Improved quantification and normal limits for myocardial perfusion stress-rest change.

Unlabelled: We aimed to improve the quantification of myocardial perfusion stress-rest changes in myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) studies for the optimal automatic detection of ischemia and coronary artery disease (CAD).

Methods: Rest-stress (99m)Tc MPS studies (997 cases; 651 consecutive cases with correlating angiography and 346 cases with less than 5% likelihood (low likelihood [LLK]) of CAD) were analyzed. Normal limits for stress-rest changes were derived from additional LLK patients (40 women, 40 men).

Quantification of 3D regional myocardial wall thickening from gated magnetic resonance images.

Purpose: To develop 3D quantitative measures of regional myocardial wall motion and thickening using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to validate them by comparison to standard visual scoring assessment.

Materials And Methods: In all, 53 consecutive subjects with short-axis slices and mid-ventricular 2-chamber/4-chamber views were analyzed. After correction for breath-hold-related misregistration, 3D myocardial boundaries were fitted to images and edited by an imaging cardiologist.

Multi-level classification of emphysema in HRCT lung images using delegated classifiers.

Emphysema is a common chronic respiratory disorder characterized by the destruction of lung tissue. It is a progressive disease where the early stages are characterized by diffuse appearance of small air spaces and later stages exhibit large air spaces called bullae. A bullous region is a sharply demarcated region of emphysema.

Automatic segmentation of lung parenchyma in the presence of diseases based on curvature of ribs.

Rationale And Objectives: Segmentation of lungs using high-resolution computer tomographic images in the setting of diffuse lung diseases is a major challenge in medical image analysis. Threshold-based techniques tend to leave out lung regions that have increased attenuation, such as in the presence of interstitial lung disease. In contrast, streak artifacts can cause the lung segmentation to "leak" into the chest wall.

Automatic detection of bronchial dilatation in HRCT lung images.

Bronchiectasis is an airway disease caused by the dilatation of the bronchial tree, and a bronchovascular pair is formed between a bronchus and a vessel. An abnormal bronchovascular pair is one that has a larger bronchus compared to its accompanying vessel. Typically, bronchi and vessels running perpendicular to the plane of section appear as near-circular rings on computed tomography (CT) scans.