticity but also guarantees a local limitation of the SUP. Therefore, the body retains its shape and internal bones remain in its intended place. Various unit cell sizes, lattice thickening and skin thickness regulate the rubber material and SUP ratio. Test prints with higher SUP and lower rubber material percentage appear softer and vice versa. This was confirmed by an expert surgeon evaluation. Subjects adjudged pure rubber-like material as too firm and samples only filled with SUP or lattice structure in CE design as not suitable for imitating tissue. 3D-printed finger samples in CF design were rated as realistic compared to the haptic of human tissue with a good palpable bone structure.
Conclusions: We developed a new dual-material 3D print technique to imitate soft tissue of the human hand with its haptic properties. Blowy SUP is trapped within a lattice structure to soften rubber-like 3D print material, which makes it possible to reproduce a realistic replica of human hand soft tissue.
Vascular malformations (VMs) are a rare condition. They can be categorized into high-flow and low-flow VMs, which is a challenging task for radiologists. In this work, a very heterogeneous set of MRI images with only rough annotations are used for classification with a convolutional neural network. The main focus is to describe the challenging data set and strategies to deal with such data in terms of preprocessing, annotation usage and choice of the network architecture. We achieved a classification result of 89.47 % F1-score with a 3D ResNet 18.
Medical image processing provides core innovation for medical imaging. This paper is focused on recent developments from science to applications analyzing the past fifteen years of history of the proceedings of the German annual meeting on medical image processing (BVM). Furthermore, some members of the program committee present their personal points of views: (i) multi-modality for imaging and diagnosis, (ii) analysis of diffusion-weighted imaging, (iii) model-based image analysis, (iv) registration of section images, (v) from images to information in digital endoscopy, and (vi) virtual reality and robotics. Medical imaging and medical image computing is seen as field of rapid development with clear trends to integrated applications in diagnostics, treatment planning and treatment.
Time-Dependent Joint Probability Speed Function for Level-Set Segmentation of Rat-Brain Slices
(2008)
The segmentation of rat brain slices suffers from illumination inhomogeneities and staining effects. State-of-the-art level-set methods model slice and background with intensity mixture densities defining the speed function as difference between the respective probabilites. Nevertheless, the overlap of these distributions causes an inaccurate stopping at the slice border. In this work, we propose the characterisation of the border area with intensity pairs for inside and outside estimating joint intensity probabilities. Method - In contrast to global object and background models, we focus on the object border characterised by a joint mixture density. This specifies the probability of the occurance of an inside and an outside value in direct adjacency. These values are not known beforehand, because inside and outside depend on the level-set evolution and change during time. Therefore, the speed function is computed time-dependently at the position of the current zero level-set. Along this zero level-set curve, the inside and outside values are derived as mean along the curvature normal directing inside and outside the object. Advantage of the joint probability distribution is to resolve the distribution overlaps, because these are assumed to be not located at the same border position. Results - The novel time-dependent joint probability based speed function is compared expermimentally with single probability based speed functions. Two rat brains with about 40 slices are segmented and the results analysed using manual segmentations and the Tanimoto overlap measure. Improved results are recognised for both data sets.
Currently, it is common practice to use three-dimensional (3D) printers not only for rapid prototyping in the industry, but also in the medical area to create medical applications for training inexperienced surgeons. In a clinical training simulator for minimally invasive bone drilling to fix hand fractures with Kirschner-wires (K-wires), a 3D printed hand phantom must not only be geometrically but also haptically correct. Due to a limited view during an operation, surgeons need to perfectly localize underlying risk structures only by feeling of specific bony protrusions of the human hand.
Die Implantation eines Cochlea Implantates benötigt einen chirurgischen Zugang im Felsenbein und durch die Paukenhöhle des Patienten. Der Chirurg hat eine eingeschränkte Sicht im Operationsgebiet, die weiterhin viele Risikostrukturen enthält. Um eine Cochlea Implantation sicher und fehlerfrei durchzuführen, ist eine umfangreiche theoretische und praktische (teilweise berufsbegleitende) Fortbildung sowie langjährige Erfahrung notwendig. Unter Nutzung von realen klinischen CT/MRT Daten von Innen- und Mittelohr und der interaktiven Segmentierung der darin abgebildeten Strukturen (Nerven, Cochlea, Gehörknöchelchen,...) wird im HaptiVisT Projekt ein haptisch-visuelles Trainingssystem für die Implantation von Innen- und Mittelohr-Implantaten realisiert, das als sog. „Serious Game“ mit immersiver Didaktik gestaltet wird. Die Evaluierung des Demonstrators hinsichtlich Zweckmäßigkeit erfolgt prozessbegleitend und ergebnisorientiert, um mögliche technische oder didaktische Fehler vor Fertigstellung des Systems aufzudecken. Drei zeitlich versetzte Evaluationen fokussieren dabei chirurgisch-fachliche, didaktische sowie haptisch-ergonomische Akzeptanzkriterien.
Background
Breast reconstruction is an important coping tool for patients undergoing a mastectomy. There are numerous surgical techniques in breast reconstruction surgery (BRS). Regardless of the technique used, creating a symmetric outcome is crucial for patients and plastic surgeons. Three-dimensional surface imaging enables surgeons and patients to assess the outcome’s symmetry in BRS. To discriminate between autologous and alloplastic techniques, we analyzed both techniques using objective optical computerized symmetry analysis. Software was developed that enables clinicians to assess optical breast symmetry using three-dimensional surface imaging.
Methods
Twenty-seven patients who had undergone autologous (n = 12) or alloplastic (n = 15) BRS received three-dimensional surface imaging. Anthropomorphic data were collected digitally using semiautomatic measurements and automatic measurements. Automatic measurements were taken using the newly developed software. To quantify symmetry, a Symmetry Index is proposed.
Results
Statistical analysis revealed that there is no dif- ference in the outcome symmetry between the two groups (t test for independent samples; p = 0.48, two-tailed).
Conclusion
This study’s findings provide a foundation for qualitative symmetry assessment in BRS using automatized digital anthropometry. In the present trial, no difference in the outcomes’ optical symmetry was detected between autologous and alloplastic approaches.
Structural MRI brain analysis and segmentation is a crucial part in the daily routine in neurosurgery for intervention planning. Exemplarily, the free software FSL-FAST (FMRIB’s Segmentation Library – FMRIB’s Automated Segmentation Tool) in version 4 is used for segmentation of brain tissue types. To speed up the segmentation procedure by parallel execution, we transferred FSL-FAST to a General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU) using Open Computing Language (OpenCL) [1]. The necessary steps for parallelization resulted in substantially different and less useful results. Therefore, the underlying methods were revised and adapted yielding computational overhead. Nevertheless, we achieved a speed-up factor of 3.59 from CPU to GPGPU execution, as well providing similar useful or even better results.
Reduktion von Rissartefakten durch nicht-lineare Registrierung in histologischen Schnittbildern
(2009)
In dieser Arbeit wird ein Verfahren vorgestellt, das Rissartefakte, die in histologischen Rattenhirnschnitten vorkommen können, durch nicht-lineare Registrierung reduziert. Um die Optimierung in der Rissregion zu leiten, wird der Curvature Registrierungsansatz um eine Metrik basierend auf der Segmentierung der Bilder erweitert. Dabei erzielten Registrierungen mit der ausschließlichen Segmentierung des Risses bessere Ergebnisse als Registrierungen mit einer Segmentierung des gesamten Hirnschnitts. Insgesamt zeigt sich eine deutliche Verbesserung in der Rissregion, wobei der verbleibende reduzierte Riss auf die Glattheitsbedingungen des Regularisierers zurückzuführen ist.
One common method to fix fractures of the human hand after an accident is an osteosynthesis with Kirschner wires (K-wires) to stabilize the bone fragments. The insertion of K-wires is a delicate minimally invasive surgery, because surgeons operate almost without a sight. Since realistic training methods are time consuming, costly and insufficient, a virtual-reality (VR) based training system for the placement of K-wires was developed. As part of this, the current work deals with the real-time bone drilling simulation using a haptic force-feedback device.
To simulate the drilling, we introduce a virtual fixture based force-feedback drilling approach. By decomposition of the drilling task into individual phases, each phase can be handled individually to perfectly control the drilling procedure. We report about the related finite state machine (FSM), describe the haptic feedback of each state and explain, how to avoid jerking of the haptic force-feedback during state transition.
The usage of the virtual fixture approach results in a good haptic performance and a stable drilling behavior. This was confirmed by 26 expert surgeons, who evaluated the virtual drilling on the simulator and rated it as very realistic. To make the system even more convincing, we determined real drilling feed rates through experimental pig bone drilling and transferred them to our system. Due to a constant simulation thread we can guarantee a precise drilling motion.
