Kluwer - Handbook of Biomedical Image Analysis Vol.1
Preface
Chapter 1 presents IVUS. Intravascular ultrasound images represent a unique
tool to guide interventional coronary procedures; this technique allows to
supervise the cross-sectional locations of the vessel morphology and to provide
quantitative and qualitative information about the causes and severity of
coronary diseases. At the moment, the automatic extraction of this kind of information
is performed without taking into account the basic signal principles
that guide the process of image generation. In this handbook, we overview the
main physical principles and factors that affect the IVUS generation; we propose
a simple physics-based approach for IVUS image simulation that is defined
as a discrete representation of the tissue by individual scatterers elements with
given spatial distribution and backscattering differential cross sections. In order
to generate the physical model that allows to construct synthetic IVUS images,
we analyze the process of pulse emission, transmission, and reception of the
ultrasound signal as well as its interaction with the different tissues scatterers
of the simulated artery. In order to obtain the 3D synthetic image sequences,
we involve the dynamic behavior of the heart/arteries and the catheter movement
in the image generation model. Having an image formation model allows
to study the physics parameters that participate during the image generation
and to achieve a better understanding and robust interpretation of IVUS image
structures. Moreover, this model allows to comprehend, simulate, and solve several
limitations of IVUS sequences, to extract important image parameters to be
taken into account when developing robust image processing algorithms as well
as to construct wide synthetic image sequence databases in order to validate
different image processing techniques.
Chapter 2 presents research in PET. The last few decades of the
twentieth century have witnessed significant advances in multidimensional
medical imaging, which enabled us to view noninvasively the anatomic structure
of internal organs with unprecedented precision and to recognize any
gross pathology of organs and diseases without the need to “open” the body.
This marked a new era of medical diagnostics with many invasive and potentially
morbid procedures being substituted by noninvasive cross-sectional
imaging. Continuing advances in instrumentation and computer technologies
also accelerated the development of various multidimensional imaging modalities
that possess a great potential for providing, in addition to structural
information, dynamic and functional information on biochemical and pathophysiologic
processes or organs of the human body. There is no doubt that substantial
progress has been achieved in delivering health care more efficiently
and in improving disease management, and that diagnostic imaging techniques
have played a decisive role in routine clinical practice in almost all disciplines of
contemporary medicine. With further development of functional imaging techniques,
in conjunction with continuing progress in molecular biology and functional
genomics, it is anticipated that we will be able to visualize and determine
the actual molecular errors in a specific disease very soon, and be able to
incorporate this biological information into clinical management of that
particular group of patients. This is definitely not achievable with the use of
structural imaging techniques. In this chapter, we will take a quick tour of
a functional imaging technique called positron emission tomography (PET),
which is a primer biologic imaging tool able to provide in vivo quantitative
functional information in most organ systems of the body. An overview of this
imaging technique including the basic principles and instrumentation, methods
of image reconstruction from projections, some specific correction factors
necessary to achieve quantitative images are presented. Basic assumptions and
special requirements for quantitation are briefly discussed. Quantitative analysis
techniques based on the framework of tracer kinetic modeling for absolute
quantification of physiological parameters of interest are also introduced in this
chapter.
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Preface
Chapter 1 presents IVUS. Intravascular ultrasound images represent a unique
tool to guide interventional coronary procedures; this technique allows to
supervise the cross-sectional locations of the vessel morphology and to provide
quantitative and qualitative information about the causes and severity of
coronary diseases. At the moment, the automatic extraction of this kind of information
is performed without taking into account the basic signal principles
that guide the process of image generation. In this handbook, we overview the
main physical principles and factors that affect the IVUS generation; we propose
a simple physics-based approach for IVUS image simulation that is defined
as a discrete representation of the tissue by individual scatterers elements with
given spatial distribution and backscattering differential cross sections. In order
to generate the physical model that allows to construct synthetic IVUS images,
we analyze the process of pulse emission, transmission, and reception of the
ultrasound signal as well as its interaction with the different tissues scatterers
of the simulated artery. In order to obtain the 3D synthetic image sequences,
we involve the dynamic behavior of the heart/arteries and the catheter movement
in the image generation model. Having an image formation model allows
to study the physics parameters that participate during the image generation
and to achieve a better understanding and robust interpretation of IVUS image
structures. Moreover, this model allows to comprehend, simulate, and solve several
limitations of IVUS sequences, to extract important image parameters to be
taken into account when developing robust image processing algorithms as well
as to construct wide synthetic image sequence databases in order to validate
different image processing techniques.
Chapter 2 presents research in PET. The last few decades of the
twentieth century have witnessed significant advances in multidimensional
medical imaging, which enabled us to view noninvasively the anatomic structure
of internal organs with unprecedented precision and to recognize any
gross pathology of organs and diseases without the need to “open” the body.
This marked a new era of medical diagnostics with many invasive and potentially
morbid procedures being substituted by noninvasive cross-sectional
imaging. Continuing advances in instrumentation and computer technologies
also accelerated the development of various multidimensional imaging modalities
that possess a great potential for providing, in addition to structural
information, dynamic and functional information on biochemical and pathophysiologic
processes or organs of the human body. There is no doubt that substantial
progress has been achieved in delivering health care more efficiently
and in improving disease management, and that diagnostic imaging techniques
have played a decisive role in routine clinical practice in almost all disciplines of
contemporary medicine. With further development of functional imaging techniques,
in conjunction with continuing progress in molecular biology and functional
genomics, it is anticipated that we will be able to visualize and determine
the actual molecular errors in a specific disease very soon, and be able to
incorporate this biological information into clinical management of that
particular group of patients. This is definitely not achievable with the use of
structural imaging techniques. In this chapter, we will take a quick tour of
a functional imaging technique called positron emission tomography (PET),
which is a primer biologic imaging tool able to provide in vivo quantitative
functional information in most organ systems of the body. An overview of this
imaging technique including the basic principles and instrumentation, methods
of image reconstruction from projections, some specific correction factors
necessary to achieve quantitative images are presented. Basic assumptions and
special requirements for quantitation are briefly discussed. Quantitative analysis
techniques based on the framework of tracer kinetic modeling for absolute
quantification of physiological parameters of interest are also introduced in this
chapter.
Download
*