High Grayscale Research Articles

Sonographic and Duplex Evaluation of Synovial activity in Wrist and Hand Joints in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract Background Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term autoimmune disease and inflammatory disorder. The damaging effect on cartilage, bone, ligaments, and tendons has raised the importance of the accurate diagnosis of structural damage, disease activity and severity assessment to enable therapeutic decisions and to evaluate disease outcome. US is non invasive, relatively cheap and widely accessible imaging tool that facilitates the detection of synovitis joint effusin and erosions more better than clinical, laboratory investigations alone and x-ray. Aim of the Work assess the role of of gray-scale and Doppler ultrasound early detection and characterization of synovitis and structural bone changes in wrist and hand joints in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis by comparing qualitative and quantitative US parameters with clinical and laboratory indicators of disease activity. Patients and Methods A cross sectional study conducted onthirty five adult patients with RA . All the patients were diagnosed according to the 2010 ACR/European League . The patients were recruited from the Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams Hospitals .The study was approved by the ethical committee, and consents were taken from all patients enrolled in the study. Patients assessed by history taking, Clinical examination, Laboratory investigations and US gray scale and US power Doppler was done for each patient. Results This study included 35 patients with established RA, 27 females (77.1%) and 8 males (22.9%). Ranged in age between 20-70 years with mean age [45.66±12.76],the mean CDAS28 was [4.62±1.37], ESR [44.93±20.79], CRP [15.92±9.03], 33 patients (94.3%) were found to have synovial thickening, 14 patient (40%) were found to have increased vascularity by PD, joint effusion was detected in 12 patient (34.3%) particularly in MCP joints, 13 (37.1%) had bone erosion and only 9 patients (25.7%) had Tenosynovitis, most of them were detected at the extensor compartment of the wrist joint.positive correlations found between the clinical disease activity indices, laboratory investigations, duration of illness and components of the US findings. Conclusion Ultrasound is non invasive, relatively cheap and widely accessible imaging tool that facilitates the detection of synovitis and erosions,, high resolution gray scale images combined with Doppler technique have made it possible to detect slow low volume blood flow, thus improving the outcome of the standard clinical assessment in Rheumatoid synovial inflammation.

Correlation between Ultrasonography and Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) Findings in Patients with Thyroid Lesions

Background:Thyroid nodules are common presentation in patients having thyroid disorders. There is approximately 4-5% incidence of clinically apparent thyroid lesions in general populations.Thyroid nodules are about four times more common in females than in males. The present study aims to diagnose the thyroid lesions and evaluate to relation and diagnostic test of ultrasonography (USG) and Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) report. To determine the sensitivity of ultrasonography in detecting thyroid lesions.Method:This was hospital based prospective study carried in 94 patients who came to radiology department for USG neck, after clinical examination frommedicine, surgery and ENT department.Those patients with thyroid lesions were followed and advised for USG guided FNAC of thyroid swelling. The patients who were advised for FNAC, and gave consent for procedure were included in the study. The USG guided FNAC was done and wasfurther evaluated by pathologist. Results:Out of 94 cases, 85 were benign nodules and 9 were malignant nodules by USG which were further confirmed by FNAC with results of 87 benign and 7 malignant.The USG diagnosed the benign thyroid nodule with sensitivity of 96.55% and specificity of 85.71%, positive predictive value 98.82%, negative predictive value 66.67%, accuracy 95.74%. The result revealed that there is a strong relation between diagnoses of benign thyroid lesions by USG and final diagnosis by FNAC (P=0.001).Conclusion:High resolution grey scale imaging features can differentiate benign and malignant lesions. USG is very helpful for FNAC, characterization of nodules and provides differential diagnosis in those patients affecting with thyroid disorders.