Virtual fixtures based force-feedback calculation is able to simulate force-feedback assisted bone drilling with high quality and, thus, will have a great potential in developing medical applications.
Computer-assisted analysis of endoscopic images can be helpful to the automatic diagnosis and classification of neoplastic lesions. Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a common type of reflux that is not straight forward to be detected by endoscopic surveillance, thus being way susceptible to erroneous diagnosis, which can cause cancer when not treated properly. In this work, we introduce the Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifier to the task of automatic identification of Barrett'sesophagus, with promising results and outperforming the well known Support Vector Machines (SVM) in the aforementioned context. We consider describing endoscopic images by means of feature extractors based on key point information, such as the Speeded up Robust Features (SURF) and Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), for further designing a bag-of-visual-wordsthat is used to feed both OPF and SVM classifiers. The best results were obtained by means of the OPF classifier for both feature extractors, with values lying on 0.732 (SURF) - 0.735(SIFT) for sensitivity, 0.782 (SURF) - 0.806 (SIFT) for specificity, and 0.738 (SURF) - 0.732 (SIFT) for the accuracy.
In dieser Arbeit wird die Segmentierung von Gehirngewebe aus Kopfaufnahmen von Ratten mittels Level-Set-Methoden vorgeschlagen. Dazu wird ein zweidimensionaler, kontrastbasierter Ansatz zu einem dreidimensionalen, lokal an die Bildintensität adaptierten Segmentierer erweitert. Es wird gezeigt, dass mit diesem echten 3D-Ansatz die lokalen Bildstrukturen besser berücksichtigt werden können. Insbesondere Magnet-Resonanz-Tomographien (MRTs) mit globalen Helligkeitsgradienten, beispielsweise bedingt durch Oberflächenspulen, können auf diese Weise zuverlässiger und ohne weitere Vorverarbeitungsschritte segmentiert werden. Die Leistungsfähigkeit des Algorithmus wird experimentell an Hand dreier Rattenhirn-MRTs demonstriert.
Zur Analyse von Lippenbewegungsabläufen wird ein aktives Konturmodell eingesetzt. Probleme bereitet die hohe Sprechgeschwindigkeit, die in star ken Objektverschiebungen result iert und bislang nicht durch eine alleinige Konturanpassung kompensiert werden kann. In diesem Beitrag werden die klassischen aktiven Konturmodelle um eine Vorjustierung der Grobkonturen erweitert, die eine energiebasierte Konturanpassung erst möglich macht. Die Schätzung der Verschiebung zur Vorjustierung basiert auf dem Gradientenbild und einem prädikatenlogisch formulierten Regelwerk, das Annahmen und Nebenbedingungen als Wissensbasis enthält. Mit Hilfe dieser Erweiterungen ist eine automatisierte Konturverfolgung der Lippen möglich.
Presenting images from different modalities seems to be a trivial task considering the challenges to obtain registered images as a pre-requisite for image fusion. In combined tomographs like PET/CT, image registration is intrinsic. However, informative image fusion mandates careful preparation owing to the large amount of information that is presented to the observer. In complex imaging situations it is required to provide tools that are easy to handle and still powerful enough to help the observer discriminating important details from background patterns. We investigated several options for color tables applied to brain and non-brain images obtained with PET, MRI and CT.
Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has been established as a powerful technique for the determination of metal and nonmetal distributions within biological systems with high sensitivity. An imaging LA-ICP-MS technique for Fe, Cu, Zn, and Mn was developed to produce large series of quantitative element maps in native brain sections of mice subchronically intoxicated with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridin (MPTP) as a model of Parkinson’s disease. Images were calibrated using matrix-matched laboratory standards. A software solution allowing a precise delineation of anatomical structures was implemented. Coronal brain sections were analyzed crossing the striatum and the substantia nigra, respectively. Animals sacrificed 2 h, 7 d, or 28 d after the last MPTP injection and controls were investigated.
We observed significant decreases of Cu concentrations in the periventricular zone and the fascia dentata at 2 h and 7d and a recovery or overcompensation at 28 d, most pronounced in the rostral periventricular zone (+40%). In the cortex Cu decreased slightly to −10%. Fe increased in the interpeduncular nucleus (+40%) but not in the substantia nigra. This pattern is in line with a differential regulation of periventricular and parenchymal Cu, and with the histochemical localization of Fe, and congruent to regions of preferential MPTP binding described in the rodent brain.
The LA-ICP-MS technique yielded valid and statistically robust results in the present study on 39 slices from 19 animals. Our findings underline the value of routine micro-local analytical techniques in the life sciences and affirm a role of Cu availability in Parkinson’s disease.
Introduction – Diagnosis of abnormal cilia function is based on ultrastructural analysis of axoneme defects, especialy the features of inner and outer dynein arms which are the motors of ciliar motility. Sub-optimal biopsy material, methodical, and intrinsic electron microscopy factors pose difficulty in ciliary defects evaluation. We present a computer-assisted approach based on state-of-the-art image analysis and object recognition methods yielding a time-saving and efficient diagnosis of cilia dysfunction. Method – The presented approach is based on a pipeline of basal image processing methods like smoothing, thresholding and ellipse fitting. However, integration of application specific knowledge results in robust segmentations even in cases of image artifacts. The method is build hierarchically starting with the detection of cilia within the image, followed by the detection of nine doublets within each analyzable cilium, and ending with the detection of dynein arms of each doublet. The process is concluded by a rough classification of the dynein arms as basis for a computer-assisted diagnosis. Additionally, the interaction possibilities are designed in a way, that the results are still reproducible given the completion report. Results – A qualitative evaluation showed reasonable detection results for cilia, doublets and dynein arms. However, since a ground truth is missing, the variation of the computer-assisted diagnosis should be within the subjective bias of human diagnosticians. The results of a first quantitative evaluation with five human experts and six images with 12 analyzable cilia showed, that with default parameterization 91.6% of the cilia and 98% of the doublets were found. The computer-assisted approach rated 66% of those inner and outer dynein arms correct, where all human experts agree. However, especially the quality of the dynein arm classification may be improved in future work.
Fusion of histology and MRI is frequently demanded in biomedical research to study in vitro tissue properties in an in vivo reference space. Distortions and artifacts caused by cutting and staining of histological slices as well as differences in spatial resolution make even the rigid fusion a difficult task. State-of- the-art methods start with a mono-modal restacking yielding a histological pseudo-3D volume. The 3D information of the MRI reference is considered subsequently. However, consistency of the histology volume and consistency due to the corresponding MRI seem to be diametral goals. Therefore, we propose a novel fusion framework optimizing histology/histology and histology/MRI consistency at the same time finding a balance between both goals. Method - Direct slice-to-slice correspondence even in irregularly-spaced cutting sequences is achieved by registration-based interpolation of the MRI. Introducing a weighted multi-image mutual information metric (WI), adjacent histology and corresponding MRI are taken into account at the same time. Therefore, the reconstruction of the histological volume as well as the fusion with the MRI is done in a single step. Results - Based on two data sets with more than 110 single registrations in all, the results are evaluated quantitatively based on Tanimoto overlap measures and qualitatively showing the fused volumes. In comparison to other multi-image metrics, the reconstruction based on WI is significantly improved. We evaluated different parameter settings with emphasis on the weighting term steering the balance between intra- and inter-modality consistency.
The success of artificial intelligence in medicine is based on the need for large amounts of high quality training data. Sharing of medical image data, however, is often restricted by laws such as doctor-patient confidentiality. Although there are publicly available medical datasets, their quality and quantity are often low. Moreover, datasets are often imbalanced and only represent a fraction of the images generated in hospitals or clinics and can thus usually only be used as training data for specific problems. The introduction of generative adversarial networks (GANs) provides a mean to generate artificial images by training two convolutional networks. This paper proposes a method which uses GANs trained on medical images in order to generate a large number of artificial images that could be used to train other artificial intelligence algorithms. This work is a first step towards alleviating data privacy concerns and being able to publicly share data that still contains a substantial amount of the information in the original private data. The method has been evaluated on several public datasets and quantitative and qualitative tests showing promising results.
Im Rahmen der Entwicklung eines haptisch-visuellen Trainingssystems für das Fräsen am Felsenbein werden ein Haptikarm und ein autostereoskopischer 3D-Monitor genutzt, um Chirurgen die virtuelle Manipulation von knöchernen Strukturen im Kontext eines sog. Serious Game zu ermöglichen. Unter anderem sollen Assistenzärzte im Rahmen ihrer Ausbildung das Fräsen am Felsenbein für das chirurgische Einsetzen eines Cochlea-Implantats üben können. Die Visualisierung des virtuellen Fräsens muss dafür in Echtzeit und möglichst realistisch modelliert, implementiert und evaluiert werden. Wir verwenden verschiedene Raycasting Methoden mit linearer und Nearest Neighbor Interpolation und vergleichen die visuelle Qualität und die Bildwiederholfrequenzen der Methoden. Alle verglichenen Verfahren sind sind echtzeitfähig, unterscheiden sich aber in ihrer visuellen Qualität.
