Full Research Paper
Cell Biomechanics / Cell Mechanics / Mechanobiology
Seyed Hojat Sabzpoushan; Zahra Daneshparvar
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 187-200
Abstract
The study of cardiac arrhythmia is a great help for prevention of the major reason of human death. To study the arrhythmias, we need cell models that not only mimic AP’s normal behavior, but also show their abnormal activity. The usual electrophysiological models contain a lot of details and hence ...
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The study of cardiac arrhythmia is a great help for prevention of the major reason of human death. To study the arrhythmias, we need cell models that not only mimic AP’s normal behavior, but also show their abnormal activity. The usual electrophysiological models contain a lot of details and hence complicate mathematics which lowers the computational efficiency. In this paper, a minimal 2-state variables model is presented that not only simulates normal characteristics of human ventricular cells like excitability, AP morphology, restitution and effects of currents block, but also replicates early after depolarization (EAD) which is an abnormal activity of cardiac cells. The presented model is a conductance based one, incorporating two currents; inward and outward that delighting all the membrane inward and outward currents respectively. The adjustment and regulation of parameters were performed using an iterative algorithm that minimizes mean squares error between model responses and real APs. The effective range of parameters for initiation of the EAD is determined by the use of dynamical system analysis theory. The simulation results are in agreement with electrophysiological realities. The computing time of the model for an one-dimensional array of 10 cells is estimated to be between 34 to 112 times faster than some well-known electrophysiological models.
Full Research Paper
Saeed Hesaraki; Masoud Hafezi Ardakani; Kolsoum Rajabi Monavar; Hosein Mohammadi
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 201-207
Abstract
In this research, effect of temperature and calcium to phosphorus (Ca/P) ratio of raw materials on the type and the amounts of formed phases were investigated by solid state method. Calcium carbonate and dicalcium phosphate were provided as raw materials and mixed with different percentages in a way ...
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In this research, effect of temperature and calcium to phosphorus (Ca/P) ratio of raw materials on the type and the amounts of formed phases were investigated by solid state method. Calcium carbonate and dicalcium phosphate were provided as raw materials and mixed with different percentages in a way that final (Ca/P) ratio was between 1.50 to 1.67 in different batches. Then each of these mixtures was heated at temperatures of 800 to 1200 ° C for 3 hours. Phases were identified with XRD technique and quantitative assessment of phases was evaluated by RIR method and Chung relation. Results showed that in all relations and desired temperatures sintered below 1100 ° C beta tri-calcium phosphate is the dominant phase and hydroxyapatite present as second phase in the composition. In samples which sintered at 1200° C, beta TCP is transferred significantly to alpha TCP. In samples with Ca/p ratio: 1.62, 1.67, hydroxyapatite is dominant phase at 1200° C.
Full Research Paper
Biomedical Image Processing / Medical Image Processing
Nikta Jalayer; Majid Bagheri; Majid Pouladian
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 209-217
Abstract
Recent developments in three-dimensional (3D) PET systems have enabled the spatial resolution to reach the 2- to 5-mm full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) range. With such improvements in spatial resolution, even small amounts of motion during PET imaging become a significant source of resolution degradation. ...
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Recent developments in three-dimensional (3D) PET systems have enabled the spatial resolution to reach the 2- to 5-mm full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) range. With such improvements in spatial resolution, even small amounts of motion during PET imaging become a significant source of resolution degradation. In other words, increased spending on new-generation scanners can be fully justified only when appropriate motion correction methods are considered, to achieve the true resolution of the scanner. Motion correction methods developed for single photon emission CT (SPECT) are not necessarily applicable to PET because they may rely on the time-dependence of projections in SPECT (due to a rotating head or heads), which is not the case in PET. Nevertheless, a number of other methods implemented in SPECT are equally applicable to PET. In this work has been broadly categorized into the review and discussion of advanced correction methods for the cases of unwanted patient motion, motion due to cardiac cycles, and motion due to respiratory cycles. After reviewing some current methods, the model is introduced which was developed with the help of NCAT phantom and Sim SET. Two phantoms were extracted, male and female, from NCAT to see the differences between the results with the changes in the anatomy of these two phantoms. Then PET images were produced using Sim SET for all the phantoms available (with respiratory motion and without respiratory motion and for respiratory cycles of 4, 5 and 6 seconds for both male and female phantoms). The new model is introduced which is designed based on the respiratory cycle 5 seconds, using wavelet transforms. This model can track and compensate motion due to respiration. The results show that for the first frame and the last one because of very smooth and slight motions the images with motion are not that different from the images without motion, so the proposed model is not responding better than the images with motion. However, for the rest of the frames the model provides better images compare to the images with motion. Comparing to other methods, this model not only provides a good estimation for motion but also it doesn’t include the errors caused by markers and monitoring systems.
