Current Medical Imaging - Volume 10, Issue 2, 2014

Epilepsy is known as a neurological disorder caused by disturbance in electrical brain signals. Almost one percent population in the world experience epileptic seizures from which 30% people need medical surgery and others are cured by antiepileptic drugs. Epilepsy is divided into generalized and partial epilepsy. Diagnosis of epilepsy is a major problem; several Image processing and signal processing techniques has been used for this purpose. In order to automatically detect epilepsy much work is found in existing literature such as absence seizure, myoclonic, tonic clonic, frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy. This paper presents different seizure types feature extraction and classification of epilepsy. Furthermore, the paper discussed the experiments and databases used by assessment of authors to detect the seizures. This work will be helpful for epilepsy researchers and technical persons who want to utilize the ongoing research in this area.

Various modalities are available for the diagnosis of diseases affecting the oral and maxillofacial regions and the accuracy of diagnosis for many kinds of diseases in oral and maxillofacial regions is readily increasing. In particular, considerable research has focused on the use of magnetic resonance (MR) images for functional evaluation, as well as morphological examination, due to the high spatial resolution of the images, the fast acquisition time, and the image processing techniques associated with the growing computational power and improvements in the MR system. Therefore, we developed and named “Dynamic MR sialography”, a new technique for the functional evaluation of salivary glands using continuous MR sialography pre- and post-citric acid stimulation on the tongue. In the present review, we focused the “Dynamic MR sialography”, and introduce the methods, applications and significances of its technique in the diagnostic process of salivary glands-related diseases. In addition, we review the significance of the prognostic evaluation for the improvement of saliva flow rate after saline solution irrigation treatment.

In this paper, we propose a method to extract sternocleidomastoid and longus capitis/colli automatically and measure the thickness of those muscles from cervical vertebrae ultrasound images. Extracting sternocleidomastoid is relatively easy but for longus capitis/colli case, due to the brightness sensitivity, it requires much more computationally burdensome procedures. In the binarization process, instead of simple and cheap thresholding method, we apply fuzzy sigma binarization to mitigate the sensitivity. Since that binarization procedure is computationally expensive we keep thresholding method for sternocleidomastoid case. With considerate image processing processes such as 4-directional contour analysis and Cubic Spline interpolation, we can successfully analyze features like muscle thickness. In experiment, the efficacy of the proposed method is verified as having 73 ~ 87% of real world cervical vertebrae images successfully analyzed meaning that only a small magnitude of errors in measuring thickness from medical expert's own measurement (less than 0.1 cm for sternocleidomastoid and less than 0.3 cm for longus capitis/colli). We hope such result encourages the use of automatic ultrasound analysis system for cervical vertebrae in rehabilitation practices.

Coronary CT angiography has revolutionized the management approaches in patients with atypical chest pain and nonspecific symptoms that may not be related to the cardiac disease. Presence of extracardiac findings on coronary CT angiography is very common, and some of these findings have clinical significance which requires additional workup to improve patient outcome. The aim of this study is to prospectively assess the prevalence and spectrum of extracardiac findings in 300 patients suspected of cardiac disease, based on coronary CT angiography. CT imaging appearances of extracardiac findings with potential clinical significance are presented.

Purpose: To determine the variations and abnormalities of major thoracic vascular structures in patients exposed to thoracic examination via computerized tomography with 64 detectors. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 2,479 patients who underwent thoracic computed tomography between May 2006 and October 2007 in the Radiation Department at Dicle University’s School of Medicine were examined. Of these patients, 1,389 were male and 1,090 were female. No variations or abnormalities were detected in 1,588 of the patients. Results: In 1,588 out of 2,479 patients (64.1%), no abnormalities or variations were detected. The most frequently detected variations occurred in the brachiocephalic trunk and the sole root point of the carotid artery from the aorta; these variations were detected in 838 (33.8%) patients. In 74 of the 2,479 patients (3.0%) examined, it was found that the left vertebral artery directly initiated from the arch of the aorta. In addition, in 33 patients, the right brachiocephalic trunk and left major carotid artery initiated from the aorta as a single root. Conclusion: Via multi-slice CT, it is possible to detect variations and abnormalities of major thoracic vascular structures; therefore, there is no need for extra diagnostic invasive digital subtraction angiography.

