Perceived and endocrine acute and chronic stress indicators in fibromyalgia syndrome.

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue and tenderness and closely associated with high levels of stress. FMS is therefore often considered a stress-related disease. A comparative study was conducted with 99 individuals diagnosed with FMS and a control group of 50 pain-free individuals.

Analysis of hydrogen peroxide production in pure water: Ultrahigh versus conventional dose-rate irradiation and mechanistic insights.

Background: Ultrahigh dose-rate radiation (UHDR) produces less hydrogen peroxide (HO) in pure water, as suggested by some experimental studies, and is used as an argument for the validity of the theory that FLASH spares the normal tissue due to less reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. In contrast, most Monte Carlo simulation studies suggest the opposite.

Purpose: We aim to unveil the effect of UHDR on HO production in pure water and its underlying mechanism, to serve as a benchmark for Monte Carlo simulation.

3D-localization of single point-like gamma sources with a coded aperture camera.

3D-localization of gamma sources has the potential to improve the outcome of radio-guided surgery. The goal of this paper is to analyze the localization accuracy for point-like sources with a single coded aperture camera.We both simulated and measured a point-like241Am source at 17 positions distributed within the field of view of an experimental gamma camera.

Assessment of the axial resolution of a compact gamma camera with coded aperture collimator.

Purpose: Handheld gamma cameras with coded aperture collimators are under investigation for intraoperative imaging in nuclear medicine. Coded apertures are a promising collimation technique for applications such as lymph node localization due to their high sensitivity and the possibility of 3D imaging. We evaluated the axial resolution and computational performance of two reconstruction methods.

Real-time definition of single seed placement sensitivity in low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy.

Purpose: In low-dose-rate brachytherapy, iodine-125 seeds are implanted based on a treatment plan, generated with respect to different dose constraints. The quality of the dose distribution depends on a precise seed placement, however, during treatment planning the impact on the dose parameters when certain seeds fail to be placed precisely is not clear.

Methods And Materials: We developed a method using automatic differentiation to calculate gradients of dose parameters with regard to the seeds' positions.

Diffuse domain approach for flexible needle insertion and relaxation.

Needle insertion simulations play an important role in medical training and surgical planning. Most simulations require boundary conforming meshes, while the diffuse domain approach, currently limited to stiff needles, eliminates the need for meshing geometries. In this article the diffuse domain approach for needle insertion simulations is first extended to the use of flexible needles with bevel needle tips, which are represented by an Euler-Bernoulli beam.

Refocusing of Attention on Positive Events Using Monitoring-Based Feedback and Microinterventions for Patients With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in the PerPAIN Randomized Controlled Trial: Protocol for a Microrandomized Trial.

Background: Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMSP) affects between 13% and 47% of the population, with a global growth rate of 20.3% within the last 15 years, suggesting that there is a high need for effective treatments. Pain diaries have long been a common tool in nonpharmacological pain treatment for monitoring and providing feedback on patients' symptoms in daily life.

Artificial intelligence directed development of a digital twin to measure soft tissue shift during head and neck surgery.

Digital twins derived from 3D scanning data were developed to measure soft tissue deformation in head and neck surgery by an artificial intelligence approach. This framework was applied suggesting feasibility of soft tissue shift detection as a hitherto unsolved problem. In a pig head cadaver model 104 soft tissue resection had been performed.

A theoretical study of H O as the surrogate of dose in minibeam radiotherapy, with a diffusion model considering radical removal process.

Background: Minibeam radiation therapy (MBRT) is an innovative dose delivery method with the potential to spare normal tissue while achieving similar tumor control as conventional radiotherapy. However, it is difficult to use a single dose parameter, such as mean dose, to compare different patterns of MBRT due to the spatially fractionated radiation. Also, the mechanism leading to the biological effects is still unknown.

Simulation-to-real generalization for deep-learning-based refraction-corrected ultrasound tomography image reconstruction.

. The image reconstruction of ultrasound computed tomography is computationally expensive with conventional iterative methods. The fully learned direct deep learning reconstruction is promising to speed up image reconstruction significantly.

The Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LiTS).

In this work, we report the set-up and results of the Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LiTS), which was organized in conjunction with the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2017 and the International Conferences on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) 2017 and 2018. The image dataset is diverse and contains primary and secondary tumors with varied sizes and appearances with various lesion-to-background levels (hyper-/hypo-dense), created in collaboration with seven hospitals and research institutions. Seventy-five submitted liver and liver tumor segmentation algorithms were trained on a set of 131 computed tomography (CT) volumes and were tested on 70 unseen test images acquired from different patients.

Augmented reality during parotid surgery: real-life evaluation of voice control of a head mounted display.

