Multislice tomographic imaging and analysis of human breast-equivalent phantoms and biological tissues

A laser transillumination tomographic system, consisting of electrical, optical, mechanical, and software components, to obtain multislice images of tissue-equivalent breast phantoms and biological tissues, is developed. The tissue-equivalent phantoms are prepared from paraffin wax mixed with wax color pigments by matching their surface backscattered profiles as measured by multiprobe laser reflectometer, with that of respective tissues. The optical parameters of these phantoms are determined by matching their reflectance profiles with that as obtained by Monte Carlo simulation of optical scattering. For multislice tomographic analysis conical breast phantoms of height 80.0 mm and 80.0 mm base diameter with inclusions of different optical properties and dimensions are developed. The resolution of the inclusions in the tomograms depends on their sizes and optical parameters. The minimum size of the inclusion as detected by this procedure in a slice of diameter 50.0 mm is 3.0 mm. The structural variation as observed in the tomograms of phantoms of combination of biological tissues indicates its possible applications in detecting the abnormalities developing in human healthy soft tissues.     

Three-dimensional reconstruction of transillumination tomographic images of human breast phantoms by red and infrared lasers

A laser transillumination tomographic system, using red and near infrared lasers, to obtain cross-sectional images of human breast phantoms and human hand is proposed. The scanning assembly is consisting of upward, downward, rotational and pitch movements. The phantoms, made of paraffin wax, agar gel, and milk placed in a glass model, are embedded with abnormalities like blood, water, solid objects, and tissues. By illuminating the phantoms at various heights by either red or infrared laser the projection data are collected. Based on 64 projections the tomogram of each section is constructed. By volume visualization procedure applied to the tomograms the objects of varying composition embedded within the phantoms are detected and their size, shape, and location depth are determined. The cross-sectional image of a human hand obtained by this procedure further shows the possibility of application of this technique for imaging of organs.     

基于LS-SVM测量生物组织光学参量的实验研究

为了实现无损测量生物组织光学参量,利用CCD技术结合最小二乘支持向量机,对测量组织模拟液的光学参量进行了实验研究。通过实验测量了组织模拟液的表面漫反射光分布,建立了漫反射光分布与光学参量间的最小二乘支持向量机回归模型,该模型实现了小样本条件下对组织模拟液光学参量的预测误差仅为5%。结果表明,最小二乘支持向量机结合CCD测量技术能够准确测量组织模拟液的光学参量。     

西红柿成熟度的近红外漫透射光谱无损检测

为了证实以近红外漫透射光谱技术结合化学计量学方法能有效实现西红柿成熟度的检测，采用美国海洋光学公司的QE65000光谱仪取得了西红柿的漫透射光谱数据，采用日本柯尼卡美能达CR-10反射式色差计取得了亮度、红绿色相、黄蓝色相和总色差颜色数据; 通过标准数学建模方法建立了颜色模型，并通过偏最小二乘回归校正算法建立了近红外光谱模型。结果表明，两组模型都是以红绿色相指标建模时效果最佳，在99个未知样品数据中，预测模型的颜色模型误判情况分别为未成熟0%、半成熟33.33%、成熟0%；而近红外预测模型的误判情况分别为未成熟32.14%、半成熟50%、成熟0%。该研究验证了近红外光谱技术对西红柿成熟度进行无损检测的可行性，这对实现西红柿的快速、批量分选具有一定的实际意义。     

An analytical scatter correction for singles-mode transmission data in PET

We present an analytical scatter correction, based upon the Klein-Nishina formula, for singles-mode transmission data in positron emission tomography (PET) and its implementation as part of an iterative image reconstruction algorithm. We compared our analytically-calculated scatter sinogram data with previously validated simulation data for a small animal PET scanner with 68 Ge (a positron emitter) and 57 Co (approximately 122-keV photon emitter) transmission sources using four different phantom configurations (three uniform water cylinders with radii of 25, 30, and 45 mm and a nonuniform phantom consisting of water, Teflon, and air). Our scatter calculation correctly predicts the contribution from single-scattered (one incoherent scatter interaction) photons to the simulated sinogram data and provides good agreement for the percent scatter fraction (SF) per sinogram for all phantoms and both transmission sources. We then applied our scatter correction as part of an iterative reconstruction algorithm for PET transmission data for simulated and experimental data using uniform and nonuniform phantoms. For both simulated and experimental data, the reconstructed linear attenuation coefficients (mu-values-values) agreed with expected values to within 4% when scatter corrections were applied, for both the 68 Ge and 57 Co transmission sources. We also tested our reconstruction and scatter correction procedure for two experimental rodent studies (a mouse and rat). For the rodent studies, we found that the average mu-values for soft-tissue regions of interest agreed with expected values to within 4%. Using a 2.2-GHz processor, each scatter correction iteration required between 6-27 min of CPU time (without any code optimization) depending on the phantom size and source used. This extra calculation time does not seem unreasonable considering that, without scatter corrections, errors in the reconstructed mu-values were between 18%-45% depending on the phantom size and transmission source used.     

