Sparse transformer and multipath decision tree: a novel approach for efficient brain tumor classification.

Drawing on existing theoretical work, as well as field research, this dissertation examines the impact of medical imaging technologies on communication between physicians and older patients when diagnostics often privilege disembodied data over the patient voice. Current diagnostic trends are contextualized within the history of medicine, from Ancient Greece to the present, including the development of imaging. Since the 1970s, advanced medical imaging technologies (e.g., ultrasound, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging) have become the diagnostic norm in Western medicine. The rapidity of this shift, which renders the human body as flattened data, can outstrip considerations of the implications of applying such technologies to living patients. Focusing on older patients, who may be less technologically savvy than younger patients or medical professionals, the field research begins with semi-structured interviews of patients over age sixty-five, exploring their encounters with medical imaging equipment and professionals. This data is interrogated qualitatively using Foucauldian discourse analysis drawing on Andrea Doucet’s model of slow scholarship, and informed by Arthur Frank’s notion of letting stories breathe; themes were allowed to surface from the patients’ narratives, rather than imposed by the researcher. Information emerging from the data considers patients’ emotions, unexpected physical sensations, communicative strategies and rationalizations, as well as Foucauldian allusions to power. Observational research was also conducted during encounters between physicians and simulated patients in the presence of medical images; these encounters were followed by reflective exit interviews. Research indicates that although physicians are increasingly trained in patient-centred communication, it is not always optimally practised. Physicians are sometimes more comfortable with the medical discourse of disease than with the emotional, metaphoric language of the patient’s illness experience. Since the development of modern Western medicine in Europe of the late 1700s, physicians have been trained to seek pathology, with the increasing aid of medical technologies, rather than listening to their patients. For older patients, who may experience multiple co-morbidities, the lack of communication around advanced medical technologies can increase their sense of vulnerability and anxiety. The dissertation concludes with recommendations for both patients and practitioners to improve communication in the medical context.

Advances in medical imaging technology have led to the acquisition of large number of images in different modalities. On some of these images the boundaries of key organs need to be accurately identified for treatment planning and diagnosis. This is typically performed manually by a physician who uses prior knowledge of organ shapes and locations to demarcate the boundaries of organs. Such manual segmentation is subjective, time consuming and prone to inconsistency. Automating this task has been found to be very challenging due to poor tissue contrast and ill-defined organ/tissue boundaries. This dissertation presents a genetic algorithm for combining representations of learned information such as known shapes, regional properties and relative location of objects into a single framework in order to perform automated segmentation. The algorithm has been tested on two different datasets: for segmenting hands on thermographic images and for prostate segmentation on pelvic computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) images. In this dissertation we report the results of segmentation in two dimensions (2D) for thermographic images; and two as well as three dimensions (3D) for pelvic images. We show that combining multiple features for segmentation improves segmentation accuracy as compared with segmentation using single features such as texture or shape alone.

Bladder cancer is reported to be the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Recent advances in medical imaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, make virtual cystoscopy a potential alternative with advantages as being a safe and non-invasive method for evaluation of the entire bladder and detection of abnormalities. To help reducing the interpretation time and reading fatigue of the readers or radiologists, we introduce a computer-aided detection scheme based on the thickness mapping of the bladder wall since locally-thickened bladder wall often appears around tumors. In the thickness mapping method, the path used to measure the thickness can be determined without any ambiguity by tracing the gradient direction of the potential field between the inner and outer borders of the bladder wall. The thickness mapping of the three-dimensional inner border surface of the bladder is then flattened to a twodimensional (2D) gray image with conformal mapping method. In the 2D flattened image, a blob detector is applied to detect the abnormalities, which are actually the thickened bladder wall indicating bladder lesions. Such scheme was tested on two MR datasets, one from a healthy volunteer and the other from a patient with a tumor. The result is preliminary, but very promising with 100% detection sensitivity at 7 FPs per case.

This book places an emphasis on the basic principles and recent advances in medical imaging technologies. After an introduction, the rest of the text can be categorized into three main parts. Part 1 provides a comprehensive tutorial on the fundamentals of medical imaging modalities and image processing methodologies. Part 2 highlights the cutting-edge imaging modalities for radiography and the recent developments of information technology in biomedicine. Part 3 provides some case studies and applications in radiation therapy and computer-aided diagnosis along with a perspective on future trends in medical and molecular imaging. The book is well organized and well presented. A concise summary before each chapter highlights the most important points of the text. This book can be used as a textbook for graduate courses and as an excellent reference for radiologists, neurologists, biomedical engineers, and researchers who are interested in imaging processing and modeling.

