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Registration and Fusion
Up one levelThe following CMIV projects conducts research related to the Registration and Fusion.
Automated Generation of Patient Specific Models for Visual and Haptic Simulation of Hip Fracture Surgery
The goal of this project is an auto-generated patient specific model for haptic and visual simulation of hip fracture surgery. Osteoporotic fractures constitute a problem of increasing clinical importance. A problem with the cervical type of hip fracture is the great risk of complications. A patient-specific simulation model would enable the surgeon to perform simulated surgery on the patient. Instead of discussing alternative techniques using plain X-ray films, the surgeon would have the chance to test several operative approaches, resulting in a safer and more rapid real operation. In addition, these models would be useful in the training of surgeons and development of new techniques. The first step in the generation of the model is segmentation of the bone in a CT-volume. Then, the local bone density will be estimated from the CT-data. The resulting information will then be converted to fit models suitable for visual and haptic simulation.
Classification of multi-variate medical datasets using deformable models
Computer systems tailored for diagnostic tasks can help increase resource efficiency in the healthcare. With systems that help in classifying medical image data, the time spent on time-consuming manual tasks can be cut and diagnostic accuracy can be increased. The recent development of new imaging techniques and scanners, such as synthetic MR and dual-energy CT, has given rise to datasets that comprise of several measurements at a single spatio-temporal position. The added information presents new possibilities to extract relevant features from the data.
HEART4FLOW - Improved Diagnosis and Management of Heart Disease by 4D Blood Flow Assessment
The primary purpose of the cardiovascular system is to drive, control and maintain blood flow to all parts of the body. Despite the primacy of flow, cardiac diagnostics still rely almost exclusively on tools focused on morphological assessment. The objective of the HEART4FLOW project is to develop the next generation of methods for the non-invasive quantitative assessment of cardiac diseases and therapies by focusing on blood flow dynamics, with the goals of earlier and more accurate detection and improved management of cardiac diseases.
Imaging during stereotactic and functional neurosurgery
The overall aim of the project is to improve imaging protocols and logistics for MRI and CT during stereotactic and functional neurosurgery and to use these sequences for identification of tissue type and anatomy. This will be done along trajectories towards deep brain structures (e.g. globus pallidus internus and the subthalamic nucleus) and at borders between tumors and healthy tissue. The stereotactic MR/CT imaging data will be compared and related to optical data (laser Doppler perfusion monitoring and reflections spectroscopy) captured along trajectories during implantation of deep brain stimulation electrodes. The images will also form the base for computer simulations of the electrical field generated by deep brain stimulation electrodes. Furthermore MR images and MR spectra will be recorded post-operatively to tumor resection and used for comparison with fluorescence data captured along the border zone during the surgical resection. The imaging project is a part of a larger project with the overall aim of improving navigation and intervention in neurosurgery, see also http://www.imt.liu.se/bit/neuroengineering/
Imaging of Brown Adipose Tissue in Man
We will develop non-invasive methods for measurements of human Brown Adipose Tissue (hBAT) tissue mass and activity. Our hypothesis is that this can be achieved by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and dual energy computed tomography (DECT). Initial studies will be performed using rodents (mice and rats). An important next step will be to use human postmortem material, which will enable us to confirm the true identity of hBAT images by genetic and morphological analysis of biopsies. The validated methods will then be used for in vivo studies. We will use phase sensitive reconstruction of complex images acquired with the water and fat resonance in- and out- of-phase, so called Dixon imaging.
Morphology Guided fMRI
As the potentials for treating neurological disorders have increased tremendously the last decades, there is also a growing need for safe, reliable and cost-effective diagnostic tools. fMRI is valuable both for an improved description of normal brain function and for assessment of patients with neurological disorders. The core theoretical idea in the project is that by including/developing tools for reconstruction of the brains cortical surface new and highly significant local spatial priors can be included in the fMRI data analysis and in this way significantly improve detection performance.