The evaluation and assessment of Barrett’s esophagus is challenging for both expert and nonexpert endoscopists. However, the early diagnosis of cancer in Barrett’s esophagus is crucial for its prognosis, and could save costs. Pre-clinical and clinical studies on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Barrett’s esophagus have shown promising results. In this review, we focus on the current challenges and future perspectives of implementing AI systems in the management of patients with Barrett’s esophagus.
Objective: Artificial intelligence (AI) may reduce underdiagnosed or overlooked upper GI (UGI) neoplastic and preneoplastic conditions, due to subtle appearance and low disease prevalence. Only disease-specific AI performances have been reported, generating uncertainty on its clinical value.
Design: We searched PubMed, Embase and Scopus until July 2020, for studies on the diagnostic performance of AI in detection and characterisation of UGI lesions. Primary outcomes were pooled diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of AI. Secondary outcomes were pooled positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) predictive values. We calculated pooled proportion rates (%), designed summary receiving operating characteristic curves with respective area under the curves (AUCs) and performed metaregression and sensitivity analysis.
Results: Overall, 19 studies on detection of oesophageal squamous cell neoplasia (ESCN) or Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia (BERN) or gastric adenocarcinoma (GCA) were included with 218, 445, 453 patients and 7976, 2340, 13 562 images, respectively. AI-sensitivity/specificity/PPV/NPV/positive likelihood ratio/negative likelihood ratio for UGI neoplasia detection were 90% (CI 85% to 94%)/89% (CI 85% to 92%)/87% (CI 83% to 91%)/91% (CI 87% to 94%)/8.2 (CI 5.7 to 11.7)/0.111 (CI 0.071 to 0.175), respectively, with an overall AUC of 0.95 (CI 0.93 to 0.97). No difference in AI performance across ESCN, BERN and GCA was found, AUC being 0.94 (CI 0.52 to 0.99), 0.96 (CI 0.95 to 0.98), 0.93 (CI 0.83 to 0.99), respectively. Overall, study quality was low, with high risk of selection bias. No significant publication bias was found.
Conclusion: We found a high overall AI accuracy for the diagnosis of any neoplastic lesion of the UGI tract that was independent of the underlying condition. This may be expected to substantially reduce the miss rate of precancerous lesions and early cancer when implemented in clinical practice.
We present the Regensburg Breast Shape Model (RBSM) – a 3D statistical shape model of the female breast built from 110 breast scans, and the first ever publicly available. Together with the model, a fully automated, pairwise surface registration pipeline used to establish correspondence among 3D breast scans is introduced. Our method is computationally efficient and requires only four landmarks to guide the registration process. In order to weaken the strong coupling between breast and thorax, we propose to minimize the variance outside the breast region as much as possible. To achieve this goal, a novel concept called breast probability masks (BPMs) is introduced. A BPM assigns probabilities to each point of a 3D breast scan, telling how likely it is that a particular point belongs to the breast area. During registration, we use BPMs to align the template to the target as accurately as possible inside the breast region and only roughly outside. This simple yet effective strategy significantly reduces the unwanted variance outside the breast region, leading to better statistical shape models in which breast shapes are quite well decoupled from the thorax. The RBSM is thus able to produce a variety of different breast shapes as independently as possible from the shape of the thorax. Our systematic experimental evaluation reveals a generalization ability of 0.17 mm and a specificity of 2.8 mm for the RBSM. Ultimately, our model is seen as a first step towards combining physically motivated deformable models of the breast and statistical approaches in order to enable more realistic surgical outcome simulation.
Polarised light imaging (PLI) utilises the birefringence of the myelin sheaths in order to visualise the orientation of nerve fibres in microtome sections of adult human post-mortem brains at ultra-high spatial resolution. The preparation of post-mortem brains for PLI involves fixation, freezing and cutting into 100-μm-thick sections. Hence, geometrical distortions of histological sections are inevitable and have to be removed for 3D reconstruction and subsequent fibre tracking. We here present a processing pipeline for 3D reconstruction of these sections using PLI derived multimodal images of post-mortem brains. Blockface images of the brains were obtained during cutting; they serve as reference data for alignment and elimination of distortion artefacts. In addition to the spatial image transformation, fibre orientation vectors were reoriented using the transformation fields, which consider both affine and subsequent non-linear registration. The application of this registration and reorientation approach results in a smooth fibre vector field, which reflects brain morphology. PLI combined with 3D reconstruction and fibre tracking is a powerful tool for human brain mapping. It can also serve as an independent method for evaluating in vivo fibre tractography.
In this paper, we address the problem of retrospective color shading correction. An extension of the established gray-level shading correction algorithm based on signal envelope (SE) estimation to color images is developed using principal color components. Compared to the probably most general shading correction algorithm based on entropy minimization, SE estimation does not need any computationally expensive optimization and thus can be implemented more effciently. We tested our new shading correction scheme on artificial as well as real endoscopic images and observed promising results. Additionally, an indepth analysis of the stop criterion used in the SE estimation algorithm is provided leading to the conclusion that a fixed, user-defined threshold is generally not feasible. Thus, we present new ideas how to develop a non-parametric version of the SE estimation algorithm using entropy.
Die Lehre der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung vermittelt Kenntnisse mit einem breiten Methodenspektrum. Neben den Grundlagen der Verfahren soll ein Gefühl für eine geeignete Ausführungsreihenfolge und ihrer Wirkung auf medizinische Bilddaten entwickelt werden. Die Komplexität der Methoden erfordert vertiefte Programmierkenntnisse, sodass bereits einfache Operationen mit großem Programmieraufwand verbunden sind. Die Software GraphMIC stellt Bildverarbeitungsoperationen in Form interaktiver Knoten zur Verfügung und erlaubt das Arrangieren, Parametrisieren und Ausführen komplexer Verarbeitungssequenzen in einem Graphen. Durch den Fokus auf das Design einer Pipeline, weg von sprach- und frameworkspezifischen Implementierungsdetails, lassen sich grundlegende Prinzipien der Bildverarbeitung anschaulich erlernen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir die visuelle Programmierung mit GraphMIC der nativen Implementierung äquivalenter Funktionen gegenüber. Die in C++ entwickelte Applikation basiert auf Qt, ITK, OpenCV, VTK und MITK.
Statistische Eigenschaften natürlicher Grauwerttexturen werden mit Co-Occurrence Matrizen, basierend auf der Grauwertstatistik zweiter Ordnung, modelliert. Die Matrix gibt dann die apriori Wahrscheinlichkeiten aller Grauwertpaare an. Da in der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung verstärkt Multispektralbilder ausgewertet werden, wird das bekannte Konzept hier auf beliebige Vektorbilder erweitert. Dadurch kann bei der Texturklassifikation die zur Verfügung stehende Information vollständig genutzt werden. Insbesondere zur Detektion von Farbtexturen ist dieser Ansatz geeignet, da Wertepaare unterschiedlicher Spektralebenen ausgewertet werden können. Ebenso kann die Methode auch bei der Multiskalendekomposition von Intensitätsbildern zur Verbesserung der Texturerkennung beitragen. Die in den Matrizen entstehenden Muster lassen dann über die Extraktion geeigneter Texturdeskriptoren Rückschlüsse auf die Texturen des Bildes zu.
The Impact of Semi-Automated Segmentation and 3D Analysis on Testing New Osteosynthesis Material
(2017)
A new protocol for testing osteosynthesis material postoperatively combining semi-automated segmentation and 3D analysis of surface meshes is proposed. By various steps of transformation and measuring, objective data can be collected. In this study the specifications of a locking plate used for mediocarpal arthrodesis of the wrist were examined. The results show, that union of the lunate, triquetrum, hamate and capitate was achieved and that the plate is comparable to coexisting arthrodesis systems. Additionally, it was shown, that the complications detected correlate to the clinical outcome. In synopsis, this protocol is considered beneficial and should be taken into account in further studies.
Quantitative Farbmessungen sollen die Diagnostik laryngealer Erkrankungen unterstützen. Dabei wird der Farbeindruck nicht nur durch die Reflexionseigenschaften des Gewebes sondern auch durch die Farbe der verwendeten Lichtquelle beeinflußt. Der hier vorgestellte Farbkonstanz-Algorithmus basiert auf dem dichromatischen Reflexionsmodell und liefert eine pixelweise Trennung des Farbbildes in seine beiden Faxbanteile. Die Körperfarbe entspricht dabei der gewebespezifischen Reflexion, die Oberfächenfarbe der Strahlung der Lichtquelle.
