A framework based on subject-specific musculoskeletal models and Monte Carlo simulations to personalize muscle coordination retraining.

Excessive loads at lower limb joints can lead to pain and degenerative diseases. Altering joint loads with muscle coordination retraining might help to treat or prevent clinical symptoms in a non-invasive way. Knowing how much muscle coordination retraining can reduce joint loads and which muscles have the biggest impact on joint loads is crucial for personalized gait retraining.

In vitro imaging of coronary artery stents: are there differences between 16- and 64-slice CT scanners?

Purpose: To compare the performance of 64-slice with 16-slice CT scanners for the in vitro evaluation of coronary artery stents.

Methods And Materials: Twelve different coronary artery stents were placed in the drillings of a combined heart and chest phantom, which was scanned with a 16- and 64-slice CT scanner. Coronal reformations were evaluated for artificial lumen narrowing, intraluminal attenuation values, and false widening of the outer stent diameter as an indicator of artifacts outside the stent.

Effects of TIPS on liver perfusion measured by dynamic CT.

Objective: Our aim was to measure the arterial, portal venous, and total perfusion of the liver parenchyma with dynamic, single-section CT in patients with liver cirrhosis before and after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement and to compare the results with normal values.

Subjects And Methods: Perfusion of the liver parenchyma was measured in 24 healthy volunteers and 41 patients with liver cirrhosis using dynamic single-section CT. Seventeen patients underwent TIPS placement, and CT measurements were repeated within 7 days.

MR cholangiopancreatography.

Although MRCP is still an evolving technique, it has established itself as clinically useful and comparable with ERCP for the evaluation of various biliary or pancreatic ductal diseases. MRCP is not only comparable with ERCP in its diagnostic ability, but it has the tremendous advantage of being noninvasive. Furthermore, MR imaging is useful in patients with incomplete or failed ERCP, and in patients with certain biliary or gastrointestinal surgical procedures it is the imaging modality of choice.

MR imaging features of primary sclerosing cholangitis: patterns of cirrhosis in relationship to clinical severity of disease.

Purpose: To evaluate the spectrum of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging appearances of the liver in primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and to examine their correlation with clinical stage of disease.

Materials And Methods: Fifty-two patients (25 female, 27 male; mean age, 43 years; age range, 11-87 years) with PSC underwent nonenhanced and gadolinium-enhanced MR imaging. Two abdominal radiologists retrospectively reviewed all images (independently and then in consensus) for the imaging pattern of the liver parenchyma, presence and grade of intrahepatic biliary ductal dilatation, and presence of areas of parenchymal atrophy or abnormal signal intensity and/or gadolinium enhancement.

Magnetic resonance imaging of pulmonary parenchymal disease using a modified breath-hold 3D gradient-echo technique: initial observations.

Purpose: To determine the potential of a modified breath-hold 3D gradient-echo technique for visualizing pulmonary parenchymal diseases.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the lungs were performed in 20 patients (15 male and 5 female; age range, 7.7-86.