Magnetic resonance imaging can cause focal heating in a nonuniformphantom

To test if the radiofrequency fields of a magnetic resonance imager could cause focal heating, 2 cylindrical phantoms were made from a mixture of agar and saline. The first phantom was uniform; the second was nonuniform in that a narrow bridge of agar was produced. Both phantoms were exposed to high levels of radiofrequency power (140 W) at 63 MHz and the temperature rises were measured. In the uniform phantom, the temperature increased as the radius increased. In the bridge phantom, the narrow bridge heated 3 times greater than at the opposite uniform periphery, and over 5 times the average of the uniform phantom. This experiment demonstrates that the radiofrequency fields of magnetic resonance imagers can cause focal heating if the exposed object is nonuniform. Since nonuniformity is present in the human body, as the radiofrequency power of magnetic resonance imaging techniques increases, focal heating in patients is a concern     

Experimental characterization of helical coils as hyperthermiaapplicators

A series of helical-coil hyperthermia applicators have been designed for treating human limbs. Several experiments to determine their operating characteristics were conducted using muscle-equivalent, cylindrical, and lower-body-shaped phantoms. It was found that this kind of applicator has to be operated at resonances which are both sharp and load-dependent. This can have significant clinical implications, since changes in the position of the patient and/or the tissue dielectric properties with temperature can produce a severe mismatch. Moreover, even though the patterns of energy deposition were found to be relative transversely uniform and axially belt-shaped within the cylindrical phantoms, they were strongly dependent on the shape of the phantom and of the coil for the more realistic human-shaped phantom. Intense local heating was observed whenever the winding of the helical coil was within a few millimeters of the surface of the human-shaped phantom. The tests with the human-shaped phantom showed that there can be significant energy deposition outside of the region intended for treatment     

Manipulation of Central Axis Heating Patterns with a Prototype, Three-Electrode Capacitive Device for Deep-Tumor Hyperthermia

Measurements of initial temperature elevations produced by a prototype, three-electrode capacitive heating device operating at 13.56 MHz were made at selected points along vertical and horizontal axes in beef phantoms. Adjustment of the net power supplied by the three generators driving the upper and lower two electrodes of the device permitted significant manipulation of the distribution of initial temperature elevations along the vertical "central" axis of the beef phantoms. For example, in a 17 cm thick phantom, the ratio of initial temperature elevations at central axis depths of 1 and 8 cm below the upper surface was reduced from 3.2 to 0.5, through appropriate redistribution of power to the three electrodes.     

Sun and view angle corrections on reflectances derived fromNOAA/AVHRR data

A new method is proposed for the reduction of the noise-like fluctuations associated with variations of Sun-target-sensor geometry in multitemporal AVHRR data in the visible and near-infrared bands. Its principle is to adjust, over a monthly period, a three-parameter model of surface bidirectional reflectance on a time series of cloud-free atmospherically corrected AVHRR data. One parameter of the model represents the surface reflectance corrected for angular effects. Time profiles of corrected reflectances are obtained by making the monthly period slide over the annual vegetation cycle. This procedure is applied to an annual cycle of AVHRR data on seven test sites in France representative of bare soils, agricultural crops, and forested thematic areas. The method is evaluated according to two criteria, which are the ability of the bidirectional reflectance model to reduce the amount of noise-like temporal fluctuations of AVHRR data, and the stability of the retrieved parameters when random noise is artificially added to the original AVHRR data set. The perturbations induced by the coupling between diffuse sky radiance effects and the non-Lambertian behavior of ground reflectance are also discussed. The method is proved to give satisfactory results, and can potentially be used to compare satellite-derived reflectances obtained not only at different times, but also at different places and with different sensors     

A Robust Monte Carlo Model for the Extraction of Biological Absorption and Scattering In Vivo

We have a toolbox to quantify tissue optical properties that is composed of specialized fiberoptic probes for UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and a fast, scalable inverse Monte Carlo (MC) model. In this paper, we assess the robustness of the toolbox for quantifying physiologically relevant parameters from turbid tissue-like media. In particular, we consider the effects of using different instruments, fiberoptic probes, and instrument-specific settings for a wide range of optical properties. Additionally, we test the quantitative accuracy of the inverse MC model for extracting the biologically relevant parameters of hemoglobin saturation and total hemoglobin concentration. We also test the effect of double-absorber phantoms (hemoglobin and crocin to model the absorption of hemoglobin and beta carotene, respectively, in the breast) for a range of absorption and scattering properties. We include an assessment on which reference phantom serves as the best calibration standard to enable accurate extraction of the absorption and scattering properties of the target sample. We found the best reference–target phantom combinations to be ones with similar scattering levels. The results from these phantom studies provide a set of guidelines for extracting optical parameters from clinical studies.      