Backround
Scaphoidectomy and midcarpal fusion can be performed using traditional fixation methods like K-wires, staples, screws or different dorsal (non)locking arthrodesis systems. The aim of this study is to test the Aptus four corner locking plate and to compare the clinical findings to the data revealed by CT scans and semi-automated segmentation.
Methods:
This is a retrospective review of eleven patients suffering from scapholunate advanced collapse (SLAC) or scaphoid non-union advanced collapse (SNAC) wrist, who received a four corner fusion between August 2011 and July 2014. The clinical evaluation consisted of measuring the range of motion (ROM), strength and pain on a visual analogue scale (VAS). Additionally, the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (QuickDASH) and the Mayo Wrist Score were assessed. A computerized tomography (CT) of the wrist was obtained six weeks postoperatively. After semi-automated segmentation of the CT scans, the models were post processed and surveyed.
Results
During the six-month follow-up mean range of motion (ROM) of the operated wrist was 60°, consisting of 30° extension and 30° flexion. While pain levels decreased significantly, 54% of grip strength and 89% of pinch strength were preserved compared to the contralateral healthy wrist. Union could be detected in all CT scans of the wrist. While X-ray pictures obtained postoperatively revealed no pathology, two user related technical complications were found through the 3D analysis, which correlated to the clinical outcome.
Conclusion
Due to semi-automated segmentation and 3D analysis it has been proved that the plate design can keep up to the manufacturers’ promises. Over all, this case series confirmed that the plate can compete with the coexisting techniques concerning clinical outcome, union and complication rate.
Quantification of growth in experimental F98 and C6 rat brain tumours was performed on 51 rat brains, 17 of which have been further assessed by 3D tumour reconstruction. Brains were cryosliced and radio-labelled with a ligand of the peripheral type benzodiazepine-receptor (pBR), 3H-Pk11195 [(1-(2-chlorophenyl)-N-methyl-N-(1-methyl-propylene)-3-isoquinoline-carboxamide)] by receptor autoradiography. Manually segmented and automatically registered tumours have been 3D-reconstructed for volumetric comparison on the basis of 3H-Pk11195-based tumour recognition. Furthermore automatically computed areas of −300 μm inner (marginal) zone as well as 300 μm and 600 μm outer tumour space were quantified. These three different regions were transferred onto other adjacent slices that had been labelled by receptor autoradiography with the A1 Adenosine receptor (A1AR)-ligand 3H-CPFPX (3H-8-cyclopentyl-3-(3-fluorpropyl)-1-propylxanthine) for quantitative assessment of A1AR in the three different tumour zones. Hence, a method is described for quantifying various receptor protein systems in the tumour as well as in the marginal invasive zones around experimentally implanted rat brain tumours and their representation in the tumour microenvironment as well as in 3D space. Furthermore, a tool for automatically reading out radio-labelled rat brain slices from auto radiographic films was developed, reconstructed into a consistent 3D-tumour model and the zones around the tumour were visualized. A1AR expression was found to depend upon the tumour volume in C6 animals, but is independent on the time of tumour development. In F98 animals, a significant increase in A1AR receptor protein was found in the Peritumoural zone as a function of time of tumour development and tumour volume.
Purpose: In this trial, we used a previously developed prototype software to assess aesthetic results after reconstructive surgery for congenital breast asymmetry using automated anthropometry. To prove the consensus between the manual and automatic digital measurements, we evaluated the software by comparing the manual and automatic measurements of 46 breasts.
Methods: Twenty-three patients who underwent reconstructive surgery for congenital breast asymmetry at our institution were examined and underwent 3D surface imaging. Per patient, 14 manual and 14 computer-based anthropometric measurements were obtained according to a standardized protocol. Manual and automatic measurements, as well as the previously proposed Symmetry Index (SI), were compared.
Results: The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed no significant differences in six of the seven measurements between the automatic and manual assessments. The SI showed robust agreement between the automatic and manual methods.
Conclusion: The present trial validates our method for digital anthropometry. Despite the discrepancy in one measurement, all remaining measurements, including the SI, showed high agreement between the manual and automatic methods. The proposed data bring us one step closer to the long-term goal of establishing robust instruments to evaluate the results of breast surgery.
Volumetric representations of autoradiographic and histological images gain ever more interest as a base to interpret data obtained with /spl mu/-imaging devices like microPET. Beyond supporting spatial orientation within rat brains especially autoradiographic images may serve as a base to quantitatively evaluate the complex uptake patterns of microPET studies with receptor ligands or tumor tracers. They may also serve for the development of rat brain atlases or data models, which can be explored during further image analysis or simulation studies. In all cases a consistent spatial representation of the rat brain, i.e. its anatomy and the corresponding quantitative uptake pattern, is required. This includes both, a restacking of the individual two-dimensional images and the exact registration of the respective volumes. We propose strategies how these volumes can be created in a consistent way and trying to limit the requirements on the circumstances during data acquisition, i.e. being independent from other sources like video imaging of the block face prior to cutting or high resolution micro-X-ray CT or micro MRI.
Virtual training of bone milling requires realtime and realistic haptics of the interaction between the ”virtual mill” and a ”virtual bone”. We propose an exponential abrasion model between a virtual one and the mill bit and combine it with a coarse representation of the virtual bone and the mill shaft for collision detection using the Bullet Physics Engine. We compare our exponential abrasion model to a widely used linear abrasion model and evaluate it quantitatively and qualitatively. The evaluation results show, that we can provide virtual milling in real-time, with an abrasion behavior similar to that proposed in the literature and with a realistic feeling of five different surgeons.
Whole-body PET/CT imaging
(2008)
Aim
Combined whole-body (WB) PET/CT imaging provides better overall co-registration compared to separate CT and PET. However, in clinical routine local PET-CT mis-registration cannot be avoided. Thus, the reconstructed PET tracer distribution may be biased when using the misaligned CT transmission data for CT-based attenuation correction (CT-AC). We investigate the feasibility of retrospective co-registration techniques to align CT and PET images prior to CT-AC, thus improving potentially the quality of combined PET/CT imaging in clinical routine.
Methods
First, using a commercial software registration package CT images were aligned to the uncorrected PET data by rigid and non-rigid registration methods. Co-registration accuracy of both alignment approaches was assessed by reviewing the PET tracer uptake patterns (visual, linked cursor display) following attenuation correction based on the original and co-registered CT. Second, we investigated non-rigid registration based on a prototype ITK implementation of the B-spline algorithm on a similar targeted MR-CT registration task, there showing promising results.
Results
Manual rigid, landmark-based co-registration introduced unacceptable misalignment, in particular in peripheral areas of the whole-body images. Manual, non-rigid landmark-based co-registration prior to CT-AC was successful with minor loco-regional distortions. Nevertheless, neither rigid nor non-rigid automatic co-registration based on the Mutual Information image to image metric succeeded in co-registering the CT and noAC-PET images. In contrast to widely available commercial software registration our implementation of an alternative automated, non-rigid B-spline co-registration technique yielded promising results in this setting with MR-CT data.
Conclusion
In clinical PET/CT imaging, retrospective registration of CT and uncorrected PET images may improve the quality of the AC-PET images. As of today no validated and clinically viable commercial registration software is in routine use. This has triggered our efforts in pursuing new approaches to a validated, non-rigid co-registration algorithm applicable to whole-body PET/CT imaging of which first results are presented here. This approach appears suitable for applications in retrospective WB-PET/CT alignment.
Ziel
Kombinierte PET/CT-Bildgebung ermöglicht verbesserte Koregistrierung von PET- und CT-Daten gegenüber separat akquirierten Bildern. Trotzdem entstehen in der klinischen Anwendung lokale Fehlregistrierungen, die zu Fehlern in der rekonstruierten PET- Tracerverteilung führen können, falls die unregistrierten CT-Daten zur Schwächungskorrektur (AC) der Emissionsdaten verwendet werden. Wir untersuchen daher die Anwendung von Bildregistrierungsalgorithmen vor der CT-basierten AC zur Verbesserung der PET-Aufnahmen.