MOVIII Demonstrator Project: Bio-Feedback Using Real-Time fMRI
Despite the enormous complexity of the human mind, fMRI techniques are able to partially observe the state of a brain in action. In this paper we describe an experimental setup for real-time fMRI in a bio-feedback loop. One of the main challenges in the project is to reach a detection speed, accuracy and spatial resolution necessary to attain sufficient bandwidth of communication to close the bio-feedback loop. To this end we have banked on our previous work on real-time filtering for fMRI and system identification, which has been tailored for use in the experiment setup. In the experiments presented the system is trained to estimate where a person in the MRI scanner is looking from signals derived from the visual cortex only. We have been able to demonstrate that the user can induce an action and perform simple tasks with her mind sensed using real-time fMRI.The technique may have several clinical applications, for instance to allow paralyzed and "locked in" people to communicate with the outside world. In the meanwhile, the need for improved fMRI performance and brain state detection poses a challenge to the signal processing community. We also expect that the setup will serve as an invaluable tool for neuro science research in general.
Multi-Sensory Research Using fMRI
This is a proposal for long-term collaboration between Warwick, Norrkoping and Linköping. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding as to how humans perceive their multi-sensory world In particular we want to determine: 1. How much of a scene is actually perceived in any point in time 2. What precision of any sense is perceived at any point in time 3. How is this perception related to any individual 4. How can this understanding be used to create perceptually equivalent multi-sensory virtual environments and manipulate senses in order to influence a person’s perception for example pain perception. There are a number of steps to be undertaken. Many of these will evolve as the work progresses.
Patient specific simulation of RF-treatment of liver tumors
The liver is the most common target for metastases from cancers in the abdominal organs. If possible, the liver tumors are removed by surgical resection. This,however, is often not possible due to a poor general condition of the patient or the liver. In recent years, radio frequency ablation (RFA) has become an important adjunct to modern treatment. RFA uses high-frequency electrical current to destroy tissue cells by heating them. A special needle-like electrode is inserted into the tumor and the RF current heats the surrounding tissue in order to destroy the tumor. The aim of this proposal is to develop a patient specific simulator for RFA of liver tumors. The purpose of the simulator is to simulate the thermal effect of the intervention in order to optimize the treatment and to avoid thermal damage on healthy tissue and sensitive structures such as small blood vessels and the bile ducts. Such a simulator would be useful in increasing the efficacy and safety of RFA. The project involves three major steps: Image acquisition and processing, Bio-heat modelling and, finally, evaluation. The main scientific challenges are: Development of methods for segmentation of relevant anatomical structures from MRI data; development of a heat transfer model for the liver that takes into account the cooling effect from the blood vessels; integration of the heat transfer model and the anatomic model into a patient specific RFA simulator.
Reduction of Motion Artifacts in MRI
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is known to be degraded by respiratory motion during the scan. Previous methods to cope with these problems either impose a short scan time limit, prolong the scan or do not reduce the artefacts sufficiently. For time-resolved 3D phase contrast measurements of the cardiac flow and wall motion, the imaging time is already long, and image quality is of great importance. This projects aims to construct a reconstruction algorithm that is able to reduce the artefacts caused by respiration without prolonging the scan. This might be done by using a generalized reconstruction transform combined with an iterative optimization of an image quality metric.
SIMILAR - The European Taskforce Creating Human-Machine Interfaces Similar to Human-Human Communication - WP10 Medical Applications
* SIMILAR will create an integrated task force on multimodal interfaces that respond efficiently to speech, gestures, vision, haptics and direct brain connections by merging into a single research group excellent European laboratories in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Signal Processing. * SIMILAR will develop a common theoretical framework for fusion and fission of multimodal information using the most advanced Signal Processing tools constrained by Human Computer Interaction rules. * SIMILAR will develop a network of usability test facilities and establish an assessment methodology. * SIMILAR will develop a common distributed software platform available for researchers and the public at large through www.openinterface.org. * SIMILAR will establish a scientific foundation which will manage an International Journal, Special Sessions in existing conferences, organise summer schools, interact with key European industrial partners and promote new research activities at the European level. * SIMILAR will address a series of great challenges in the field of edutainment, interfaces for disabled people and interfaces for medical applications. Natural immersive interfaces for education purposes and interfaces for environments where the user is unable to use his hands and a keyboard (like Surgical Operation Rooms, or cars) will be dealt with a stronger focus.
Dissertation by Daniel Forsberg