Introduction Advances in medical imaging technology have made it possible routinely to acquire high-resolution, three-dimensional images of human anatomy and function using a variety of imaging modalities. Today the number of acquired 2D images per exam varies from 150 images for screening up to 700 to 3000 for the diagnosis of complex cases. This large amount of images per case together with the growing importance of medical imaging in clinical practice, have continuously increased the workload of the radiologist, which explains the need for computer-assisted medical image analysis. Furthermore there is a quest for objective, quantitative information from medical images. In radiotherapy for instance, outlines of the irradiation volume and the neighboring organs at risk are delineated in 3D images and used to calculate a suitable radiation therapy. In neurology, degenerative diseases of the brain, such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, or schizophrenia, are studied by measuring brain shape and tissue changes in MR images. In cardiology, the health condition of the heart is assessed by studying the dynamics, the perfusion, and tissue characteristics of the heart muscle as revealed by MR or ultrasound images, and so forth. Traditionally, medical images are interpreted by visual inspection of the 2D images displayed slice by slice. Such radiological protocol is necessarily subjective , as it is based on the perception by a human observer and is usually restricted to mere qualitative statements and judgments. Moreover, the traditional 2D display of 3D images allows immediate inspection of anatomical structures in the two dimensions of the image plane only, whereas the third dimension has to be reconstructed mentally by the radiologist by looking at adjacent image slices.

National cancer institute initiative for development of novel imaging technologies

Thanks to advances in medical imaging technologies and numerical methods, patient-specific modelling is more and more used to improve diagnosis and to estimate the outcome of surgical interventions. It requires the extraction of the domain of interest from the medical scans of the patient, as well as the discretisation of this geometry. However, extracting smooth multi-material meshes that conform to the tissue boundaries described in the segmented image is still an active field of research. We propose to solve this issue by combining an implicit surface reconstruction method with a multi-region mesh extraction scheme. The surface reconstruction algorithm is based on multi-level partition of unity implicit surfaces, which we extended to the multi-material case. The mesh generation algorithm consists in a novel multi-domain version of the marching tetrahedra. It generates multi-region meshes as a set of triangular surface patches consistently joining each other at material junctions. This paper presents this original meshing strategy, starting from boundary points extraction from the segmented data to heterogeneous implicit surface definition, multi-region surface triangulation and mesh adaptation. Results indicate that the proposed approach produces smooth and high-quality triangular meshes with a reasonable geometric accuracy. Hence, the proposed method is well suited for subsequent volume mesh generation and finite element simulations.

Health depiction and image are indispensable for patient instruction and self-care. Images characterize an imperative feature of the entire medical knowledge. Presently there is hardly any attempt in automatically construction inclusive image bases for universal health information customers. We proposed an approach to automatically construct a consumer -leaning image library contain images of individual organs, diseases, drugs and other medical entities. Health check imaging has become an important tool not simply in document patient presentation and clinical findings, but also considerate and managing various diseases. Image data present tangible visual evidence of disease manifestation. The number of digital images that needs to be acquired, analyzed, classified, stored and retrieved in the medical centers is exponentially growing with the advances in medical imaging technology. The goal of this work we proposed medical image retrieval technique for pathology images that implements recent improvements in feature representation, efficient indexing, and similarity matching.