Design of an optical system for interrogation of implanted luminescent sensors and verification with silicone skin phantoms

Implantable luminescent sensors are being developed for on-demand monitoring of blood glucose levels. For these sensors to be deployed in vivo, a matched external hardware system is needed. In this paper, we designed a compact, low-cost optical system with highly efficient photon delivery and collection using advanced optical modeling software. Compared to interrogation with a fiber bundle, the new system was predicted to improve interrogation efficiency by a factor of 200 for native sensors; an improvement of 37?times was predicted for sensors implanted at a depth of 1?mm in a skin-simulating phantom. A physical prototype was tested using silicone-based skin phantoms developed specifically to mimic the scattering and absorbing properties of human skin. The experimental evaluations revealed that the prototype device performed in agreement with expectations from simulation results, resulting in an overall improvement of over 2000?times. This efficient system enables use of a low-cost commercial spectrometer for recording sensor emission, which was not possible using only fiber optic delivery and collection, and will be used as a tool for in vivo studies with animal models or human subjects.     

一种新型近红外伪装涂层的制备及光谱性能研究

以聚氨酯为基体,叶绿素、铬绿、水等为填料,研制出一种可有效模拟植物反射光谱的近红外伪装涂层.实验结果表明,涂层在近红外波段具有明显的水吸收峰,克服了传统的材料因不含水而无法实现“同谱”的不足;含水量60 wt%时,涂层在300~2500 nm波段呈现出与植物相似的光谱反射特征,相似度高达99%,且符合美军标光谱通道要求,有望成为对抗现代光谱侦察的有效手段.此外,通过FT-IR、SEM等表征手段,简要讨论了涂层组成及微观结构对其光谱性能的影响.     

A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Tractography Algorithm Based on Navier–Stokes Fluid Mechanics

We introduce a fluid mechanics based tractography method for estimating the most likely connection paths between points in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) volumes. We customize the Navier–Stokes equations to include information from the diffusion tensor and simulate an artificial fluid flow through the DTI image volume. We then estimate the most likely connection paths between points in the DTI volume using a metric derived from the fluid velocity vector field. We validate our algorithm using digital DTI phantoms based on a helical shape. Our method segmented the structure of the phantom with less distortion than was produced using implementations of heat-based partial differential equation (PDE) and streamline based methods. In addition, our method was able to successfully segment divergent and crossing fiber geometries, closely following the ideal path through a digital helical phantom in the presence of multiple crossing tracts. To assess the performance of our algorithm on anatomical data, we applied our method to DTI volumes from normal human subjects. Our method produced paths that were consistent with both known anatomy and directionally encoded color images of the DTI dataset.      

Reproducibility of global and local reconstruction of three-dimensional micro-computed tomography of iliac crest biopsies

Variation in computed tomography (CT) image grayscale and spatial geometry due to specimen orientation, magnification, voxel size, differences in X-ray photon energy and limited field-of-view during the scan, were evaluated in repeated micro-CT scans of iliac crest biopsies and test phantoms. Using the micro-CT scanner on beamline X2B at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's National Synchrotron Light Source, 3-D micro-CT images were generated. They consisted of up to 1024 X 2400², 4-mum cubic voxels, each with 16-bit gray-scale. We also reconstructed the images at 16-, 32-, and 48-mum voxel resolution. Scan data were reconstructed from the complete profiles using filtered back-projection and from truncated profiles using profile-extension and with a Local reconstruction algorithm. Three biopsies and one bonelike test phantom were each rescanned at three different times at annual intervals. For the full-data-set reconstructions, the reproducibility of the estimates of mineral content of bone at mean bone opacity value, was plusmn28.8 mg/cm³ , i.e., 2.56%, in a 4-mum cubic voxel at the 95% confidence level. The reproducibility decreased with increased voxel size. The interscan difference in imaged bone volume ranged from 0.86 plusmn 0.64% at 4-mum voxel resolution, and 2.64 plusmn 2.48% at 48 mum.     

