Radiommunological measurement of leptin in plasma of obese and diabetic human subjects.

Studies in mice have identified the ob gene product, leptin, as a signaling factor regulating body weight homeostasis and energy balance. Defective production of the encoded protein may be one of the causes for the development of obesity. Using a high affinity antibody, that in immunohistochemical studies specifically stained human adipocytes, a radioimmunoassay was established and leptin immunoreactivity was quantified in plasma of lean and obese human subjects.

Segmentation of microcalcifications in mammograms.

A systematic method for the detection and segmentation of microcalcifications in mammograms is presented. It is important to preserve size and shape of the individual calcifications as exactly as possible. A reliable diagnosis requires both rates of false positives as well as false negatives to be extremely low.

Visualization of the mucosal villi on double-contrast barium studies of the small intestine by using a high molecular fraction of guaran.

Guaran is a water-soluble polysaccharide from the seed endosperm of Cyanopsis tetragonolobus. A high molecular fraction of guaran, when added to barium, enhances barium coating of the intestinal mucosa. This study reports its use to demonstrate the mucosal villi of the small intestine during double-contrast barium examination in the rat and in the human.

[Film digital and texture analysis for digital classification of pulmonary spot opacities].

The study aimed at evaluating the effect of different methods of digitisation of radiographic films on the digital classification of pulmonary opacities. Test sets from the standard of the International Labour Office (ILO) Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconiosis were prepared by film digitisation using a scanning microdensitometer or a video digitiser based on a personal computer equipped with a real time digitiser board and a vidicon or a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera. Seven different algorithms were used for texture analysis resulting in 16 texture parameters for each region.

[Use of mucolytic agents and guaran Hepart (HP-7000) for imaging mucosal villi in double-contrast studies of the small intestine].

It was the aim of this study to enhance the visualisation of mucosal villi by double contrast barium studies of the small bowel. Prior to the radiological examination a 2-day pretreatment with the mucolytic agents acetylcysteine or carbocisteine was effected. Double contrast studies were performed with a high-molecular fraction of guaran HEPART (HP-7000), a hydrocolloid isolated from the seed endosperm of C.

[Classification of spot-shaped lung changes by texture analysis].

Classification of opacities in pneumoconiosis was accomplished by textural analysis in digitised chest x-rays. A good discrimination was achieved by a set of 10 parameters. These texture measures were computed by algorithms for edge detection, local extremes, difference statistics, the co-occurrence matrix and the power spectrum.

[Sonographic determination of gastric emptying].

A reproducible method for the measurement of gastric emptying by real-time ultrasound is described. Gastric emptying was assessed by determining the decrease of the stomach area of the ultra-sound images during 55 min after fluid uptake. For the purpose of "validation", the gastric emptying time of 3 liquid test meals with different effects on gastric motility were measured.

[Roentgenological demonstration of pathological changes of the mucosa of the small intestine].

Use of a special high molecular guar preparation in small bowel contrast studies results in a roentgenological detection of the villous architecture of the small intestine. A diffuse villous atrophy results in a loss of the normal granular pattern. Segmental loss of granular mucosal texture is found in chronic radiogenic enteritis.

[Multilevel structure isolation using modules based on the example of thoracic radiography].

Conventional chest radiographs were digitized and processed by multilevel band pass filtering. By this procedure different structural components are isolated according to their local spatial frequencies. In chest radiographs a textural component can be separated from a skeletal component.

Light-microscopical demonstration of different cell membrane structures of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBI).

Labelling of membrane structures in human peripheral blood lymphocytes is achieved by a Fe-(III)-hydroxide-glycane-complex. According to the distribution of labelled structures, coarse-granular clustered (about 80%) and fine-granular diffuse marked peripheral blood lymphocytes can be distinguished. Each of these populations seems to have morphologically discernible subpopulations.