The main objective of this PhD research has been to utilize machine learning techniques on near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) signals, for the development of highly accurate and clinically practical biomarkers for the objective assessment of pain perception. While advances in medical imaging technology have significantly improved the scientific knowledge in regards to the brain's response to noxious stimuli, there remains an unmet clinical need for a practical, inexpensive tool for the reliable and objective assessment of pain perception. Even though functional imaging modalities such as fMRI and PET scans deliver superior spatial information, they are not readily accessible for routine clinical use. On the other hand NIRS is non-invasive, safe, portable and affordable with a short setup time. These features make NIRS ideal for clinical applications. In this thesis we used the cold pressor test to induce different levels of pain in healthy subjects while the NIRS signal was recorded from the frontal regions of the brain. We extracted 54 features from each dataset and used machine learning techniques, logistic regression and support vector machine, to classify the signals based on the self-reported pain scores. To select the model for machine learning, we developed our feature selection algorithm based on a RFE-SVM (recursive feature elimination - support vector machine) method to find subsets of feature space with the highest classification capability. Through this process we identified a subset of 10 features which could distinguish high-pain from low-pain stimuli with an accuracy of 85% (Leave-one-out cross validation). Moreover we applied functional data analysis on the collected NIRS data and converted discrete samples to continuous curves. This time we used the same RFE-SVM method on the coefficients of fDA bases (as opposed to extracted features) and we achieved 94% of accuracy to classify low-pain high-pain signals. Then using machine learning techniques (k-means and hierarchical clustering) we found clusters in the data which covered low pain and high pain groups with an accuracy of 91.2%. The center of these clusters can represent the prototype NIRS response of that pain level. Our approaches provided trial-by-trial predictions of pain level from NIRS measurement for each individual (as opposed to methods based on responses averaged across many trials and subjects), and thus, represent a step towards the goal of establishing an objective clinical bio marker of pain perception. Further refinement of proposed methods, including incorporating more datasets and employing other noxious stimuli, is required to make the NIRS technique a powerful clinical tool for pain assessment.

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the Queensland Government have jointly established the Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) with the aim of developing innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) for a sustainable health care system. The AEHRC, as part of the CSIRO ICT Centre, has access to new technologies in information processing, wireless and networking technologies, and autonomous systems. The AEHRC's 50 researchers, software engineers and PhD students, in partnership with the CSIRO and clinicians, are developing and applying new technologies for improving patients' experience, building a more rewarding workplace for the health workforce, and improving the efficiency of delivering health care. The capabilities of the AEHRC fall into four broad areas: smart methods for using medical data; advanced medical imaging technologies; new models for clinical and health care interventions; and tools for medical skills development. Since its founding in 2004, new technology from the AEHRC has been adopted within Queensland (eg, a mobile phone-based cardiac rehabilitation program), around Australia (eg, medical imaging technologies) and internationally (eg, our clinical terminology tools).

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is an advanced medical imaging technology over Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). A newly introduced methodology should have certain advantages over the existing one. DTI differs from MRI on region of scanning, dimension of scanning and in the mode of acquisition. MRI scans Grey Matter (GM) while DTI scans the White Matter (WM) portion of the human brain. DTI gives out an multi-dimensional image of the human organs while MRI gives out an two-dimensional view of the human organs. Recent researches have proved the role of DTI in determining various neurological disorders and psychiatric disorders. Fiber disappearance and deorganisation can be detected using Fiber Tractography. Brain tumor, Parkinson, and Schizophrenia like neurological disorders and diseases exhibit a huge variation in the fiber pattern alignment in the human brain. Schizophrenia is an mental illness caused due to excessive deposition of chemical contents like dopamine and serotonin in different portions of human brain like Subtantia Nigra, Hippo campus. The schizophrenic brain is visualized using whole brain tractography as the serotonin and dopamine exhibits a huge pathway. Whole brain Tractography helped in comparison of schizophrenic and normal cohort concluding the dominance of Fiber Tractography over Tensor Glyph.

Purpose:Recent advances in medical imaging technologies provide opportunities to quantify the tumor phenotype throughout the course of treatment non‐invasively. The emerging field of Radiomics addresses this by converting medical images into minable data using a large number of quantitative imaging algorithms. The ability of radiomics to predict clinical outcomes such as survival or nodal involvement, can provide valuable complementary information. This study aims to evaluate the predictability of CT based radiomics features for node stages and survival time.in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.Method:We included 118 patients with NSCLC in our analysis. Seventy‐four quantitative radiomic features describing the tumor phenotype based on intensity, shape, and texture, were extracted from planning CT scans. Association of the radiomics features with node involvement (Yes/No) was assessed using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristics (ROC). Association with overall survival was assessed using the C‐Index (CI).Results:We found 30 radiomic features that were significantly (FDR corrected) associated with nodal involvement (range AUC=0.73‐0.60). Seventeen features were significantly associated survival (range CI=0.56‐0.62). Gray Level Non‐Uniformity, describing intra‐tumor heterogeneity, was the best predictor for both nodal stage (AUC=0.73) and survival time (CI=0.62). It is noteworthy that tumor volume is only the 8th best predictor for both nodal stage (AUC=0.71) and survival (CI =0.61).Conclusion:Radiomics analysis was able to predict node stage and survival time by looking at complex image features. Although tumor volume has been routinely used to predict outcome, this study shows that radiomic features capturing detailed information of the tumor phenotype can provide better prediction for clinical relevant factors such as nodal involvement and survival.

