FAst Segmentation Through SURface Fairing (FASTSURF): A novel semi-automatic hippocampus segmentation method.

Objective: The objective is to present a proof-of-concept of a semi-automatic method to reduce hippocampus segmentation time on magnetic resonance images (MRI).

Materials And Methods: FAst Segmentation Through SURface Fairing (FASTSURF) is based on a surface fairing technique which reconstructs the hippocampus from sparse delineations. To validate FASTSURF, simulations were performed in which sparse delineations extracted from full manual segmentations served as input.

How hepatitis D virus can hinder the control of hepatitis B virus.

Background: Hepatitis D (or hepatitis delta) virus is a defective virus that relies on hepatitis B virus (HBV) for transmission; infection with hepatitis D can occur only as coinfection with HBV or superinfection of an existing HBV infection. Because of the bond between the two viruses, control measures for HBV may have also affected the spread of hepatitis D, as evidenced by the decline of hepatitis D in recent years. Since the presence of hepatitis D is associated with suppressed HBV replication and possibly infectivity, it is reasonable to speculate that hepatitis D may facilitate the control of HBV.