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J Zahajszky

Publications and source records attributed to J Zahajszky.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

A quantitative MR measure of the fornix in schizophrenia.

Some cognitive disturbances accompanying schizophrenia may be due to abnormalities in the thalamus and components of the limbic system. The fornix is an important white-matter relay pathway connecting these structures and is likely to be affected in schizophrenia as well.Magnetic resonance images of the fornix were analyzed in 15 schizophrenic patients and 15 matched comparison group subjects. Fornix volume was compared between the two groups and was also correlated with the volumes of other neuroanatomical structures, as well as with illness presentation, clinical status, and cognitive/psychological measures. There was no significant difference in fornix volume between the two groups. Of note, fornix volume correlated significantly with the volumes of the hippocampus, parahippocampus, and the superior temporal gyrus in the schizophrenic subjects, but not in the controls. Moreover, the correlation between fornix and parahippocampal gyrus volumes differed significantly between the two groups. No association was found between fornix volume and illness presentation or between fornix and cognitive/clinical measures.Results suggest that there are no marked changes in fornix volume in schizophrenia by MRI. The fornix, however, may be part of a network of structures affected in schizophrenia, as indicated by correlated volumetric changes.

Adult↗

Real-time interactive three-dimensional segmentation.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The authors developed a real-time, interactive three-dimensional (3D) segmentation pipeline that uses relatively low-level segmentation operations and provides two-dimensional and 3D visualization through a user-friendly graphical interface. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The low-level segmentation processes were implemented on a massively parallel computer; the graphical user interface was written with a public domain software toolkit. Since their implementation 2 years ago, these segmentation tools have been applied to approximately 300 computed tomographic and magnetic resonance imaging data sets. Two typical clinical cases are presented to demonstrate their applications. RESULTS: The entire processing pipeline can be executed in a few seconds. The tools are simple to learn because they involve the use of low-level procedures and a user-friendly graphical interface with a short interactive response time. Segmentation of the bones, aorta, kidneys, and kidney cysts in case 1 could be performed in about 16 minutes. The time needed to segment each organ in case 2 ranged from about 15 minutes for the skin and brain to about 1 minute for the tumor. CONCLUSION: Satisfactory results can be obtained in a relatively short time with the real-time interactive 3D segmentation system. Operation of the system can be easily learned by a wide variety of nonspecialized users with some medical background.

Algorithms↗