Phantom-based multimodal interactions for medical education and training: the Munich knee joint simulator

Simulation environments based on virtual reality technologies can support medical education and training. In this paper, the novel approach of an "interactive phantom" is presented that allows a realistic display of haptic contact information typically generated when touching and moving human organs or segments. The key idea of the haptic interface is to attach passive phantom objects to a mechanical actuator. The phantoms look and feel as real anatomical objects. Additional visualization of internal anatomical and physiological information and sound generated during the interaction with the phantom yield a multimodal approach that can increase performance, didactic value, and immersion into the virtual environment. Compared to classical approaches, this multimodal display is convenient to use, provides realistic tactile properties, and can be partly adjusted to different, e.g., pathological properties. The interactive phantom is exemplified by a virtual human knee joint that can support orthopedic education, especially for the training of clinical knee joint evaluation. It is suggested that the technical principle can be transferred to many other fields of medical education and training such as obstetrics and dentistry.     

Statistical analysis of nonlinearly reconstructed near-infrared tomographic images: Part II--Experimental interpretation

Image error analysis of a diffuse near-infrared tomography (NIR) system has been carried out on simulated data using a statistical approach described in Part I of this paper (Pogue et al., 2002). The methodology is used here with experimental data acquired on phantoms with a prototype imaging system intended for characterizing breast tissue. Results show that imaging performance is not limited by random measurement error, but rather by calibration issues. The image error over the entire field of view is generally not minimized when an accurate homogeneous estimate of the phantom properties is available; however, local image error over a target region of interest (ROI) is reduced. The image reconstruction process which includes a Levenberg-Marquardt style regularization provides good minimization of the objective function, yet its reduction is not always correlated with an overall image error decrease. Minimization of the bias in an ROI which contains localized changes in the optical properties can be achieved through five to nine iterations of the algorithm. Precalibration of the algorithm through statistical evaluation of phantom studies may provide a better measure of the image accuracy than that implied by minimization of the standard objective function.     

A perfused tissue phantom for ultrasound hyperthermia

A perfused tissue phantom, developed as a tool for analyzing the performance of ultrasound hyperthermia applicators, was investigated. The phantom, consisting of a fixed porcine kidney with thermocouples placed throughout the tissue, was perfused with degassed water by a variable flow rate pump. The phantom was insonated by an unfocused multielement ultrasound applicator and the temperatures in the phantom were recorded. The results indicate that for testing protocols where tissue phantoms are needed, the fixed kidney preparation offers an opportunity to use a more realistic phantom than has previously been available to assess the heating performance of ultrasound hyperthermia applicators.     

陶瓷涂层加固铝合金薄板的抗激光性能测试

针对铝合金基材设计了ZrO2陶瓷涂层,采用976 nm连续波激光对样品的抗激光性能进行了测试。基材厚度为2.5 mm,涂层厚度为0.3 mm,实验测试时样品前表面加载了0.3 Ma切向空气流。记录了辐照区域后表面测点的温度变化情况,测量了未辐照区与辐照区的反射率谱,并进行了XPS成分分析。结果表明:平均功率密度700 W/cm2的激光辐照60 s样品没有熔化;辐照区域颜色变白,对近红外光的反射率变大。颜色变白的原因可能是涂层表面沾染的含碳化合物在激光辐照过程中被热解或气化,这与XPS检测结果相一致。     

Noise characteristics of 3-D and 2-D PET images

The authors analyzed the noise characteristics of two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) images obtained from the GE Advance positron emission tomography (PET) scanner. Three phantoms were used: a uniform 20-cm phantom, a 3-D Hoffman brain phantom, and a chest phantom with heart and lung inserts. Using gated acquisition, the authors acquired 20 statistically equivalent scans of each phantom in 2-D and 3-D modes at several activity levels. From these data, they calculated pixel normalized standard deviations (NSD's), scaled to phantom mean, across the replicate scans, which allowed them to characterize the radial and axial distributions of pixel noise. The authors also performed sequential measurements of the phantoms in 2-D and 3-D modes to measure noise (from interpixel standard deviations) as a function of activity. To compensate for the difference in axial slice width between 2-D and 3-D images (due to the septa and reconstruction effects), they developed a smoothing kernel to apply to the 2-D data. After matching the resolution, the ratio of image-derived NSD values (NSD_2D/NSD_3D)² averaged throughout the uniform phantom was in good agreement with the noise equivalent count (NEC) ratio (NEC_3D/NEC_2D). By comparing different phantoms, the authors showed that the attenuation and emission distributions influence the spatial noise distribution. The estimates of pixel noise for 2-D and 3-D images produced here can be applied in the weighting of PET kinetic data and may be useful in the design of optimal dose and scanning requirements for PET studies. The accuracy of these phantom-based noise formulas should be validated for any given imaging situation, particularly in 3-D, if there is significant activity outside the scanner field of view