A Comparative Study on Radiosensitivity of Canine Osteosarcoma Cell Lines Subjected to Spatially Fractionated Radiotherapy.

Canine appendicular osteosarcoma (OSCA) is a highly aggressive cancer, constituting 85% of all bone tumors in dogs, predominantly affecting larger breeds and exhibiting a high metastatic rate. This disease also shares many genomic similarities with human osteosarcomas, making it an ideal comparative model for treatment discovery. In this study, we characterized the radiobiological properties of several OSCA cell lines when subjected to spatially fractionated radiation therapy (SFRT) and chemotherapy.

Open LEARN: Open access linear accelerator education and augmented reality Navigator.

Purpose: To create an open-access Linear Accelerator Education and Augmented Reality Navigator (Open LEARN) via 3D printable objects and interactive augmented reality assets.

Methods: This study describes an augmented reality linear accelerator (linac) model accessible through a QR code and a smartphone to address the challenges of medical physics and radiation oncology trainees in low-to-middle-income countries.

Results: Major components of a generic linear accelerator are modeled as individual objects.

What's in the box? A toolbox for safe deployment of artificial intelligence in veterinary medicine.

This report describes a comprehensive framework for applying artificial intelligence (AI) in veterinary medicine. Our framework draws on existing research on AI implementation in human medicine and addresses the challenges of limited technology expertise and the need for scalability. The critical components of this framework include assembling a diverse team of experts in AI, promoting a foundational understanding of AI among veterinary professionals, identifying relevant use cases and objectives, ensuring data quality and availability, creating an effective implementation plan, providing team training, fostering collaboration, considering ethical and legal obligations, integrating AI into existing workflows, monitoring and evaluating performance, managing change effectively, and staying up-to-date with technological advancements.

Combining ultrasound radiomics, complete blood count, and serum biochemical biomarkers for diagnosing intestinal disorders in cats using machine learning.

This retrospective analytical observational cohort study aimed to model and predict the classification of feline intestinal diseases from segmentations of a transverse section from small intestine ultrasound (US) image, complete blood count (CBC), and serum biochemical profile data using a variety of machine-learning approaches. In 149 cats from three institutions, images were obtained from cats with biopsy-confirmed small cell epitheliotropic lymphoma (lymphoma), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), no pathology ("healthy"), and other conditions (warrant a biopsy for further diagnosis). CBC, blood serum chemistry, small intestinal ultrasound, and small intestinal biopsy were obtained within a 2-week interval.

Description and efficacy of a response-based "QUAD" cyclical hypofractionated palliative-intent radiation protocol in dogs with macroscopic solid tumours: 108 cases.

Palliative-intent radiation therapy can alleviate pain and clinical signs in dogs with cancer, but optimal fractionation scheme is unknown. The objective of this retrospective case series is to evaluate clinical benefit, objective response, adverse effects, and outcomes in 108 dogs with macroscopic solid tumours treated with a cyclical "QUAD" hypofractionated palliative-intent radiation therapy protocol. Median QUAD dose was 14 Gy (14-16 Gy).

Metacarpophalangeal Joint Pathology and Bone Mineral Density Increase with Exercise but Not with Incidence of Proximal Sesamoid Bone Fracture in Thoroughbred Racehorses.

Proximal sesamoid bone (PSB) fracture is the leading cause of fatal musculoskeletal injury in Thoroughbred racehorses in Hong Kong and the US. Efforts are underway to investigate diagnostic modalities that could help identify racehorses at increased risk of fracture; however, features associated with PSB fracture risk are still poorly understood. The objectives of this study were to (1) investigate third metacarpal (MC3) and PSB density and mineral content using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), computed tomography (CT), Raman spectroscopy, and ash fraction measurements, and (2) investigate PSB quality and metacarpophalangeal joint (MCPJ) pathology using Raman spectroscopy and CT.

The role of artificial intelligence in veterinary radiation oncology.

Veterinary radiation oncology regularly deploys sophisticated contouring, image registration, and treatment planning optimization software for patient care. Over the past decade, advances in computing power and the rapid development of neural networks, open-source software packages, and data science have been realized and resulted in new research and clinical applications of artificial intelligent (AI) systems in radiation oncology. These technologies differ from conventional software in their level of complexity and ability to learn from representative and local data.

Artificial intelligence 101 for veterinary diagnostic imaging.

The prevalence and pervasiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) with medical images in veterinary and human medicine is rapidly increasing. This article provides essential definitions of AI with medical images with a focus on veterinary radiology. Machine learning methods common in medical image analysis are compared, and a detailed description of convolutional neural networks commonly used in deep learning classification and regression models is provided.

Radiomics in veterinary medicine: Overview, methods, and applications.

Radiomics, or quantitative image analysis from radiographic image data, borrows the suffix from other emerging -omics fields of study, such as genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. This report provides an overview of the general principles of how radiomic features are computed, describes major types of morphological, first order, and texture features, and the applications, challenges, and opportunities of radiomics as applied in veterinary medicine. Some advantages radiomics has over traditional semantic radiological features include standardized methodology in computing semantic features, the ability to compute features in multi-dimensional images, their newfound associations with genomic and pathological abnormalities, and the number of perceptible and imperceptible features available for regression or classification modeling.

Radiomics Modeling of Catastrophic Proximal Sesamoid Bone Fractures in Thoroughbred Racehorses Using μCT.

Proximal sesamoid bone (PSB) fractures are the most common musculoskeletal injury in race-horses. X-ray CT imaging can detect expressed radiological features in horses that experienced catastrophic fractures. Our objective was to assess whether expressed radiomic features in the PSBs of 50 horses can be used to develop machine learning models for predicting PSB fractures.

