Long-range medical image registration through generalized mutual information (GMI): towards a fully automatic volumetric alignment.

Mutual information (MI) is consolidated as a robust similarity metric often used for medical image registration. Although MI provides a robust registration, it usually fails when the transform needed to register an image is too large due to MI local minima traps. This paper proposes and evaluates Generalized MI (GMI), using Tsallis entropy, to improve affine registration.

Multiscale Entropy Analysis of Short Signals: The Robustness of Fuzzy Entropy-Based Variants Compared to Full-Length Long Signals.

Multiscale entropy (MSE) analysis is a fundamental approach to access the complexity of a time series by estimating its information creation over a range of temporal scales. However, MSE may not be accurate or valid for short time series. This is why previous studies applied different kinds of algorithm derivations to short-term time series.

Biomimetic phantom with anatomical accuracy for evaluating brain volumetric measurements with magnetic resonance imaging.

Brain image volumetric measurements (BVM) methods have been used to quantify brain tissue volumes using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when investigating abnormalities. Although BVM methods are widely used, they need to be evaluated to quantify their reliability. Currently, the gold-standard reference to evaluate a BVM is usually manual labeling measurement.

Modified multiscale fuzzy entropy: A robust method for short-term physiologic signals.

The introduction of the multiscale entropy (MSE) method was a milestone in the field of complex physiological signal analysis. However, since MSE is inapplicable for short signals, several variants of MSE have been proposed. One of the most important variants of MSE is the modified multiscale entropy (MMSE), even though it can still produce biased estimates due to the hard similarity criteria of sample entropy.

The impact of artifact correction methods of RR series on heart rate variability parameters.

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is widely used to investigate the autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system. HRV is often analyzed using RR time series, which can be affected by different types of artifacts. Although there are several artifact correction methods, there is no study that compares their performances in actual experimental contexts.

Multiscale entropy analysis of heart rate variability in heart failure, hypertensive, and sinoaortic-denervated rats: classical and refined approaches.

The analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) by nonlinear methods has been gaining increasing interest due to their ability to quantify the complexity of cardiovascular regulation. In this study, multiscale entropy (MSE) and refined MSE (RMSE) were applied to track the complexity of HRV as a function of time scale in three pathological conscious animal models: rats with heart failure (HF), spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), and rats with sinoaortic denervation (SAD). Results showed that HF did not change HRV complexity, although there was a tendency to decrease the entropy in HF animals.

Segmented independent component analysis for improved separation of fetal cardiac signals from nonstationary fetal magnetocardiograms.

Fetal magnetocardiograms (fMCGs) have been successfully processed with independent component analysis (ICA) to separate the fetal cardiac signals, but ICA effectiveness can be limited by signal nonstationarities due to fetal movements. We propose an ICA-based method to improve the quality of fetal signals separated from fMCG affected by fetal movements. This technique (SegICA) includes a procedure to detect signal nonstationarities, according to which the fMCG recordings are divided in stationary segments that are then processed with ICA.

Anisotropic anomalous diffusion filtering applied to relaxation time estimation in magnetic resonance imaging.

Relaxometry mapping is a quantitative modality in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) widely used in neuroscience studies. Despite its relevance and utility, voxel measurement of relaxation time in relaxometry MRI is compromised by noise that is inherent to MRI modality and acquisition hardware. In order to enhance signal to noise ratio (SNR) and quality of relaxometry mapping we propose application of anisotropic anomalous diffusion (AAD) filter that is consistent with inhomogeneous complex media.

Two-dimensional sample entropy analysis of rat sural nerve aging.

Entropy analysis of images are usually performed using Shannon entropy, which calculates the probability of occurrency of each gray level on the image. However, not only the pixel gray level but also the spatial distribution of pixels might be important for image analysis. On the other hand, sample entropy (SampEn) is an important tool for estimation of irregularity in time series, which calculates the probability of pattern occurrence within the series.

Brain activation inhomogeneity highlighted by the Isotropic Anomalous Diffusion filter.

The visual appealing nature of the now popular BOLD fMRI may give the false impression of extreme simplicity, as if the the functional maps could be generated with the press of a single button. However, one can only get plausible maps after long and cautious processing, considering that time and noise come into play during acquisition. One of the most popular ways to account for noise and individual variability in fMRI is the use of a Gaussian spatial filter.

Open architecture software platform for biomedical signal analysis.

Biomedical signals are very important reporters of the physiological status in human body. Therefore, great attention is devoted to the study of analysis methods that help extracting the greatest amount of relevant information from these signals. There are several free of charge softwares which can process biomedical data, but they are usually closed architecture, not allowing addition of new functionalities by users.

Quantification of fractal dimension and Shannon's entropy in histological diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Background: Prostate cancer is a serious public health problem that affects quality of life and has a significant mortality rate. The aim of the present study was to quantify the fractal dimension and Shannon's entropy in the histological diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Methods: Thirty-four patients with prostate cancer aged 50 to 75 years having been submitted to radical prostatectomy participated in the study.

Linear and nonlinear measures of fetal heart rate patterns evaluated on very short fetal magnetocardiograms.

We analyzed the effectiveness of linear short- and long-term variability time domain parameters, an index of sympatho-vagal balance (SDNN/RMSSD) and entropy in differentiating fetal heart rate patterns (fHRPs) on the fetal heart rate (fHR) series of 5, 3 and 2 min duration reconstructed from 46 fetal magnetocardiograms. Gestational age (GA) varied from 21 to 38 weeks. FHRPs were classified based on the fHR standard deviation.

Videodensitometric analysis of advanced carotid plaque: correlation with MMP-9 and TIMP-1 expression.

Background: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and tissue inhibitor of MMP (TIMP) promote derangement of the extracellular matrix, which is ultimately reflected in plaque images seen on ultrasound. Videodensitometry can identify structural disturbances in plaques.

Objectives: To establish the correlations between values determined using videodensitometry in B-mode ultrasound images of advanced carotid plaques and the total expression of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in these removed plaques.

Assessment of MMP-9, TIMP-1, and COX-2 in normal tissue and in advanced symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid plaques.

Background: Mature carotid plaques are complex structures, and their histological classification is challenging. The carotid plaques of asymptomatic and symptomatic patients could exhibit identical histological components.

Objectives: To investigate whether matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), tissue inhibitor of MMP (TIMP), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) have different expression levels in advanced symptomatic carotid plaques, asymptomatic carotid plaques, and normal tissue.

Histological composition and progression of carotid plaque.

Background: To analyse histological composition and progression of carotid plaque.

Methods: Thirty-one patients (22 males, mean age 68.03 +/- 7.