Methoden
Mittels einer kommerziellen Registrierungssoftware wurden die CT-Daten eines PET/CT- Tomographen durch landmarken- und intensitätsbasierte rigide (starre) und nicht-rigide Registrierungsverfahren räumlich an die unkorrigierten PET-Emissionsdaten angepasst und zur AC verwendet. Zur Bewertung wurden die Tracerverteilungen in den PET-Bildern (vor AC, CT-AC, CT-AC nach Koregistrierung) visuell und mit Hilfe korrelierter Fadenkreuze verglichen. Zusätzlich untersuchten wir die ITK-Implementierung der bekannten B-spline basierten, nicht-rigiden Registrierungsansätze im Hinblick auf ihre Verwendbarkeit für die multimodale PET/CT-Ganzkörperregistrierung.
Ergebnisse
Mittels landmarkenbasierter, nicht-rigider Registrierung konnte die Tracerverteilung in den PET-Daten lokal verbessert werden. Landmarkenbasierte rigide Registrierung führte zu starker Fehlregistrierung in entfernten Körperregionen. Automatische rigide und nicht-rigide Registrierung unter Verwendung der Mutual-Information-Ähnlichkeitsmetrik versagte auf allen verwendeten Datensätzen. Die automatische Registrierung mit B-spline-Funktionen zeigte vielversprechende Resultate in der Anwendung auf einem ähnlich gelagerten CT–MR-Registrierungsproblem.
Fazit
Retrospektive, nicht-rigide Registrierung unkorrigierter PET- und CT-Aufnahmen aus kombinierten Aufnahmensystemen vor der AC kann die Qualität von PET-Aufnahmen im klinischen Einsatz verbessern. Trotzdem steht bis heute im klinischen Alltag keine validierte, automatische Registrierungssoftware zur Verfügung. Wir verfolgen dazu Ansätze für validierte, nicht-rigide Bildregistrierung für den klinischen Einsatz und präsentieren erste Ergebnisse.
Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.
Bioimaging of Metals by Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)
(2010)
The distribution analysis of (essential, beneficial, or toxic) metals (e.g., Cu, Fe, Zn, Pb, and others), metalloids, and non‐metals in biological tissues is of key interest in life science. Over the past few years, the development and application of several imaging mass spectrometric techniques has been rapidly growing in biology and medicine. Especially, in brain research metalloproteins are in the focus of targeted therapy approaches of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, or stroke, or tumor growth. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) using double‐focusing sector field (LA‐ICP‐SFMS) or quadrupole‐based mass spectrometers (LA‐ICP‐QMS) has been successfully applied as a powerful imaging (mapping) technique to produce quantitative images of detailed regionally specific element distributions in thin tissue sections of human or rodent brain. Imaging LA‐ICP‐QMS was also applied to investigate metal distributions in plant and animal sections to study, for example, the uptake and transport of nutrient and toxic elements or environmental contamination. The combination of imaging LA‐ICP‐MS of metals with proteomic studies using biomolecular mass spectrometry identifies metal‐containing proteins and also phosphoproteins. Metal‐containing proteins were imaged in a two‐dimensional gel after electrophoretic separation of proteins (SDS or Blue Native PAGE). Recent progress in LA‐ICP‐MS imaging as a stand‐alone technique and in combination with MALDI/ESI‐MS for selected life science applications is summarized.
Signal transmission between different brain regions requires connecting fiber tracts, the structural basis of the human connectome. In contrast to animal brains, where a multitude of tract tracing methods can be used, magnetic resonance (MR)-based diffusion imaging is presently the only promising approach to study fiber tracts between specific human brain regions. However, this procedure has various inherent restrictions caused by its relatively low spatial resolution. Here, we introduce 3D-polarized light imaging (3D-PLI) to map the three-dimensional course of fiber tracts in the human brain with a resolution at a submillimeter scale based on a voxel size of 100 μm isotropic or less. 3D-PLI demonstrates nerve fibers by utilizing their intrinsic birefringence of myelin sheaths surrounding axons. This optical method enables the demonstration of 3D fiber orientations in serial microtome sections of entire human brains. Examples for the feasibility of this novel approach are given here. 3D-PLI enables the study of brain regions of intense fiber crossing in unprecedented detail, and provides an independent evaluation of fiber tracts derived from diffusion imaging data.
Although it has long been presumed that d-amino acids are uncommon in mammalians, substantial amounts of free d-serine have been detected in the mammalian brain. d-Serine has been demonstrated to be an important modulator of glutamatergic neurotransmission and acts as an agonist at the strychnine-insensitive glycine site of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors. The blood-to-brain transfer of d-serine is thought to be extremely low, and it is assumed that d-serine is generated by isomerization of l-serine in the brain. Stimulated by the observation of a preferred transport of the d-isomer of proline at the blood–brain barrier, we investigated the differential uptake of [3H]-d-serine and [3H]-l-serine in the rat brain 1 h after intravenous injection using quantitative autoradiography. Surprisingly, brain uptake of [3H]-d-serine was significantly higher than that of [3H]-l-serine, indicating a preferred transport of the d-enantiomer of serine at the blood–brain barrier. This finding indicates that exogenous d-serine may have a direct influence on glutamatergic neurotransmission and associated diseases.
Objective:
Complex hue/saturation images as a new approach for color texture classification using Gabor filters are introduced and compared with common techniques.
Method:
The interpretation of hue and saturationas polar coordinates allows direct use of the HSV-colorspace for Fourier transform. This technique is applied for Gabor feature extraction of color textures. In contrast to other color features based on the RGB-colorspace [1] the combination of color bands is done previous to the filtering.
Results:
The performance of the new HS-featuresis compared with that of RGB based as well as grayscale Gabor features by evaluating the classifi-cation of 30 natural textures. The new HS-featuresshow same results like the best RGB features but allow a more compact representation. On the averagethe color features improve the results of grayscale features.
Conclusion:
The consideration of the color information enhances the classification of color texture. The choice of colorspace cannot be adjudged finally, but the introduced features suggest the use of the HSV-colorspace with less features than RGB.
For accurate registration of histological sections blockface images are frequently used as three dimensional reference. However, due to the use of endocentric lenses the images suffer from perspective errors such as scaling and seemingly relative movement of planes which are located in different distances parallel to the imaging sensor. The suggested correction of those errors is based on the estimation of scaling factors derived from image registration of regions characterized by differing distances to the point of view in neighboring sections. The correction allows the generation of a consistent three dimensional blockface volume.
Whilst considerable progress has been made in enhancing the quality of indirect laryngoscopy and image processing, the evaluation of clinical findings is still based on the clinician's judgement. The aim of this paper was to examine the feasibility of an objective computer-based method for evaluating laryngeal disease. Digitally recorded images obtained by 90 degree- and 70 degree-angled indirect rod laryngoscopy using standardized white balance values were made of 16 patients and 19 healthy subjects. The digital images were evaluated manually by the clinician based on a standardized questionnaire, and suspect lesions were marked and classified on the image. Following colour separation, normal vocal cord areas as well as suspect lesions were analyzed automatically using co-occurrence matrices, which compare colour differences between neighbouring pixels over a predefined distance. Whilst colour histograms did not provide sufficient information for distinguishing between healthy and diseased tissues, consideration of the blue content of neighbouring pixels enabled a correct classification in 81.4% of cases. If all colour channels (red, green and blue) were regarded simultaneously, the best classification correctness obtained was 77.1%. Although only a very basic classification differentiating between healthy and diseased tissue was attempted, the results showed progress compared to grey-scale histograms, which have been evaluated before. The results document a first step towards an objective, machine-based classification of laryngeal images, which could provide the basis for further development of an expert system for use in indirect laryngoscopy.
Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has been developed and established as an emerging technique in the generation of quantitative images of metal distributions in thin tissue sections of brain samples (such as human, rat and mouse brain), with applications in research related to neurodegenerative disorders. A new analytical protocol is described which includes sample preparation by cryo-cutting of thin tissue sections and matrix-matched laboratory standards, mass spectrometric measurements, data acquisition, and quantitative analysis. Specific examples of the bioimaging of metal distributions in normal rodent brains are provided. Differences to the normal were assessed in a Parkinson’s disease and a stroke brain model. Furthermore, changes during normal aging were studied. Powerful analytical techniques are also required for the determination and characterization of metal-containing proteins within a large pool of proteins, e.g., after denaturing or non-denaturing electrophoretic separation of proteins in one-dimensional and two-dimensional gels. LA-ICP-MS can be employed to detect metalloproteins in protein bands or spots separated after gel electrophoresis. MALDI-MS can then be used to identify specific metal-containing proteins in these bands or spots. The combination of these techniques is described in the second section.