Objectives: Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is an emergent disease with high mortality. Wells and revised Geneva scores are commonly used probability scales in PTE diagnosis. Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is the radiological diagnostic method. We aimed to determine computed tomography pulmonary arterial obstruction index ratio (CTPAOIR) which indicates degree and the extent of the thrombotic pulmonary arterial occlusion and compare Wells and revised Geneva scale with CTPAOIR, parenchymal enfarct and pleural effusion. Material and Methods: CTPA was performed to 69 patients with the prediagnosis of PTE by using 6-slice multidetector CT scanner (Philips, Netherland). Patients were divided into three groups as high, intermediate and low risk groups according to Wells and revised Geneva scores. Patients with PTE were regrouped and CTPAOIR, pleural effusion and parenchymal infarct presence were compared. Results: In the present study 50 (72.5%) of 69 patients had PTE diagnosis. While no significant correlation was found between CTPAOIR and pleural effusion presence had no significant correlation with Wells clinic scores (p > 0.05), CTPAOIR and parenchyml infarct presence had significant correlation (p = 0.044). No correlations between CTPAOIR, pleural effusion and parenchyml infarct presence with revised Geneva scores were found (p > 0.05). CTPAOIR was significantly correlated with pleural effusion and parenchymal infarct presence (p = 0.040 vs p = 0.002). There were no significant differences among patient groups according to Wells and revised Geneva scores in terms of CTPAOIR (p > 0.05). Conclusions: We determined the increased probability of parenchymal enfarct with higher Wells scores. Parenchymal enfarct and pleural effusion in CTPA may indicate the presence of PTE in subsegmental and/or distal pulmonary arteries.

In daily medical practices intravenous (IV) catheterization is performed on the majority of patients to inject medication or to get blood samples. Patients whose veins are not visible require multiple attempts in order to insert the catheter accurately. Different techniques have been proposed and a few are in use at present to localize the veins in order to avoid the wrong catheterization and reduce the number of attempts. In literature, numerous imaging techniques can be found for subcutaneous veins localization. These techniques have dissimilar methods and applications. The aim of this paper is to present a review on the most commonly used techniques amongst all of them; these are Transillumination, Photoacoustic and near infrared (NIR) imaging. The basic working principle along with evolution of these techniques has been stated from the current state-of-the-art. Advantages and limitations are underlined in terms of effectiveness, simplicity in usage, portability and cost effectiveness.

Background: There are conflicting results in estimation of primary renal tumors by F-18 FDG PET/CT in the literature. Aim of this study is to evaluate diagnostic efficiency of F-18 FDG PET/CT and dual time imaging in the diagnosis of renal cell cancer. Methods: Dual time F-18 FDG PET/CT examinations of 17 patients (55.2 ± 9.9 years old; 7 F, 10 M) with prediagnosis of renal cell cancer were retrospectively evaluated. All of the patients underwent operation and histopathological results were compared with PET/CT results. In order to compare numerical variables Kolmogorov-Simirnov, Mann Whitney U and Paired samples T tests were performed in SPSS version 15.0 and p<0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: Among 17 patients 15 patients were confirmed to have renal cell carcinoma, 2 patients had benign pathologies (oncocytoma, metanephritic adenoma). According to the early phase analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive values of PET/CT regarding diagnosis of primary tumor were 20%, 100%, 29%, 100% and 14%, respectively. Additionally the difference between SUVmax values in the early and the late phase was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: Since only the positive predictive value of PET/CT is sufficiently high and the sensitivity is very low, diagnosis of renal tumors by F-18 FDG PET/CT is not an accurate method. In addition, dual-phase imaging in the diagnosis of renal cell cancer has no benefit.

The contrast agents have been developed to enhance and improve the quality of images in radiology practice in order to define the physiology and pathophysiology in various tissues, to detect and define neoplastic, inflammatory and functional abnormalities. Most contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging approved for human applications are gadolinium-based. Paramagnetic chelates containing lanthanide ion, gadolinium (III), are generally used as contrast agents (CAs) for diagnostic imaging. The gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) are mostly approved by the FDA for an intravenous (IV) administration in radiology imaging as they can provide greater contrast between normal and abnormal tissues within the body. The aim of this review is to underline the chemistry and usage of nine GBCAs which are currently approved for the use in the Western countries and to point out some novel GBCAs for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and for the magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).

Myositis ossificans is an uncommon disease with abnormal formation of bone in inflammatory muscle. Majority of cases are related to major or minor trauma (ie myositis ossificans traumatica). The development of myositis ossificans traumatica due to overuse is rare. To the best of our knowledge, there were only three such cases reported in the literatures. This is the first reported case of development of myositis ossificans traumatica in vastus muscle induced a large traction femoral spur due to chronic overuse. The imaging features of the myositis ossificans will also be described in this article to avoid misdiagnosis or unnecessary biopsy or excision of this ‘don’t touch lesion’