BMC medical imaging
-
BMC medical imaging · Nov 2013
Review Case ReportsA case of skeletal tuberculosis and psoas abscess: disease activity evaluated using (18) F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography.
Psoas abscess complicating tuberculous spondylitis is a rare morbidity in extrapulmonary tuberculosis. There are no established guidelines for evaluating the clinical response of psoas abscess. Although several studies have shown that positron emission tomography-computed tomography with 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose can play a potential role in diagnosing multifocal tuberculosis and monitoring the clinical response of pulmonary tuberculosis, to our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that positron emission tomography-computed tomography is useful for evaluating local inflammation and disease activity of a tuberculous psoas abscess. ⋯ We have successfully followed up the extent of skeletal tuberculosis complicated with psoas abscess by positron emission tomography-computed tomography. In this patient, positron emission tomography-computed tomography is useful for evaluating the disease activity of tuberculous psoas abscess and for assessing the appropriate duration of antitubercular drug therapy in psoas abscess.
-
BMC medical imaging · Aug 2013
CT of the chest with model-based, fully iterative reconstruction: comparison with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction.
The recently developed model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) enables significant reduction of image noise and artifacts, compared with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) and filtered back projection (FBP). The purpose of this study was to evaluate lesion detectability of low-dose chest computed tomography (CT) with MBIR in comparison with ASIR and FBP. ⋯ MBIR shows greater potential than ASIR for providing diagnostically acceptable low-dose CT without compromising image quality. With radiation dose reduction of >70%, MBIR can provide equivalent lesion detectability of standard-dose FBP CT.
-
BMC medical imaging · Jul 2013
Left ventricular segmentation from MRI datasets with edge modelling conditional random fields.
This paper considers automatic segmentation of the left cardiac ventricle in short axis magnetic resonance images. Various aspects, such as the presence of papillary muscles near the endocardium border, makes simple threshold based segmentation difficult. ⋯ The presented model integrates shape and motion information to segment the inner and outer contours in the presence of papillary muscles. On the Sunnybrook dataset we find an average Dice metric of 0.91 ± 0.02 and 0.93 ± 0.02 for the inner and outer segmentations, respectively. Particularly problematic are patients with hypertrophy where the blood pool disappears from view at end-systole.
-
BMC medical imaging · Jan 2013
National trends in advanced outpatient diagnostic imaging utilization: an analysis of the medical expenditure panel survey, 2000-2009.
Concerns have been raised regarding growth in advanced diagnostic imaging use. This study evaluated trends in national outpatient MRI/CT utilization rates during 2000-2009 and factors associated with utilization. ⋯ Growth in advanced imaging utilization appears to have slowed in recent years, a finding of potential interest to policy-makers and payers.
-
BMC medical imaging · Jan 2013
Observational StudyIncreased pelvic incidence may lead to arthritis and sagittal orientation of the facet joints at the lower lumbar spine.
Correct sagittal alignment with a balanced pelvis and spine is crucial in the management of spinal disorders. The pelvic incidence (PI) describes the sagittal pelvic alignment and is position-independent. It has barely been investigated on CT scans. Furthermore, no studies have focused on the association between PI and facet joint (FJ) arthritis and orientation. Therefore, our goal was to clarify the remaining issues about PI in regard to (1) physiologic values, (2) age, (3) gender, (4) lumbar lordosis (LL) and (5) FJ arthritis and orientation using CT scans. ⋯ PI is not correlated with age nor gender. However, this is the first report showing that PI is significantly and linearly associated with LL, FJ arthritis and more sagittal FJ orientation at the lower lumbar spine. This may be caused by a higher contact force on the lower lumbar FJs by an increased PI. Once symptomatic or in the event of spinal trauma, patients with increased PI and LL could benefit from corrective surgery and spondylodesis.