In order to fix a fracture using minimally invasive surgery approaches, surgeons are drilling complex and tiny bones with a 2 dimensional X-ray as single imaging modality in the operating room. Our novel haptic force-feedback and visual assisted training system will potentially help hand surgeons to learn the drilling procedure in a realistic visual environment. Within the simulation, the collision detection as well as the interaction between virtual drill, bone voxels and surfaces are important. In this work, the chai3d collision detection and force calculation algorithms are combined with a physics engine to simulate the bone drilling process. The chosen Bullet-Physics-Engine provides a stable simulation of rigid bodies, if the collision model of the drill and the tool holder is generated as a compound shape. Three haptic points are added to the K-wire tip for removing single voxels from the bone. For the drilling process three modes are proposed to emulate the different phases of drilling in restricting the movement of a haptic device.
Laryngoscopic images of the vocal tract are used for diagnostic purposes. Quantitative mea-surements like changes of the glottis size or the surface of the vocal cords during an image sequence can be helpful to describe the healing process or to compare the findings of diffe-rent patients. Typically the endoscopic images are circulary symmetric distorted (barrel di-stortion). Therefore measurements of geometric dimensions depend on the object´s position in the image. In this paper an algorithm is presented which allows the computation of the translational invariant "real" object size by correcting the image distortion without using additional calibration of the optical environment.
Evaluierung von Registrierungsstrategien zur multimodalen 3D-Rekonstruktion von Rattenhirnschnitten
(2006)
In dieser Arbeit werden drei Strategien zur 3D Stapelung von multimodalen Schnittbildern vorgestellt. Die Strategien werden experimentell anhand von Dualtracer-Autoradiographien evaluiert. Dazu werden neue Maße zur Beschreibung der Konsistenz innerhalb einer Modalität und der Konsistenz der Modalitäten untereinander entwickelt, die auf bekannten Registrierungsmetriken basieren. Gerade bezüglich der Konsistenz der Modalitäten untereinander zeigen zwei Strategien die besten Resultate: (1) abwechselnde multimodale Registrierung (2) monomodale Rekonstruktion einer Modalität und multimodale 2D Registrierung der zweiten Modalität.
Nutzung eines Farbkonstanz-Algorithmus zur Entfernung von Glanzlichtern in laryngoskopischen Bildern
(1998)
1 Einführung
Funktionelle und organische Störungen im Larynx beeinträchtigen die Ausdrucksfähigkeit des Menschen. Zur Diagnostik und Verlaufkontrolle werden die Stimmlippen im Larynx mit Hilfe der Video-Laryngoskopie aufgenommen. Zur optimalen Farbmessung wird dazu an das Lupenendoskop eine 3-Chip-CCD-Kamera angeschlossen, die eine unabhängige Aufnahme der drei Farbkanäle erlaubt. Die bisherige subjektive Befundung ist von der Erfahrung des Untersuchers abhängig und läßt nur eine grobe Klassifikation der Krankheitsbilder zu. Zur Objektivierung werden daher quantitative Parameter für Farbe, Textur und Schwingung entwickelt. Neben dem Einfluß der wechselnden Lichtquellenfarbe auf den Farbeindruck ist die Sekretauflage auf den Stimmlippen ein Problem bei der Farb-und Texturanalyse. Sie kann zu ausgedehnten Glanzlichtern führen und so weite Bereiche der Stimmlippen für die Farb-und Texturanalyse unbrauchbar machen. Dieser Beitrag stellt einen Farbkonstanz-Algorithmus vor, der unabhängig von der Lichtquelle quantitative Farbwerte des Gewebes liefert und die Glanzlichtdetektion und -elimination ermöglicht.
2 Methodik
Ziel des Farbkonstanz-Algorithmus ist die Trennung von Lichtquellen-und Gewebefarbe. Unter Verwendung des dichromatischen Reflexionsmodells [1] kann die Oberflächenreflexion mit der Farbe der Lichtquelle und die Körperreflexion mit der Gewebefarbe identifiziert werden. Der Farbeindruck entsteht aus der Linearkombination beider Farbkomponenten. Ihre Gewichtung ist von der Aufnahmegeometrie abhängig, insbesondere vom Winkel zwischen Oberflächennormalen und dem Positionsvektor der Lichtquelle. In einem zweistufigen Verfahren wird zunächst die Lichtquellenfarbe geschätzt, dann die Gewebefarbe ermittelt. Hieraus können beide Farbanteile durch die Berechnung der Gewichtsfaktoren pixelweise getrennt werden.
Metals are involved in many processes of life. They are needed for enzymatic reactions, are involved in healthy processes but also yield diseases if the metal homeostasis is disordered. Therefore, the interest to assess the spatial distribution of metals is rising in biomedical science. Imaging metal (and non-metal) isotopes by laser ablation mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (LA-ICP-MS) requires a special software solution to process raw data obtained by scanning a sample line-by-line. As no software ready to use was available we developed an interactive software tool for Image Generation and Analysis (IMAGENA). Unless optimised for LA-ICP-MS, IMAGENA can handle other raw data as well. The general purpose was to reconstruct images from a continuous list of raw data points, to visualise these images, and to convert them into a commonly readable image file format that can be further analysed by standard image analysis software. The generation of the image starts with loading a text file that holds a data column of every measured isotope. Specifying general spatial domain settings like the data offset and the image dimensions is done by the user getting a direct feedback by means of a preview image. IMAGENA provides tools for calibration and to correct for a signal drift in the y-direction. Images are visualised in greyscale as well a pseudo-colours with possibilities for contrast enhancement. Image analysis is performed in terms of smoothed line plots in row and column direction.
In neuroscience, small-animal studies frequently involve dealing with series of images from multiple modalities such as histology and autoradiography. The consistent and bias-free restacking of multi-modality image series is obligatory as a starting point for subsequent non-rigid registration procedures and for quantitative comparisons with positron emission tomography (PET) and other in vivo data. Up to now, consistency between 2D slices without cross validation using an inherent 3D modality is frequently presumed to be close to the true morphology due to the smooth appearance of the contours of anatomical structures. However, in multi-modality stacks consistency is difficult to assess. In this work, consistency is defined in terms of smoothness of neighboring slices within a single modality and between different modalities. Registration bias denotes the distortion of the registered stack in comparison to the true 3D morphology and shape. Based on these metrics, different restacking strategies of multi-modality rat brain slices are experimentally evaluated. Experiments based on MRI-simulated and real dual-tracer autoradiograms reveal a clear bias of the restacked volume despite quantitatively high consistency and qualitatively smooth brain structures. However, different registration strategies yield different inter-consistency metrics. If no genuine 3D modality is available, the use of the so-called SOP (slice-order preferred) or MOSOP (modality-and-slice-order preferred) strategy is recommended.
Polarized light imaging (PLI) enables the evaluation of fiber orientations in histological sections of human postmortem brains, with ultra-high spatial resolution. PLI is based on the birefringent properties of the myelin sheath of nerve fibers. As a result, the polarization state of light propagating through a rotating polarimeter is changed in such a way that the detected signal at each measurement unit of a charged-coupled device (CCD) camera describes a sinusoidal signal. Vectors of the fiber orientation defined by inclination and direction angles can then directly be derived from the optical signals employing PLI analysis. However, noise, light scatter and filter inhomogeneities interfere with the original sinusoidal PLI signals. We here introduce a novel method using independent component analysis (ICA) to decompose the PLI images into statistically independent component maps. After decomposition, gray and white matter structures can clearly be distinguished from noise and other artifacts. The signal enhancement after artifact rejection is quantitatively evaluated in 134 histological whole brain sections. Thus, the primary sinusoidal signals from polarized light imaging can be effectively restored after noise and artifact rejection utilizing ICA. Our method therefore contributes to the analysis of nerve fiber orientation in the human brain within a micrometer scale.
The development of adenocarcinoma in Barrett’s esophagus is difficult to detect by endoscopic surveillance of patients with signs of dysplasia. Computer assisted diagnosis of endoscopic images (CAD) could therefore be most helpful in the demarcation and classification of neoplastic lesions. In this study we tested the feasibility of a CAD method based on Speeded up Robust Feature Detection (SURF). A given database containing 100 images from 39 patients served as benchmark for feature based classification models. Half of the images had previously been diagnosed by five clinical experts as being ”cancerous”, the other half as ”non-cancerous”. Cancerous image regions had been visibly delineated (masked) by the clinicians. SURF features acquired from full images as well as from masked areas were utilized for the supervised training and testing of an SVM classifier. The predictive accuracy of the developed CAD system is illustrated by sensitivity and specificity values. The results based on full image matching where 0.78 (sensitivity) and 0.82 (specificity) were achieved, while the masked region approach generated results of 0.90 and 0.95, respectively.
