Biomedical subjects

A T So

Publications and source records attributed to A T So.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Computerised infrared imaging system for studying thermal activation on the skull following somatic stimulation in small animals.

A computerised infrared imaging system has been developed to measure infrared radiation as a means of functionally mapping the cerebral cortex. In two species of small mammal, rat and gerbil, the authors localised the thermal changes at the skull overlying the somatic sensory cortex following somatic stimulation of the mystacial vibrissae. Though typically small in magnitude, a thermal response could be detected through the skull. To enhance detection sensitivity, a number of measures were taken to improve various aspects of data acquisition, stimulus delivery and control of experimental conditions. Regarding data analysis, a coordinate system based on skull landmarks was adopted to localise thermally-active regions for comparison across animals of the same species. To extract the region of weak temperature changes, a coarse-to-fine detection strategy was developed, which searched automatically for clusters of temporally- and spatially-correlated pixels above a data-driven threshold. Thus, the dynamic aspect of the thermal changes at any region of interest on the skull could be studied efficiently. The detection algorithm was tested against simulated responses in addition to empirical data obtained from animals. All of the above software was integrated in a user-friendly package.

Animals↗

PubMed1996

Generation of three-dimensional medical thermograms.

To visualise non-invasively human organs in their true form and shape has intrigued mankind for centuries. Three-dimensional (3D) imaging is one recent development that has brought us closer to fulfilling the age-old quest of non-invasive visualisation so that diagnoses by doctors can be efficiently enhanced. Nowadays, 3D CT and MRI images have been very popular. Thermography is an important medical imaging technique that displays the temperature distribution on the surface of a human organ and it has been proved to be significant in offering a unique physiological reflection of pathology that may confirm or enhance the anatomic findings of other diagnostic imaging modalities. It is the only imaging modality that can evaluate pain whereas plain radiographs, CT and MRI, etc. can only depict structural anatomic abnormalities that may not always coincide with patients' clinical complaints. It is against this background that 3D thermograms have been developed. A set of comprehensive calibration procedures for the 3-camera system have been designed based on different models for the optical and infrared cameras. The accuracy of the results is high enough to produce 3D thermograms that can be used to correlate with the 3D images from other medical imaging modalities. One important achievement of the system is that the resultant 3D images are absolutely dimensioned and hence, it is particularly favourable for fully autonomous applications with robots. The system can also provide an overall picture of both the structural abnormalities and nervous responses of patients.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1995

Thermal images of somatic sensory cortex obtained through the skull of rat and gerbil.

Infrared images of the skull surface were obtained in urethane-anesthetized rats and gerbils before, during and after mechanical stimulation of the face and mystacial vibrissae on one side. Areas of increased temperature on the skull, localized mainly over the face area of the primary somatosensory cortex contralateral to the side of stimulation, appeared within 4-5 s after the onset of stimulation. Rarely, such temperature change was recorded bilaterally. Temperatures did not remain high on the intact skull in rats, but fell to baseline within minutes after stimulus onset regardless of stimulus duration. In rats in which the skull had been thinned and in gerbils with intact skull, temperatures remained elevated during the course of stimulation. We were unable to resolve the activation of individual vibrissae.

Animals↗

PubMed1995

Thyroid diagnosis by thermogram sequence analysis.

A computerised thermal imaging system for thyroid diagnosis was developed by the authors and it was discovered that the rate of changes of temperature, rather than the absolute values, associated with a sequence of thermograms could help the medical doctors to identify clinical disorders. In order to further enhance the diagnostic capabilities and speed, a new method for medical thermogram analysis has been developed that compresses a sequence of thermograms into one thermogram while retaining the important information such as the geometrical patterns of the objects and the rate of temperature changes of each pixel within the images. As motion artifacts are unavoidable when a patient undergoes minutes of thermogram recording, direct comparison between images is deemed impossible. A high speed image matching algorithm has been developed to provide an absolute geometrical foundation for pixel-to-pixel comparison. The rate of change of temperature of a particular pixel along the sequence is represented by one single parameter after a process of temperature integration which can then be converted into a corresponding gray level for display. The resultant compressed thermogram can give a clear distinction between problem areas and normal ones. Although our emphasis is on thyroid diagnosis, it is anticipated that this new technique can be applicable to other areas of a human body.

Algorithms↗