EVALUATION OF EPIDIDYMORCHITIS BY HIGH FREQUENCY GRAY SCALE AND COLOR DOPPLER ULTRASONOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION: Ultrasonography is extremely well suited to study of scrotum and its contents. Ultrasound is simple to perform, quick, non-invasive, low cost effective, easily reproducible, widely available and does not involve irradiation of gonads.It is very helpful in differentiating intratesticular and extratesticular pathologies. Ultrasound is the modality to differentiate solid from cystic lesions of testes and with the introduction of color Doppler, it becomes easiear to assess the viability of testis in cases of torsion and guiding the treatment accordingly. USG is helpful in differentiating torsion/ischaemia of testis from the acute inammatory pathologies. Role of other Modalities: CT and MRI have dominated imaging of other regions of the body, they have certain restrictions in evaluation of scrotal diseases. Computed Tomography delivers radiation to gonads, On the contrary, MRI imaging is expensive and not readily obtainable. Radionuclide scan helps in equivocal presentations to assess vascularity within the testis in setting of torsion but its readily availability and cost is the main set back. AIM: To assess the role of high frequency gray scale and color doppler ultrasonography in evaluation of epididymorchitis. MATERIAL & METHODS: SAMPLE: 50 cases of scrotal pathology were taken using High-frequency real time gray scale ultrasonography and Color Doppler . Patients were referred to our department for scrotal ultrasonography and Doppler study by department of Urology and department of Surgery of SRMS IMS Bareilly. RESULTS: In the present study total evaluated cases of epididymoorchitis were 15,among them 11 cases were acute and 4 cases were of chronic epididymoorchitis.. Majority of cases were having unilateral involvement with 1 case of B/L involvement. USG gray scale found heterogenous echogenicity or reduced echogenicity in acute EPO while the echogenicity was reduced with calcication in chronic EPO. .Doppler study found increased vascularity in majority of cases of acute EPO with reactive hydrocele while vascularity was either normal or increased in chronic EPO without any reactive hydrocele. CONCLUSION: High-frequency gray scale USG helps in clear evaluation of anatomical structural alterations associated with acute scrotal inammatory diseases, and color Doppler USG is highly sensitive in diagnosing acute scrotal pathology. In addition, Color Doppler USG accurately differentiates between testicular ischemia and torsion from acute inammatory diseases in acute painful scrotal conditions.

Atomized Scan Method for High-Definition Silicon-Based OLED Microdisplays

Silicon-based organic light-emitting diode (OLED) microdisplays are widely used in the head-mounted devices. This article proposes a novel atomized scan method for the digital driving silicon-based OLED microdisplays. By eliminating the time redundancy in the digital driving, the proposed method generates the high transmission efficiency, high lighting efficiency, high grayscale efficiency, and good linearity compared with the traditional pulsewidth modulation (PWM) scan methods. Four scan characteristics of the high-efficiency scan sequence are analyzed. The high efficient atomized scan can be obtained by implanting the low grayscale scan into the high grayscale scan. A 1.6 k $\times1.6$ k full color silicon-based OLED microdisplay, together with the hardware driving platform, is designed and implemented to verify the proposed atomized scan method. By measuring the brightness values of 256 gray levels, the atomized scan method with the blank operation can achieve high scan efficiency with the low clock frequency (57.6 MHz).

Edge detection of heterogeneity in transmission images based on frame accumulation and multiband information fusion

In optical transmission imaging, even a very thin layer of a scattering material can appear opaque make the image blurry, which restricts the positioning of heterogeneity in transmission images. Aiming at the problem, an exploratory method based on frame accumulation and multiband information fusion was proposed and proven, which can be used to detect the edge of heterogeneity in transmission images. Treating the trichromatic image as an example, the following experiment was designed: Firstly, the transmission video of phantom is collected by camera. Then, single-band images are decoded at “R∖G∖B” and further accumulated by frame accumulation technology to obtain the image with high grayscale level, respectively. Lastly, the information fusion of the three single-band images is realized through neural network, and further the edge could be detected by the established model. The experimental result shows that the heterogeneity edge can be detected more accurately by this method. Therefore, the validity of this method for detecting heterogeneity in transmission images is demonstrated. It is expected to provide an idea for the future clinical diagnosis of breast tumor by transmission method.

Comparative study of pediatric non-neoplastic scrotal masses using high resolution sonography and colour doppler with histopathological correlation

Aim: To compare non-neoplastic and neoplastic scrotal masses by characterization on B-mode scan and Colour Doppler ultrasonography. Results: Of 56 cases of non-inflammatory scrotal swellings, 5 cases were neoplastic lesions, remaining 51 cases were non-neoplastic swellings. The 5 cases of neoplastic swellings were three cases of testicular neoplasm, two case of spermatic cord neoplasm which was histopathologically confirmed. Conclusion: When color Doppler sonography is supplemented with High frequency gray scale US, the sensitivity of diagnosing acute scrotal pathology will be increased.

FADIT: Fast Document Image Thresholding

We propose a fast document image thresholding method (FADIT) and evaluations of the two classic methods for demonstrating the effectiveness of FADIT. We put forward two assumptions: (1) the probability of the occurrence of grayscale text and background is ideally two constants, and (2) a pixel with a low grayscale has a high probability of being classified as text and a pixel with a high grayscale has a high probability of being classified as background. With the two assumptions, a new criterion function is applied to document image thresholding in the Bayesian framework. The effectiveness of the method has been borne of a quantitative metric as well as qualitative comparisons with the state-of-the-art methods.