Video Documentation of endoscopic findings simplifies diagnostic counseling of the patient and aids pre-operative discussion among the medical team. Judgment of such images is still subjective and can not give a quantitative evaluation of the disease process regarding diagnosis or response to treatment. Modern treatment of early laryngeal cancer with laserablation requires intensive follow up and frequent direct laryngoscopy under general anesthesia with blind biopsies to detect any tumor residual or recurrence. Inflammatory conditions of the larynx are frequently confused with other causes of dysphonia. Mapping anddigital analysis of the documented image will suggest the tumor site and avoids undue blind biopsies under anesthesia. However, varying illumination results in different colors reflected from the same object. To achieve quantitative analysis, color constancy has to be assured. Inthis paper, the environment is presented which allow the objective judgment of larngoscopies.
The estimation of illuminant color is mandatory for many applications in the field of color image quantification. However, it is an unresolved problem if no additional heuristics or restrictive assumptions apply. Assuming uniformly colored and roundly shaped objects, Lee has presented a theory and a method for computing the scene-illuminant chromaticity from specular highlights [H. C. Lee, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3, 1694 (1986)]. However, Lee’s method, called image path search, is less robust to noise and is limited in the handling of microtextured surfaces. We introduce a novel approach to estimate the color of a single illuminant for noisy and microtextured images, which frequently occur in real-world scenes. Using dichromatic regions of different colored surfaces, our approach, named color line search, reverses Lee’s strategy of image path search. Reliable color lines are determined directly in the domain of the color diagrams by three steps. First, regions of interest are automatically detected around specular highlights, and local color diagrams are computed. Second, color lines are determined according to the dichromatic reflection model by Hough transform of the color diagrams. Third, a consistency check is applied by a corresponding path search in the image domain. Our method is evaluated on 40 natural images of fruit and vegetables. In comparison with those of Lee’s method, accuracy and stability are substantially improved. In addition, the color line search approach can easily be extended to scenes of objects with macrotextured surfaces.
Zur diagnostischen Unterstützung bei der Befundung laryngealer Erkrankungen soll eine Farb- und Formanalyse der Stimmlippen durchgeführt werden. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Verfahren zur Trennung der spiegelnden und diffusen Reflexionsanteile in Farbbildern des Larynx vorgestellt. Die Farbe der diffusen Komponente entspricht dabei der beleuchtungsunabhängigen Objektfarbe, während deren Wichtungsfaktoren als Eingabe für Shape-from-Shading-Verfahren zur Oberflächenrekonstruktion dienen.
A method for automated segmentation of vocal cords in stroboscopic video sequences is presented.
In contrast to earlier approaches, the inner and outer contours of the vocal cords are independently delineated. Automatic segmentation of the low contrasted images is carried out by connecting the shape constraint of a point distribution model to a multi-channel regionbased balloon model. This enables us to robustly compute a vibration profile that is used as a new diagnostic tool to visualize several vibration parameters in only one graphic. The vibration profiles are studied in two cases: one physiological vibration and one functional pathology.
Serial 2D section images with high resolution, resulting from innovative imaging methods become even more valuable, if they are fused with in vivo volumes. Achieving this goal, the 3D context of the sections would be restored, the deformations would be corrected and the artefacts would be eliminated. However, the registration in this field faces big challenges and is not solved in general. On the other hand, several approaches have been introduced dealing at least with some of these difficulties. Here, a brief overview of the topic is given and some of the solutions are presented. It does not constitute the claim to be a complete review, but could be a starting point for those who are interested in this field.
Background: For surgical fixation of bone fractures of the human hand, so-called Kirschner-wires (K-wires) are drilled through bone fragments. Due to the minimally invasive drilling procedures without a view of risk structures like vessels and nerves, a thorough training of young surgeons is necessary. For the development of a virtual reality (VR) based training system, a three-dimensional (3D) printed phantom hand is required. To ensure an intuitive operation, this phantom hand has to be realistic in both, its position relative to the driller as well as in its haptic features. The softest 3D printing material available on the market, however, is too hard to imitate human soft tissue. Therefore, a support-material (SUP) filled metamaterial is used to soften the raw material. Realistic haptic features are important to palpate protrusions of the bone to determine the drilling starting point and angle. An optical real-time tracking is used to transfer position and rotation to the training system.
Methods: A metamaterial already developed in previous work is further improved by use of a new unit cell. Thus, the amount of SUP within the volume can be increased and the tissue is softened further. In addition, the human anatomy is transferred to the entire hand model. A subcutaneous fat layer and penetration of air through pores into the volume simulate shiftability of skin layers. For optical tracking, a rotationally symmetrical marker attached to the phantom hand with corresponding reference marker is developed. In order to ensure trouble-free position transmission, various types of marker point applications are tested.
Results: Several cuboid and forearm sample prints lead to a final 30 centimeter long hand model. The whole haptic phantom could be printed faultless within about 17 hours. The metamaterial consisting of the new unit cell results in an increased SUP share of 4.32%. Validated by an expert surgeon study, this allows in combination with a displacement of the uppermost skin layer a good palpability of the bones. Tracking of the hand marker in dodecahedron design works trouble-free in conjunction with a reference marker attached to the worktop of the training system.
Conclusions: In this work, an optically tracked and haptically correct phantom hand was developed using dual-material 3D printing, which can be easily integrated into a surgical training system.
Objectives: C-11-methionine (MET) is particularly useful in brain tumor diagnosis but unspecific uptake e.g. in cerebral ischemia has been reported (1). The F-18-labeled amino acid O-(2-[F-18]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (FET) shows a similar clinical potential as MET in brain tumor diagnosis but is applicable on a wider clinical scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate the uptake of FET and H-3-MET in focal cortical ischemia in rats by dual tracer autoradiography.
Methods: Focal cortical ischemia was induced in 12 Fisher CDF rats using the photothrombosis model (PT). One day (n=3) , two days (n=5) and 7 days (n=4) after induction of the lesion FET and H-3-MET were injected intravenously. One hour after tracer injection animals were killed, the brains were removed immediately and frozen in 2-methylbutane at -50°C. Brains were cut in coronal sections (thickness: 20 µm) and exposed first to H-3 insensitive photoimager plates to measure FET distribution. After decay of F-18 the distribution of H-3-MET was determined. The autoradiograms were evaluated by regions of interest (ROIs) placed on areas with increased tracer uptake in the PT and the contralateral brain. Lesion to brain ratios (L/B) were calculated by dividing the mean uptake in the lesion and the brain. Based on previous studies in gliomas a L/B ratio > 1.6 was considered as pathological for FET.
Results: Variable increased uptake of both tracers was observed in the PT and its demarcation zone at all stages after PT. The cut-off level of 1.6 for FET was exceeded in 9/12 animals. One day after PT the L/B ratios were 2.0 ± 0.6 for FET vs. 2.1 ± 1.0 for MET (mean ± SD); two days after lesion 2.2 ± 0.7 for FET vs. 2.7 ± 1.0 for MET and 7 days after lesion 2.4 ± 0.4 for FET vs. 2.4 ± 0.1 for MET. In single cases discrepancies in the uptake pattern of FET and MET were observed.
Conclusions: FET like MET may exhibit significant uptake in infarcted areas or the immediate vincinity which has to be considered in the differential diagnosis of unkown brain lesions. The discrepancies in the uptake pattern of FET and MET in some cases indicates either differences in the transport mechanisms of both amino acids or a different affinity for certain cellular components.
Despite multimodal treatment, the prognosis of high-grade gliomas is grim. As tumor growth is critically dependent on new blood vessel formation, antiangiogenic treatment approaches offer an innovative treatment strategy. Bevacizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody, has been in the spotlight of antiangiogenic approaches for several years. Currently, MRI including contrast-enhanced T1-weighted and T2/fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images is routinely used to evaluate antiangiogenic treatment response (Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology criteria). However, by restoring the blood–brain barrier, bevacizumab may reduce T1 contrast enhancement and T2/FLAIR hyperintensity, thereby obscuring the imaging-based detection of progression. The aim of this review is to highlight the recent role of imaging biomarkers from MR and PET imaging on measurement of disease progression and treatment effectiveness in antiangiogenic therapies. Based on the reviewed studies, multimodal imaging combining standard MRI with new physiological MRI techniques and metabolic PET imaging, in particular amino acid tracers, may have the ability to detect antiangiogenic drug susceptibility or resistance prior to morphological changes. As advances occur in the development of therapies that target specific biochemical or molecular pathways and alter tumor physiology in potentially predictable ways, the validation of physiological and metabolic imaging biomarkers will become increasingly important in the near future.