Full Research Paper
Biomedical Image Processing / Medical Image Processing
Neda Behzadfar; Hamid Soltanian Zadeh
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 219-236
Abstract
Segmentation of tumors in magnetic resonance images is an important task. However, it is quite time consuming and has low accuracy and reproducibility when performed manually. Automating the process is challenging, due to high diversity in appearance of tumor tissue in different patients and in many ...
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Segmentation of tumors in magnetic resonance images is an important task. However, it is quite time consuming and has low accuracy and reproducibility when performed manually. Automating the process is challenging, due to high diversity in appearance of tumor tissue in different patients and in many cases, similarity between tumor and normal tissues. This paper presents semi-automatic approach for analysis of multi-parametric magnetic resonance images (MRI) to segment a highly malignant brain tumor called Glioblastoma multiform (GBM). MRI studies of 12 patients with GBM tumors are used. To show that the proposed method identifies Gd-enhanced tumor pixels from T1-post contrast images minimal user interactions. They are also used to illustrate that the segmentation results obtained by the proposed approach are close to those of an expert, by showing excellent correlations among them (R2=0.97). In order to evaluate the proposed method in practical applications, effects of treatment of GBM brain tumors using Bevacizumab are predicted. Bevacizumab is a recent therapy for stopping tumor growth and even shrinking tumor through inhibition of vascular development (angiogenesis). To this end, two image series of 12 patients before and after treatment and relative changes in the volumes of the Gd-enhanced regions in T1-post contrast images are used as measure of response. The proposed method applies signal decomposition with KNN classifier to minimize user interactions and increase reproducibility of the results. Then histogram analysis is applied to extract statistical features from Gd-enhanced regions of tumor and quantify its micro structural characteristics. Predictive models developed in this work have large regression coefficients (maximum R2=0.91) indicating their capability to predict response to therapy. The results obtained by the proposed approach are compared with those of previous work where excellent correlations are obtained.
Full Research Paper
Biomedical Image Processing / Medical Image Processing
Pedram Masaeli; Hamid Behnam; Zahra Alizadeh Sani; Ahmad Shalbaf
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 237-254
Abstract
Coronary artery diseases cause more than half of all deaths in the world. Obviously, early identification is an important way to control coronary artery disease that is diagnosed by measurement and scoring general and regional movement of left ventricle of heart (Normal, Hypokinetic and Akinetic). The ...
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Coronary artery diseases cause more than half of all deaths in the world. Obviously, early identification is an important way to control coronary artery disease that is diagnosed by measurement and scoring general and regional movement of left ventricle of heart (Normal, Hypokinetic and Akinetic). The most common method of imaging the heart using ultrasound is called echocardiography. Using this method accurate view of the heart walls, valves and beginning of main arteries can be obtainbed. Due to the difficulty for the interpretation of these images, time consumption and errors in manual analysis methods, an automated analysis method is required. In this paper we calculate the displacement field in a cycle of heart motion from two-dimensional echocardiography images. To do this, a frame is usually chosen as the reference frame and then all images in a cycle are mapped to it with a mathematical equation. The main idea is to find a semi-local spatiotemporal parametric model for deformation created in a cardiac cycle with nonrigid registration using B-spline functions; as an optimization problem that effectively corrects differences due to movements by minimizing the difference between current frame and a reference frame. Motion estimation accuracy is measured using the sum of squares differences. We use gradient-descend algorithm and multiresolution method to acquire the coefficients in the motion model. The accuracy of the proposed method is assessed using a synthesis sequence of cardiac cycles produced with the simulation software Field II. This algorithm can be applied for the clinical analysis of regional left ventricle then movement parameters and threshold values for the scoring of each section can be extracted. The algorithm represents significant difference between a part of the normal heart and unhealthy heart that shows potential of clinical applications of the proposed method.
