Increasing the impact of medical image computing using community-based open-access hackathons: The NA-MIC and 3D Slicer experience.

The National Alliance for Medical Image Computing (NA-MIC) was launched in 2004 with the goal of investigating and developing an open source software infrastructure for the extraction of information and knowledge from medical images using computational methods. Several leading research and engineering groups participated in this effort that was funded by the US National Institutes of Health through a variety of infrastructure grants. This effort transformed 3D Slicer from an internal, Boston-based, academic research software application into a professionally maintained, robust, open source platform with an international leadership and developer and user communities.

The National Alliance for Medical Image Computing, a roadmap initiative to build a free and open source software infrastructure for translational research in medical image analysis.

The National Alliance for Medical Image Computing (NA-MIC), is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary community of researchers, who share the recognition that modern health care demands improved technologies to ease suffering and prolong productive life. Organized under the National Centers for Biomedical Computing 7 years ago, the mission of NA-MIC is to implement a robust and flexible open-source infrastructure for developing and applying advanced imaging technologies across a range of important biomedical research disciplines. A measure of its success, NA-MIC is now applying this technology to diseases that have immense impact on the duration and quality of life: cancer, heart disease, trauma, and degenerative genetic diseases.

Racial differences in pelvic morphology among asymptomatic nulliparous women as seen on three-dimensional magnetic resonance images.

Objective: Compare pelvic morphology between asymptomatic African-American and white nulliparous women.

Study Design: Resting supine T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images were obtained in 12 African-American (AA) and 10 white American (WA) women without pelvic floor dysfunction. Three-dimensional models were reconstructed from the MR images by a masked investigator, and predefined bony and soft tissue pelvic floor parameters were measured and compared.

Deficits of motion integration and segregation in patients with unilateral extrastriate lesions.

Functional neuroimaging in human subjects and single cell recordings in monkeys show that several extra-striate visual areas are activated by visual motion. However, the extent to which different types of motion are processed in different regions remains unclear, although neuropsychological studies of patients with circumscribed lesions hint at regional specialization. We, therefore, studied four patients with unilateral damage to different regions of extrastriate visual cortex on a series of visual discrimination tasks that required them, to a different extent, to integrate local motion signals in order to correctly perceive the direction of global motion.

Levator ani thickness variations in symptomatic and asymptomatic women using magnetic resonance-based 3-dimensional color mapping.

Objective: This study was undertaken to develop and test a 3-dimensional (3D) color thickness mapping technique on levator ani imaged with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: Supine MRI datasets from 30 women were studied: 10 asymptomatic, 10 with urodynamic stress incontinence, and 10 with pelvic organ prolapse. Levators were manually outlined, and thickness mapping applied.

Three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging assessment of levator ani morphologic features in different grades of prolapse.

Objective: The study was undertaken to identify the morphologic changes in the levator ani in different grades of prolapse by using reconstructed three-dimensional models of magnetic resonance images (MRI) and to subclassify prolapse into different categories on the basis of their levator ani morphologic characteristics.

Study Design: Sixty-one women were studied, 8 women in stage I, 15 women in stage II, 22 women in stage III, 7 women in stage IV prolapse, and 9 asymptomatic volunteers with stage 0 prolapse. Axial, sagittal, and coronal T2-weighted pelvic magnetic resonance scans were obtained with the patient in the supine position.

Anatomic and physiologic predictors of apnea severity in morbidly obese subjects.

Study Objectives: While obesity is the most common risk factor for the development of obstructive sleep apnea, the correlation between measures of obesity and apnea severity is only moderate. We thus attempted to identify anatomic and physiologic predictors of apnea severity.

Design: We combined a careful assessment of upper airway anatomy, upper airway physiology, and ventilatory control in a group of obese individuals to identify predictors of apnea severity.

An MRI study of temporal lobe abnormalities and negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia.

Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have reported various subtle brain abnormalities in schizophrenic patients, including temporal lobe abnormalities, which are of particular interest given the role of this brain region in auditory and language processing, and the characteristic deficits in these processes in schizophrenia. Subjects in this study were 16 male patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia and 15 healthy male comparison subjects. These patients were characterized by negative symptoms.