Hysteresis-free and fast response polymer-stabilised blue phase liquid crystals

ABSTRACTThe electro-optical properties of γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles doped polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals are investigated. The experimental results show that the hysteresis were effectively suppressed by doping γ-Fe2O3. When doped with γ-Fe2O3 of 1.0 wt. %, hysteresis-free and fast response were achieved by the coupling effect of polymer and nanoparticle. Our research provides excellent guidance for the development of electro-optical devices with high grey scale accuracy and fast response.

Ultracompact, high-resolution and continuous grayscale image display based on resonant dielectric metasurfaces.

Since the electromagnetic resonance that happens in dielectric nanobricks can be meticulously designed to control both amplitude and polarization of light, an ultracompact, high-resolution and continuous grayscale image display method based on resonant dielectric metasurfaces is proposed. Magnetic resonance occurs in dielectric nanobricks can yield unusual high reflectivity depending on the polarization state of incident light, which paves a new way for ultracompact image display when the resonant metasurfaces consisting of nano-polarizer arrays operate. Governed by Malus's law, nano-polarizer arrays featured with different orientations have been demonstrated to continuously manipulate the intensity of linearly polarized light cell-by-cell. Hence, it can practically enable recording a high fidelity grayscale image right at the sample surface with resolution as high as 84,667 dpi (dots per inch). This proposed resonant metasurface image (meta-image) display enjoys the advantages including continuous grayscale modulation, broadband working window, high-stability and high-density, which can easily find promising applications in ultracompact displays, high-end anti-counterfeiting, high-density optical information storage and information encryption, etc.

Ultrasonographic and fine needle aspiration cytology correlation of thyroid gland lesions: a study of 100 cases

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Thyroid gland is unique among endocrine organs as it is the largest endocrine gland in the body and the first to develop in the fetal life. There is approximately 4-5% incidence of clinically apparent thyroid lesions in general population. The goal of USG and FNAC diagnosis work up now is to select those patients for surgery who have a high likelihood of harboring malignancy in the nodule. Ultrasonography is the single most valuable imaging modality in the evaluation of the thyroid gland. Indications for thyroid USG include evaluation for palpable thyroid lesion or suspected thyroid enlargement and workup of thyroid lesions discovered incidentally.The present study is undertaken to evaluate the utility of FNAC in preoperative diagnosis of various thyroid lesions and to evaluate the efficacy of in USG and FNAC differentiating between benign and malignant lesions.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A retrospective clinical study, 100patients, in the age group of equal to or above 18 years, with thyroid swellings, referred to the department of ENT, sent for USG and FNAC at radiology and pathology department during the period from July 2014 to July 2016. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Out of 100 cases, 6% were malignant, 94% were benign on grey scale ultrasound. Out of 6 malignant cases 2 cases were confirmed malignant by FNAC.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> High resolution grey scale ultrasound has emerged as initial imaging modality of choice for the evaluation of patients with thyroid enlargement. Ultrasound can detect solitary nodule, multiple nodules and diffuse thyroid enlargement. It can also differentiate solid and cystic lesions.</p>

An adaptive multi-threshold segmentation algorithm for complex images under unstable imaging environment

Images acquired from actual manufacturing practice are difficult to segment for uncertainty surface quality of work-piece and unstable imaging environment, which may result in limited robustness for traditional image segmentation algorithms. Nevertheless, the result of image segmentation will affect the precision of subsequent feature extraction, image analysis and robot positioning. To address the above issues, an adaptive multi-threshold segmentation algorithm for complex images under unstable imaging environment is proposed to further improve the stability of an industrial vision system in a given inspection scheme. The proposed approach consists of three basic parts and each of them is indispensable for achieving high accuracy. Firstly, curve fitting with cubic spline interpolation to determine peaks and troughs of grey histogram by calculating function extremums, and then the higher greyscale between top-peak and sub-peak is selected as the initial lower threshold. Secondly, the initial upper threshold is constrained by calculating the probability density distribution of ROI. Thirdly, the upper threshold and lower threshold are iteratively calculated until the threshold range of ROI is achieved. The proposed algorithm was compared to state-of-the-art segmentation approaches in both synthetic and real images to demonstrate its superior performance.

Evaluation of the gray level of restorative materials using cone-beam computed tomography: A cross-sectional study.