Full Research Paper
Biological Computer Modeling / Biological Computer Simulation
Hosein Ghasemi; Mohammad Saeid Saeidi; Bahar Firoozabadi
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 255-264
Abstract
Knowledge regarding particle deposition processes in the pulmonary system is important in aerosol therapy and inhalation toxicology applications. The present work describes a computational model of human lung airway consisting of the three-generation pathway from the trachea down to segmental bronchi. ...
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Knowledge regarding particle deposition processes in the pulmonary system is important in aerosol therapy and inhalation toxicology applications. The present work describes a computational model of human lung airway consisting of the three-generation pathway from the trachea down to segmental bronchi. In order to more appropriately model human air passage, an asymmetric geometry (i.e. three generation airway) is extracted from the 1th to 3th branches of the Hoursfield model and on dealing with the complexities of simulations (e.g. computation time) structured mesh is developed which also leads to more accurate computations. The fully three-dimensional incompressible laminar Navier– Stokes equations and continuity equation have been solved using CFD home code on generated mesh. Computations are carried out in the Reynolds number range of 800–1800, corresponding to mouthair breathing rates ranging from 0.18 to 0.41 l/s, representative. The study leads to establishing relations for overall particle deposition efficiency in the second generation of bronchial tree as a function of two dimensionless groups of Reynolds and Stocks numbers. Furthermore, interpretation of correlations are enlightened the fact of that in the initial generations of bronchial trees, consideration of asymmetric geometry has a significant influence on the particle deposition pattern. The results of the paper are valuable in aerosol therapy and inhalation toxicology.
Full Research Paper
Biomedical Signal Processing / Medical Signal Processing / Biosignal Processing
Mohsen Mohammadvali’ee; Ali Mahloojifar
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 265-276
Abstract
One of the most important goals for increasing the recognition and treatment revenue is transmitting the vital data to medical care team, more quickly. Nowadays, use of new technologies for transmission of data is extending every day. In this research, for transmitting electrocardiogram, first we code ...
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One of the most important goals for increasing the recognition and treatment revenue is transmitting the vital data to medical care team, more quickly. Nowadays, use of new technologies for transmission of data is extending every day. In this research, for transmitting electrocardiogram, first we code the signal into a matrix of codes, then we will use bluetooth technology to transmit data from offset device to target device. Signal coding will affect in sending and storing data. This suite of codes that form for the first time in this method, include number and type of extermumes, time of occurring them, samples of signal and etc. We complete the coding, using arithmetic coding. The input of arithmetic coding is the extracted suite of coefficients and the output is arithmetic codes. We use SD-200 serial bluetooth modules produced by SENA™ in transmission of coding coefficients. The transmitter sends extracted coefficients and receptor receives them and reconstructs the primary signal. For testing and evaluating the method, we use MIT–BIH arrhythmia database. In our method, when average Percentage of Root Mean Square Differential (PRD) is equal to 5.93%, Compression Ratio (CR) and Cross Correlation (CC) is equal to 8.69 and 99.8%, respectively. Beside, when PRD is about 10.21%, CR and CC is 13.03 and 99.47%, respectively. The maximum standard deviation of compression ratio in two states is 4.17.
Technical note
Zahra sadat Hosseini; Mohadese Arabgari; Ali Farmad; Leili Goldoozian; Hamid Reza Maghari; Sara Aghajari; Edmond Zahedi
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, Pages 277-285
Abstract
In this article a wireless patient monitoring system for vital signs (respiratory rate and heart beat) is presented. The recorded biosignal is the photoplethysmogram using a probe attached to the patient's finger. This signal is amplified, filtered and digitized by an on-board processor unit before finally ...
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In this article a wireless patient monitoring system for vital signs (respiratory rate and heart beat) is presented. The recorded biosignal is the photoplethysmogram using a probe attached to the patient's finger. This signal is amplified, filtered and digitized by an on-board processor unit before finally being sent wirelessly via a transmitter. The capacity of the current system is 16 patients whose data can be received through a common receiver by a central server which measures and displays the heart beat and respiratory rate for each patient on the monitor.
