Automatic segmentation of juxta-pleural tumors from CT images based on morphological feature analysis.

Extraction of lung tumors is a fundamental step for further quantitative analysis of the tumor, but is challenging for juxta-pleural tumors due to the adhesion to the pleurae. An automatic algorithm for segmentation of juxta-pleural tumors based on the analysis of the geometric and morphological features was proposed. Initially, the lung is extracted by means of thresholding using 2D Otsu's method.

Computational fluid dynamics simulation of airflow in the trachea and main bronchi for the subjects with left pulmonary artery sling.

Background: Left pulmonary artery sling (LPAS) is a rare but severe congenital anomaly, in which the stenoses are formed in the trachea and/or main bronchi. Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) provides useful anatomical images, but does not offer functional information. The objective of the present study is to quantitatively analyze the airflow in the trachea and main bronchi of LPAS subjects through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation.

Automatic pulmonary fissure detection and lobe segmentation in CT chest images.

Background: Multi-detector Computed Tomography has become an invaluable tool for the diagnosis of chronic respiratory diseases. Based on CT images, the automatic algorithm to detect the fissures and divide the lung into five lobes will help regionally quantify, amongst others, the lung density, texture, airway and, blood vessel structures, ventilation and perfusion.

Methods: Sagittal adaptive fissure scanning based on the sparseness of the vessels and bronchi is employed to localize the potential fissure region.

PhenOMIM: an OMIM-based secondary database purported for phenotypic comparison.

Phenotypic comparison may provide crucial information for obtaining insights into molecular interactions underlying various diseases. However, few attempts have been made to systematically analyze the phenotypes of hereditary disorders, mainly owing to the poor quality of text descriptions and lack of a unified system of descriptors. Here we present a secondary database, PHENOMIM, for translating the phenotypic data obtained from the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database into a structured form.

Arterial radius estimation from microscopic data using a new algorithm for circle parameter estimation.

We develop and test a new method for automatic determination of vessel wall diameters from image stacks obtained using two-photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM) on viable arteries in perfusion flow chambers. To this extent, a new method is proposed for estimating the parameters of a circle describing the inner diameter of the blood vessels. The new method is based on the Hough transform and the observation that three points that are not colinear uniquely define a circle.