Densitometry plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment planning. Due to diversity in density, equal amounts of different materials absorb various amounts of X-rays and yield different radiographic views. The aim of this study was to evaluate the gray scales of 5 commercially available restorative materials, including amalgam, composite resin, flowable composite resin, glass-ionomer, and Dycal. Samples of the 5 test materials from various manufacturers were prepared, each 5-millimeter-thick. There were 7 glass-ionomer samples and 10 of each of the other materials, making a total of 47 samples in the study. The test materials were scanned using a Kodak cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) unit. Subsequently, the gray scales were determined and evaluated by a radiologist using OnDemand3DTM Dental software and analyzed with SPSS v. 22 software. Amalgam had a higher gray scale than the other groups of restorative materials. In some cases, it was the same as that of composite resin; however, it was significantly different from gray scales of flowable composite resin, glass-ionomer and Dycal. It was concluded that composite resin and amalgam were high in gray scale, while flowable composite resin, glass-ionomer and Dycal exhibited low gray scales. Amalgam and composite resin had high gray scales, and glass-ionomer and Dycal exhibited the lowest gray scale values. The findings show that CBCT can be helpful in differentiating amalgam and composite resin from other materials.

Colored Representation of Brain Gray Scale MRI Images to Potentially Underscore the Variability and Sensitivity of Images

Objective: The drive of this research activity is to report a colorization method to enhance the visualization, cell characterization and interpretation of brain Magnetic Resonance (MR) images, indicative of the underlying physical density of bio tissues. Background: In daily health care environments, medical scanners are being used to generate gray scale images of anatomical structures. Method: Severity of diseases is determined from this luminance component only. Irrefutably, if this high dimensional gray scale, medical data is visualized in colored versions, the definitive and more accurate the pathological assessment process will be. A number of methods have been reported to represent brain Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) data in color with the cost of computational complexity. In this research work, an efficient method of colorization using frequencies from visible range of color spectrum, has been proposed to embody the variations and sensitivity of the brain MRI images. Conclusion: Side by side, visual comparison based on multiple MRI sequences of identical subjects, by domain experts, proved adequate success and fruitfulness of the story. Keywords: Brain, MRI, enhancement, colorization of soft tissues, gray scale images, visualization.

An Inverse Halftoning Algorithms Based on Neural Networks and Atomic Functions

Halftoning and inverse halftoning algorithms are very important image processing tools, widely used in the development of digital printers, scanners, steganography and image authentication systems. Because such applications require to obtain high quality gray scale images from its halftone versions, the development of efficient inverse halftoning algorithms, that be able to provide gray scale images with Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) higher than 25, have been research topic during the last several years. Although a PSNR of about 25dB may be enough for several applications, exist several other that require higher image quality. To reduce this problem, this paper proposes inverse halftoning algorithms based on Atomic Function and multi-layer perceptron neural network which provides gray scale images with PSNRs higher than 30dB independently of the method used to generate the halftone image.

Evaluation of color Doppler study of thyroid swellings: a prospective study at JSS hospital, India

Background: Color Doppler sonography of thyroid is an emerging and promising pre-operative investigatory modality for thyroid diseases at present. Because of superficial location and good vascularisation of thyroid gland high resolution real time grey scale and color Doppler sonography can delineate and demonstrate the normal thyroid anatomy and pathological conditions with remarkable clarity. Methods: Present study includes total number of 50 cases admitted in JSS Hospital, Mysore, India from September 2014 to September 2016. Color assisted duplex sonography was performed following a detailed history and physical examination. All routine investigations and specific investigations like thyroid function tests and FNAC were done. Later on patients were subjected to thyroid surgery as required, based on the diagnosis. The histopathological findings obtained for the resected thyroid specimens were compared with the previously scan findings. Results: Thyroid ultrasound was efficient in picking up all 50 cases in our study. The most common benign lesion determined in our study were adenomatous nodules which was the most common benign lesion, we were able to detect malignant nodules with a better specificity. According to several reports, for the differentiation of benign versus malignant thyroid nodules, sonography has sensitivity rates ranging from 63% to 94%, specificity from 61% to 95% and an overall accuracy from 80% to 94%. In our study we found sensitivity of 55.56%, specificity of 90.24%, positive predictive value of 55.56%, and negative predictive value of 90.24% and overall diagnostic efficiency of 84%. Conclusions: Ultrasound is valuable for identifying many malignant or potentially malignant thyroid nodules. Although there is some overlap between the ultrasound appearance of benign nodules and that of malignant nodules, certain features are helpful in differentiating between the two. The newly developed high resolution ultrasonography with color Doppler flow mapping function can reveal fine details of the thyroid gland and the haemodynamic features of thyroid neoplasms.