Detecting brain tumors early on is critical for effective treatment and life-saving efforts. The analysis of the brain with MRI scans is fundamental to the diagnosis because it contains detailed structural views of the brain, which is vital in identifying any of its abnormalities. The other option of performing an invasive biopsy is very painful and uncomfortable, which is not the case with MRI as it is free from surgically invasive margins and pieces of equipment. This helps patients to feel more at ease and hasten the diagnostic procedure, allowing physicians to formulate and practice action plans quicker. It is very difficult to locate a human brain tumor by manual because MRI scans produce large numbers of three-dimensional images. Complete applicability of pre-written computerized diagnostics, affords high possibilities in providing areas of interest earlier through the application of machine learning techniques and algorithms. The proposed work in the present study was to develop a deep learning model which will classify brain tumor grade images (BTGC), and hence enhance accuracy in diagnosing patients with different grades of brain tumors using MRI. A MobileNetV2 model, was used to extract the features from the images. This model increases the efficiency and generalizability of the model further. In this study, six standard Kaggle brain tumor MRI datasets were used to train and validate the developed and tested model of a brain tumor detection and classification algorithm into several types. This work consists of two key components: (i) brain tumor detection and (ii) classification of the tumor. The tumor classifications are conducted in both three classes (Meningioma, Pituitary, and glioma) and two classes (malignant, benign). The model has been reported to detect brain tumors with 99.85% accuracy, to distinguish benign and malignant tumors with 99.87% accuracy, and to type meningioma, pituitary, and glioma tumors with 99.38% accuracy. The results of this study indicate that the described technique is useful in the detection and classification of brain tumors.

Background.Molecular markers provide important biological and clinical information related to the classification of brain tumors, and the integration of relevant molecular parameters into brain tumor classification systems has been a widely discussed topic in neuro-oncology over the past decade. With recent advances in the development of clinically relevant molecular signatures and the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) update, the views of the neuro-oncology community on such changes would be informative for implementing this process.Methods.A survey with 8 questions regarding molecular markers in tumor classification was sent to an email list of Society for Neuro-Oncology members and attendees of prior meetings (n=5065). There were 403 respondents. Analysis was performed using whole group response, based on self-reported subspecialty.Results.The survey results show overall strong support for incorporating molecular knowledge into the classification and clinical management of brain tumors. Across all 7 subspecialty groups, ≥70% of respondents agreed to this integration. Interestingly, some variability is seen among subspecialties, notably with lowest support from neuropathologists, which may reflect their roles in implementing such diagnostic technologies.Conclusion.Based on a survey provided to the neuro-oncology community, we report strong support for the integration of molecular markers into the WHO classification of brain tumors, as well as for using an integrated “layered” diagnostic format. While membership from each specialty showed support, there was variation by specialty in enthusiasm regarding proposed changes.The initial results of this survey influenced the deliberations underlying the 2016 WHO classification of tumors of the central nervous system.

Segmentation and classification of brain tumor are time-consuming and challenging chore in clinical image processing. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) offers more information related to human soft tissues that assists in diagnosing brain tumor. Precise segmentation of the MRI images is vital to diagnose brain tumor by means of computer-aided medical tools. Afterwards suitable segmentation of MRI brain tumor images, tumor classification is performed that is a hard chore owing to complications. Therefore, Gannet Aquila Optimization Algorithm_deep maxout network (GAOA_DMN) and GAOA_K-Net+speech enhancement generative adversarial network (GAOA_K-Net+Segan) is presented for classification and segmentation of brain tumor utilizing MRI images. Here, pre-processing phase performs noise removal from input image utilizing the Laplacian filter and also the region of interest (ROI) extraction is also carried out. Then, segmentation of brain tumor is conducted by K-Net+Segan, which is combined by Motyka similarity. However, K-Net+Segan for segmentation is trained by GAOA that is an amalgamation of Gannet Optimization Algorithm (GOA) and Aquila Optimizer (AO). From segmented image, features are extracted for performing classification phase. At last, brain tumor classification is conducted by DMN, which is tuned by GAOA and thus, output is obtained. Furthermore, GAOA_K-Net+Segan obtained better outcomes in terms of segmentation accuracy whereas devised GAOA_DMN achieved maximum accuracy, true negative rate (TNR) and true positive rate (TPR) of 92.7%, 94.5% and 91.5%.