Intra- and interobserver assessments of intestinal wall thickness and segmentations from transverse sections of feline abdominal ultrasound images.

Measurements of intestinal wall thicknesses from ultrasound imaging (US) are routinely used to support diagnoses of intestinal disorders in cats, however published studies describing observer agreement are currently lacking. The aim of this retrospective, observer agreement study was to quantify inter- and intraobserver repeatability and agreement in the measurement of intestinal wall layer thicknesses and the segmentation of transverse sections of small intestines in US images of 20 cats. Intestinal wall layer thickness measurements of the mucosa, submucosa, muscularis, serosa layer, and total thickness of these layers were performed on five cats with small cell epitheliotropic lymphoma, five with inflammatory bowel disease, and 10 with other conditions.

Proximal sesamoid bone microdamage is localized to articular subchondral regions in Thoroughbred racehorses, with similar fracture toughness between fracture and controls.

Objective: To determine whether proximal sesamoid bone (PSB) microdamage and fracture toughness differ between Thoroughbred racehorses sustaining PSB fracture and controls.

Study Design: Cadaveric case-control.

Animals: Twenty-four Thoroughbred racehorses (n = 12 PSB fracture, n = 12 control).

Separable Confident Transductive Learning for Dairy Cows Teat-End Condition Classification.

Teat-end health assessments are crucial to maintain milk quality and dairy cow health. One approach to automate teat-end health assessments is by using a convolutional neural network to classify the magnitude of teat-end alterations based on digital images. This approach has been demonstrated as feasible with GoogLeNet but there remains a number of challenges, such as low performance and comparing performance with different ImageNet models.

Artificial intelligence in veterinary medicine.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science in which computer systems are designed to perform tasks that mimic human intelligence. Today, AI is reshaping day-to-day life and has numerous emerging medical applications poised to profoundly reshape the practice of veterinary medicine. In this Currents in One Health, we discuss the essential elements of AI for veterinary practitioners with the aim to help them make informed decisions in applying AI technologies into their practices.

The unmet potential of artificial intelligence in veterinary medicine.

Veterinary medicine is a broad and growing discipline that includes topics such as companion animal health, population medicine and zoonotic diseases, and agriculture. In this article, we provide insight on how artificial intelligence works and how it is currently applied in veterinary medicine. We also discuss its potential in veterinary medicine.

A radiomics platform for computing imaging features from µCT images of Thoroughbred racehorse proximal sesamoid bones: Benchmark performance and evaluation.

Background: Proximal sesamoid bone (PSB) fractures are the most common fatal musculoskeletal injury in North American racehorses. Computed tomography has the potential to detect morphological changes in bone structure but can be challenging to analyse reliably and quantitatively.

Objectives: To develop a radiomics platform that allows the comparison of features from micro-CTs (µCT) of PSBs in horses that sustained catastrophic fractures with horses that did not.

Reducing radiation risks to staff for patients with permanently implanted radioactive sources requiring unrelated surgery.

Permanent implant of sealed radioactive sources is an effective technique for treating cancer. Typically, the radioactive sources are implanted in and near the disease, depositing radiation absorbed dose locally over several months. There may be instances where these patients must undergo unrelated surgical procedures when the radioactive material remains active enough to pose risks.

Deformable versus rigid registration of PET/CT images for radiation treatment planning of head and neck and lung cancer patients: a retrospective dosimetric comparison.

Background: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical impact of using deformable registration in tumor volume definition between separately acquired PET/CT and planning CT images.

Methods: Ten lung and 10 head and neck cancer patients were retrospectively selected. PET/CT images were registered with planning CT scans using commercially available software.

CT, MR, and ultrasound image artifacts from prostate brachytherapy seed implants: the impact of seed size.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of brachytherapy seed size on the quality of x-ray computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (US), and magnetic resonance (MR) images and seed localization through comparison of the 6711 and 9011 (125)I sources.

Methods: For CT images, an acrylic phantom mimicking a clinical implantation plan and embedded with low contrast regions of interest (ROIs) was designed for both the 0.774 mm diameter 6711 (standard) and the 0.

CT image artifacts from brachytherapy seed implants: a postprocessing 3D adaptive median filter.

Purpose: To design a postprocessing 3D adaptive median filter that minimizes streak artifacts and improves soft-tissue contrast in postoperative CT images of brachytherapy seed implantations.

Methods: The filter works by identifying voxels that are likely streaks and estimating more reflective voxel intensity by using voxel intensities in adjacent CT slices and applying a median filter over voxels not identified as seeds. Median values are computed over a 5 x 5 x 5 mm region of interest (ROI) within the CT volume.

The impact of dose calculation algorithms on partial and whole breast radiation treatment plans.

Background: This paper compares the calculated dose to target and normal tissues when using pencil beam (PBC), superposition/convolution (AAA) and Monte Carlo (MC) algorithms for whole breast (WBI) and accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) treatment plans.

Methods: Plans for 10 patients who met all dosimetry constraints on a prospective APBI protocol when using PBC calculations were recomputed with AAA and MC, keeping the monitor units and beam angles fixed. Similar calculations were performed for WBI plans on the same patients.

On comparing the quality of head and neck IMRT plans delivered with two different linear accelerator manufacturers.

The purpose of this work was to determine whether 2 different types of linear accelerators manufacturers with similar MLC leaf widths deliver equivalent IMRT distributions for head and neck radiotherapy patients. In this study, plans delivered with Siemens linacs were re-optimized with an Elekta linac and vice versa. To test for significance, paired t-tests were computed to examine differences in target and normal tissue doses and monitor units.