Study of preparation of the Annexin V-nanoscale ultrasound contrast agents and targeting ultrasound imaging in vitro

Objective To research the Annexin V-nanoscale ultrasound contrast agents' preparation, ultrasound imaging and the ability to binding apoptosis cells of tumor in vitro. Methods The nanoscale bubble (Nanobubbles, NBs) packaged the octaflouropropane (C3F8) gas was prepared by thin film hydration. The Annexin V-Nanobubbles (AVNBs) solutions was acquired through conjugating the biotinylated-Annexin V to the surface of the NBs by biotin-streptavidin bridging chemistry. The size and zeta potential of AVNBs were measured by NanoPlus-3 zeta/nano particle analyzer. The shift in size distribution of AVNBs bubbles was analyzed for the stability, after it was stored at 4 ℃ for different time.AVNB's shape were measured by scanning electron microscopy. The AVNBs bubble was measured using an ultrasound system for echogenicity in vitro, and SonoVue was for control. Finally, the ability of AVNBs binding with apoptosis cells of tumor in vitro was determine via the fluorescence microscope. Results AVNBs has a size distribution of (640.2±32.1)nm, and a mean zeta potential of (-23.30±5.71)mV. Its size remained relatively constant and appeared to show less size variation within the 24 h analysis period. AVNBs solutions were visible milky white and slightly suspension liquid with the naked eye. Under scanning electron microscopy, AVNBs were uniform hollow sperical cavitation bubble with small size and larger dispersibility in solution. The AVNBs and SonoVue solution had the same higher grayscale signal intensity by ultrasonic imaging. The AVNBs binded well with apoptosis cells of tumor in vitro, and the rate of binding was (97.55±1.30)%. Conclusions The AVNBs particles prepared by method of thin film hydration have a nanoscale size, good stability and echogenicity. It can be targeted binding with the apoptosis cells of tumor in vitro. Key words: Microbubbles; Nanotechnology; Apoptosis; Annexin V

ROAD ORTHOPHOTO/DTM GENERATION FROM MOBILE LASER SCANNING

Abstract. This paper proposes a pipeline to produce road orthophoto and DTM from Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS). For the ortho, modern laser scanners provide a reflectance information allowing for high quality grayscale images, at a much finer resolution than aerial photography can offer. For DTM, MLS offers a much higher accuracy and density than aerial products. This increased precision and resolution leverages new applications for both ortho and DEM. The first task is to filter ground vs non ground, then an interpolation is conducted to build image tiles from the filtered points. Finally, multiple layers are registered and blended to allow for seamless fusion. Our proposed approach achieves high quality products and scaling up is demonstrated.

High-accuracy measurement of rotational eye movement by tracking of blood vessel images.

This study focuses on a technique for measuring the angle of rotational eye movement by tracking the conjunctival blood vessel ends of sclera, instead of grayscale iris patterns used in the existing techniques. It is because the blood vessel images of sclera have high grayscale contrasts. This technique especially recognizes the contour of the iris to detect the target conjunctival blood vessel end and use the degree of similarity by means of template matching to select automatically the blood vessel end to be tracked. The search region is limited by template matching to achieve low processing cost and high accuracy and resolution even when the background light varies.

THU0161 Increase in Circulating TH17 Cells during Anti-TNF Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients is Associated with Improvement in Joint Inflammation

BackgroundAnti-TNFα agents have revolutionised treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), although a significant proportion of patients respond inadequately. Studies in murine and human arthritis have paradoxically shown that anti-TNF treatment can...

A fracture enhancement method based on the histogram equalization of eigenstructure-based coherence

Eigenstructure-based coherence attributes are efficient and mature techniques for large-scale fracture detection. However, in horizontally bedded and continuous strata, buried fractures in high grayscale value zones are difficult to detect. Furthermore, middle- and small-scale fractures in fractured zones where migration image energies are usually not concentrated perfectly are also hard to detect because of the fuzzy, clouded shadows owing to low grayscale values. A new fracture enhancement method combined with histogram equalization is proposed to solve these problems. With this method, the contrast between discontinuities and background in coherence images is increased, linear structures are highlighted by stepwise adjustment of the threshold of the coherence image, and fractures are detected at different scales. Application of the method shows that it can also improve fracture cognition and accuracy.