Identification of Stroke and TIA in Patients With Acute Dizziness, Vertigo or Imbalance in Emergency Departments of Primary Care Hospitals: Early Experiences With a Network-Based Telemedical Approach.

Background: Acute dizziness, vertigo, and imbalance are frequent and difficult to interpret symptoms in the emergency department (ED). Primary care hospitals often lack the expertise to identify stroke or TIA as underlying causes. A telemedical approach based on telestroke networks may offer adequate diagnostics and treatment.

Feasibility of Telemedical HINTS (Head Impulse-Nystagmus-Test of Skew) Evaluation in Patients With Acute Dizziness or Vertigo in the Emergency Department of Primary Care Hospitals.

Background: Acute dizziness, vertigo and imbalance are common symptoms in emergency departments. Stroke needs to be distinguished from vestibular diseases. A battery of three clinical bedside tests (HINTS: Head Impulse Test, Nystagmus, Test of Skew) has been shown to detect stroke as underlying cause with high reliability, but implementation is challenging in primary care hospitals.

X-ray spectrum estimation for accurate attenuation simulation.

Purpose: To estimate detected x-ray spectra from transmission measurements of known attenuators that allow to accurately simulate the transmission in unknown attenuators.

Methods: Starting from the established spectrum estimation method using the truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) we extended the algorithm by incorporating prior knowledge about the statistical nature of the transmission data and about high-frequency spectral components like characteristic peaks. Thereby our proposed approach requires only minimal prior knowledge, namely the energy positions of characteristic peaks or k-edges, which are typically well-known.

Model-based sphere localization (MBSL) in x-ray projections.

The detection of spherical markers in x-ray projections is an important task in a variety of applications, e.g. geometric calibration and detector distortion correction.

A Single-Institution Analysis of 126 Patients Treated with Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases.

Background: The objective of this study was to report our institutional experience with Gamma Knife Radiosurgery (GKRS) in the treatment of patients with brain metastases.

Methods: Retrospectively collected demographic and clinical data on 126 patients with intracranial metastases were reviewed. The patients in our study underwent GKRS at Vidant Medical Center between 2009 and 2014.