Purpose: Augmented Reality can improve surgical planning and performance in parotid surgery. For easier application we implemented a voice control manual for our augmented reality system. The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of the voice control in real-life situations.

Natural Language Processing in Diagnostic Texts from Nephropathology.

Introduction: This study investigates whether it is possible to predict a final diagnosis based on a written nephropathological description-as a surrogate for image analysis-using various NLP methods.

Methods: For this work, 1107 unlabelled nephropathological reports were included. (i) First, after separating each report into its microscopic description and diagnosis section, the diagnosis sections were clustered unsupervised to less than 20 diagnostic groups using different clustering techniques.

Are We There Yet? The Value of Deep Learning in a Multicenter Setting for Response Prediction of Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer to Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy.

This retrospective study aims to evaluate the generalizability of a promising state-of-the-art multitask deep learning (DL) model for predicting the response of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) using a multicenter dataset. To this end, we retrained and validated a Siamese network with two U-Nets joined at multiple layers using pre- and post-therapeutic T2-weighted (T2w), diffusion-weighted (DW) images and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps of 83 LARC patients acquired under study conditions at four different medical centers. To assess the predictive performance of the model, the trained network was then applied to an external clinical routine dataset of 46 LARC patients imaged without study conditions.

Remote sensing array (RSA) for linac beam monitoring.

The purpose of the present work is to evaluate the feasibility of a novel real-time beam monitoring device for medical linacs which remotely senses charge carriers produced in air by the beam without intersecting and attenuating the beamline. The primary goal is to elaborate a theoretical concept of a possible detector geometry and underlying physical model that allows for determination of clinically relevant beam data in real time, namely MLC leaf positions and dose rate. The detector consists of two opposing electrode arrays arranged in two possible orientations around the beamline.

Normalization of HE-stained histological images using cycle consistent generative adversarial networks.

Background: Histological images show strong variance (e.g. illumination, color, staining quality) due to differences in image acquisition, tissue processing, staining, etc.

Noise-robust breathing-phase estimation on marker-free, ultra low dose X-ray projections for real-time tumor localization via surrogate structures.

Purpose: This paper presents a novel strategy for feature-based breathing-phase estimation on ultra low-dose X-ray projections for tumor motion control in radiation therapy.

Methods: Coarse-scaled Curvelet coefficients are identified as motion sensitive but noise-robust features for this purpose. For feature-based breathing-phase estimation, an ensemble strategy with two classifiers is used.

Augmented Reality with HoloLens® in Parotid Tumor Surgery: A Prospective Feasibility Study.

Introduction: Augmented reality can improve planning and execution of surgical procedures. Head-mounted devices such as the HoloLens® (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA) are particularly suitable to achieve these aims because they are controlled by hand gestures and enable contactless handling in a sterile environment.

Objectives: So far, these systems have not yet found their way into the operating room for surgery of the parotid gland.

Feasibility of interstitial stepping-source electronic brachytherapy to locally inoperable tumors.

Purpose: Radiotherapy is the mainstay in the treatment of locally inoperable tumors. Interstitial electronic needle-based kilovoltage brachytherapy (EBT) could be an economic alternative to high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy or permanent seed implantation (PSI). In this work, we evaluated if locally inoperable tumors treated with PSI at our institution may be suitable for EBT.

Ultrasound transmission tomography image reconstruction with a fully convolutional neural network.

Image reconstruction of ultrasound computed tomography based on the wave equation is able to show much more structural details than simpler ray-based image reconstruction methods. However, to invert the wave-based forward model is computationally demanding. To address this problem, we develop an efficient fully learned image reconstruction method based on a convolutional neural network.

Imaging and Characterization of Sustained Gadolinium Nanoparticle Release from Next Generation Radiotherapy Biomaterial.

Smart radiotherapy biomaterials (SRBs) present a new opportunity to enhance image-guided radiotherapy while replacing routinely used inert radiotherapy biomaterials like fiducials. In this study the potential of SRBs loaded with gadolinium-based nanoparticles (GdNPs) is investigated for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast. GdNP release from SRB is quantified and modelled for accurate prediction.

Augmented reality with HoloLens in parotid surgery: how to assess and to improve accuracy.

Purpose: Augmented reality improves planning and execution of surgical procedures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a 3D augmented reality hologram in live parotic surgery. Another goal was to develop an accuracy measuring instrument and to determine the accuracy of the system.

Diffuse domain method for needle insertion simulations.

We present a new strategy for needle insertion simulations without the necessity of meshing. A diffuse domain approach on a regular grid is applied to overcome the need for an explicit representation of organ boundaries. A phase field function captures the transition of tissue parameters and boundary conditions are imposed implicitly.