Bestimmung der Lichtquellenfarbe bei der Endoskopie mikrotexturierter Oberflächen des Kehlkopfes
(1999)
Zur Unterstützung der Diagnose von Stimmlippenerkrankungen werden innerhalb des Forschungsprojektes Quantitative Digitale Laryngoskopie objektive Parameter zur Beschreibung der Bewegung, der Farbe sowie der Form der Stimmlippen entwickelt und klinisch evaluiert. Während die Bewegungsanalyse Aufschluß über funktionelle Stimmstörungen gibt, beschreiben Parameter der Farb- und Formanalyse morphologische Veränderungen des Stimmlippengewebes. In diesem Beitrag werden die Methoden und bisherigen Ergebnisse zur Bewegungs- und Farbanalyse vorgestellt.
Die Bewegungsanalyse wurde mit einem erweiterten Konturmodell (Snakes) durchgeführt. Aufgrund des modifizierten Konturmodells konnten die Konturen der Stimmlippen automatisch über die gesmate Bildsequenz zuverlässig detektiert werden. Die Vermssung der Konturen liefert neue quantitative Parameter zur Befundung von laryngoskopischen Stimmlippenaufnahmen.
Um die Farbeigenschaften der Stimmlippen zu bestimmen, wurde ausgehend vom RGB-Bild die Objektfarbe unabhängig von der Farbe der Lichtquelle durch Verwendung von Clusterverfahren und der Viertelkreisanalyse berechnet. Mit dieser Farbanalyse konnte die Farbe der Lichtquelle ermittelt und das beleuchtungsunabhängige Farbbild berechnet werden. Die Quanitifizierung der Rötung der Stimmlippen ist z.B. ein entscheidendes Kriterium zur Diagnostik der akuten Laryngitis.
GraphMIC is a cross-platform image processing application utilizing the libraries ITK and OpenCV. The abstract structure of image processing pipelines is visually represented by user interface components based on modern QtQuick technology and allows users to focus on arrangement and parameterization of operations rather than implementing the equivalent functionality natively in C++. The application's central goal is to improve and simplify the typical workflow by providing various high level features and functions like multi threading, image sequence processing and advanced error handling. A built-in python interpreter allows the creation of custom nodes, where user defined algorithms can be integrated to extend basic functionality. An embedded 2d/3d visual-izer gives feedback of the resulting image of an operation or the whole pipeline. User inputs like seed points, contours or regions are forwarded to the processing pipeline as parameters to offer semi-automatic image computing. We report the main concept of the application and introduce several features and their implementation. Finally, the current state of development as well as future perspectives of GraphMIC are discussed
Zur Lösung komplexer Segmentierungsprobleme wird eine hierarchische und farbbasierte Wasserscheidentransformation vorgestellt. Geringe Modifikationen bezüglich Startpunktwahl und Flutungsprozess resultieren in signifikanten Verbesserungen der Segmentierung. Das Verfahren wurde zur Lippendetektion in Farbbildsequenzen eingesetzt, die zur quantitativen Beschreibung von Sprechbewegungsabläufen automatisch ausgewertet werden. Die Experimente mit 245 Bildern aus 6 Sequenzen zeigten eine Fehlerrate von 13%.
Color Texture Analysis of Moving Vocal Cords Using Approaches from Statistics and Signal Theory
(2000)
Textural features are applied for detection of morphological pathologies of vocal cords. Cooccurrence matrices as statistical features are presented as well as filter bank analysis by Gabor filters. Both methods are extended to handle color images. Their robustness against camera movement and vibration of vocal cords is evaluated. Classification results due to three in vivo sequences are in between 94.4 % and 98.9%. The classification errors decrease if color features are used instead of grayscale features for both statistical and Fourier features
Purpose
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common threat to vision. While classification of disease stages is critical to understanding disease risk and progression, several systems based on color fundus photographs are known. Most of these require in-depth and time-consuming analysis of fundus images. Herein, we present an automated computer-based classification algorithm.
Design Algorithm development for AMD classification based on a large collection of color fundus images. Validation is performed on a cross-sectional, population-based study.
Participants.
We included 120 656 manually graded color fundus images from 3654 Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) participants. AREDS participants were >55 years of age, and non-AMD sight-threatening diseases were excluded at recruitment. In addition, performance of our algorithm was evaluated in 5555 fundus images from the population-based Kooperative Gesundheitsforschung in der Region Augsburg (KORA; Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) study.
Methods.
We defined 13 classes (9 AREDS steps, 3 late AMD stages, and 1 for ungradable images) and trained several convolution deep learning architectures. An ensemble of network architectures improved prediction accuracy. An independent dataset was used to evaluate the performance of our algorithm in a population-based study.
Main Outcome Measures.
κ Statistics and accuracy to evaluate the concordance between predicted and expert human grader classification.
Results.
A network ensemble of 6 different neural net architectures predicted the 13 classes in the AREDS test set with a quadratic weighted κ of 92% (95% confidence interval, 89%–92%) and an overall accuracy of 63.3%. In the independent KORA dataset, images wrongly classified as AMD were mainly the result of a macular reflex observed in young individuals. By restricting the KORA analysis to individuals >55 years of age and prior exclusion of other retinopathies, the weighted and unweighted κ increased to 50% and 63%, respectively. Importantly, the algorithm detected 84.2% of all fundus images with definite signs of early or late AMD. Overall, 94.3% of healthy fundus images were classified correctly.
Conclusions
Our deep learning algoritm revealed a weighted κ outperforming human graders in the AREDS study and is suitable to classify AMD fundus images in other datasets using individuals >55 years of age.
Integrative Co-occurrence matrices are introduced as novel features for color texture classification. The extended Co-occurrence notation allows the comparison between integrative and parallel color texture concepts. The information profit of the new matrices is shown quantitatively using the Kolmogorov distance and by extensive classification experiments on two datasets. Applying them to the RGB and the LUV color space the combined color and intensity textures are studied and the existence of intensity independent pure color patterns is demonstrated. The results are compared with two baselines: gray-scale texture analysis and color histogram analysis. The novel features improve the classification results up to 20% and 32% for the first and second baseline, respectively.
Purpose
MR-based attenuation correction (AC) will become an integral part of combined PET/MR systems. Here, we propose a toolbox to validate MR-AC of clinical PET/MRI data sets.
Methods
Torso scans of ten patients were acquired on a combined PET/CT and on a 1.5-T MRI system. MR-based attenuation data were derived from the CT following MR–CT image co-registration and subsequent histogram matching. PET images were reconstructed after CT- (PET/CT) and MR-based AC (PET/MRI). Lesion-to-background (L/B) ratios were estimated on PET/CT and PET/MRI.
Results
MR–CT histogram matching leads to a mean voxel intensity difference in the CT- and MR-based attenuation images of 12% (max). Mean differences between PET/MRI and PET/CT were 19% (max). L/B ratios were similar except for the lung where local misregistration and intensity transformation leads to a biased PET/MRI.
Conclusion
Our toolbox can be used to study pitfalls in MR-AC. We found that co-registration accuracy and pixel value transformation determine the accuracy of PET/MRI.
Mass spectrometric imaging (MSI) is a young innovative analytical technique and combines different fields of advanced mass spectrometry and biomedical research with the aim to provide maps of elements and molecules, complexes or fragments. Especially essential metals such as zinc, copper, iron and manganese play a functional role in signaling, metabolism and homeostasis of the cell. Due to the high degree of spatial organization of metals in biological systems their distribution analysis is of key interest in life sciences. We have developed analytical techniques termed BrainMet using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) imaging to measure the distribution of trace metals in biological tissues for biomedical research and feasibility studies—including bioaccumulation and bioavailability studies, ecological risk assessment and toxicity studies in humans and other organisms. The analytical BrainMet techniques provide quantitative images of metal distributions in brain tissue slices which can be combined with other imaging modalities such as photomicrography of native or processed tissue (histochemistry, immunostaining) and autoradiography or with in vivo techniques such as positron emission tomography or magnetic resonance tomography.
Prospective and instrumental developments will be discussed concerning the development of the metalloprotein microscopy using a laser microdissection (LMD) apparatus for specific sample introduction into an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LMD-ICP-MS) or an application of the near field effect in LA-ICP-MS (NF-LA-ICP-MS). These nano-scale mass spectrometric techniques provide improved spatial resolution down to the single cell level.
Local gray level dependencies of natural images can be modelled by means of co-occurrence matrices containing joint probabilities of gray-level pairs. Texture, however, is a resolution-dependent phenomenon and hence, classification depends on the chosen scale. Since there is no optimal scale for all textures we employ a multiscale approach that acquires textural features at several scales. Thus linear and nonlinear scale-spaces are analyzed by multiscale co-occurrence matrices that describe the statistical behavior of a texture in scale-space. Classification is then performed on the basis of texture features taken from the individual scale with the highest discriminatory power. By considering cross-scale occurrences of gray level pairs, the impact of filters on the feature is described and used for classification of natural textures. This novel method was found to improve classification rates of the common co-occurrence matrix approach on standard textures significantly.