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Biomedical subjects

W H Perman

Publications and source records attributed to W H Perman.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Oblique magnetic resonance imaging of the bronchi.

The trachea and main bronchi of a supine patient in a magnetic resonance (MR) scanner are not contained in a single standard coronal plane, but instead intersect this coronal plane at some angle, usually 20 degrees - 35 degrees. We have developed a new MR imaging protocol to determine the oblique imaging plane which best contains the trachea and main bronchi. The resulting oblique images simplify anatomical identification, and allow the user to select additional oblique planes which cut any desired portion of main bronchus in true cross section. Accurate lumen shapes and areas may then be extracted from these cross-sectional images. The method does not require the patient to be moved or rotated, and does not require hardware modification. We demonstrate the clinical application of the protocol with both a normal volunteer and a patient with an endobronchial tumor. The use of gradient echo pulse sequences together with this protocol to distinguish between vessels and bronchi is presented. We provide phantom verification to demonstrate the quantitative accuracy of the method to provide lumen areas.

Humans↗

Improved detectability in low signal-to-noise ratio magnetic resonance images by means of a phase-corrected real reconstruction.

We show that for magnetic resonance (MR) images with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) less than 2 it is advantageous to use a phase-corrected real reconstruction, rather than the more usual magnitude reconstruction. We discuss the results of the phase correction algorithm used to experimentally verify the result. We supplement the existing literature by presenting closed form expressions (in an MR context) for the probability distribution and first moments of the signal resulting from a magnitude reconstruction.

Algorithms↗

Correlation of fine needle aspiration biopsy and dynamic contrast-enhanced 3D magnetic resonance imaging of the breast.

OBJECTIVE: To correlate and assess the utility of dynamic contrast-enhanced three-dimensional gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (Gd-3DMRI) and fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) findings in patients with suspected breast disease. STUDY DESIGN: Beginning in 1993, all patients who underwent percutaneous FNAB of the breast and had concurrent Gd-3DMRI evaluation of the breast were selected for this study. Findings for FNAB and Gd-3DMRI were stratified into two categories, positive and negative. Subsequent clinical management decisions, which included surgical intervention and/or clinical follow-up, were recorded for all patients. RESULTS: There were 69 FNABs in 59 patients with corresponding Gd-3DMRI evaluation. A positive result by both FNAB and Gd-3DMRI was found in 15 of 18 malignant cases. FNAB missed one case, and Gd-3DMRI missed two, and each of these was thought to be technical. Combining the methods yielded 100% sensitivity. False positive results on Gd-3DMRI (17 cases) were all confirmed to be benign by FNAB and subsequent tissue evaluation. All 32 cases with combined negative results by FNAB and Gd-3DMRI demonstrated a benign process, yielding a specificity of 100% (32/32). CONCLUSION: Our combined testing modalities showed a high degree of specificity and good sensitivity. FNAB used with dynamic contrast-enhanced Gd-3DMRI can contribute valuable information for physicians treating patients with suspected breast abnormalities.

Biopsy, Needle↗

Artifacts from pulsatile flow in MR imaging.

Previous investigators have examined the effect of blood flow on the apparent blood vessel signal intensity. These studies reported flow brightening and darkening effects within vessels. In this paper we have investigated another type of flow artifact, which originates from the pulsatile nature of blood flow. These flow artifacts have characteristic bright and dark "ghosting" patterns which appear close to small vessels, usually arteries, which are bright in slow flow. Similar to the amplitude-of-motion artifacts caused by patient motion (e.g., breathing and cardiac motion) the ghosting artifacts due to pulsatile flow are best characterized as frequency modulated spectral sidebands. The pulsatile artifacts can have both dark and bright structures and usually appear close to the "moving" vessel that generates the artifact. In this paper we present a study of the chief features of these pulsatile flow artifacts, and we develop a theoretical description of their origins in terms of "accidental" velocity-encodings that occur strongly in most magnetic resonance imaging sequences.

Blood Flow Velocity↗

In vivo NMR imaging of tissue sodium in the intact cat before and after acute cerebral stroke.

The first in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) images of tissue sodium in the intact animal are presented. The distribution of sodium in the normal cat's head is described. An experimental stroke was surgically induced. Sodium NMR imaging showed a pronounced focal increase in cerebral sodium concentration 9 hr after ligation of the middle cerebral artery. The method appears to be very sensitive for early detection of infarction. The measured increase in the regional sodium NMR signal probably reflects both a true increase in concentration of brain sodium and an increased NMR visibility of the sodium nucleus in the region of the infarction.

Animals↗