Spectral material characterization with dual-energy CT: comparison of commercial and investigative technologies in phantoms.

Background: Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) enables tissue discrimination based on the X-ray attenuations at different photon energies emitted by the tube. The spectral dependencies of net X-ray attenuation can be analyzed and used to characterize specific materials.

Purpose: To evaluate the capability of DECT to characterize and differentiate high-density materials, using spectral analysis.

Comparison of 80 and 120 kVp contrast-enhanced CT for attenuation correction in PET/CT, using quantitative analysis and reporter assessment of PET image quality.

Aim: To determine the effect of low tube voltage on positron-emission tomography (PET) image quality, quantitative analysis, and radiation dose in a combined PET/computed tomography (CT) study in patients with normal body mass index (BMI).

Materials And Methods: One hundred and twenty-nine examinations performed in 46 patients (mean age 57 years), who had at least two separate studies were retrospectively evaluated; at least one with 120 kVp and one with 80 kVp. Three independent readers reviewed all PET images and graded the image quality.

[An atypical discipline: surgery in bullfighting. Two case reports].

Many bullfighters had been seriously injured, even sometimes killed during the fight in the bullring (around 300 deaths since the beginning of the 20th century). There is no comparison between bullfight's traumas and civil or war traumas, so only specialized medicine doctors and surgeons can be involved for practising. Surgery of bullfighting is a single speciality.

Computerized classification of congenital malformations using a modified Bayesian approach.

The diagnostic classification of children with dysmorphic features involves over 200 syndromes and 232 findings, with an average of about 15 findings per syndrome. A knowledge base expressed in terms of Boolean combinations of findings is impractical. The normal Bayesian method requires a very large incidence matrix with the vast majority of cells being zero.