All issues

Accurate segmentation of liver plays important in contouring during diagnosis and the planning of treatment. Imaging technology analysis and processing are wide usage in medical diagnostics, and therapeutic applications. Liver segmentation referring to the process of automatic or semi-automatic detection of liver image boundaries. A major difficulty in segmentation of liver image is the high variability as; the human anatomy itself shows major variation modes. In this paper, a proposed approach for computed tomography (CT) liver segmentation is presented by combining exponential entropy and fuzzy c-partition. Entropy concept has been utilized in various applications in imaging computing domain. Threshold techniques based on entropy have attracted a considerable attention over the last years in image analysis and processing literatures and it is among the most powerful techniques in image segmentation. In the proposed approach, the computed tomography (CT) of liver is transformed into fuzzy domain and fuzzy entropies are defined for liver image object and background. In threshold selection procedure, the proposed approach considers not only the information of liver image background and object, but also interactions between them as the selection of threshold is done by find a proper parameter combination of membership function such that the total fuzzy exponential entropy is maximized. Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is utilizing to optimize the exponential entropy measure to obtain image thresholds. Experimental results in different CT livers scan are done and the results demonstrate the efficient of the proposed approach. Based on the visual clarity of segmented images with varied threshold values using the proposed approach, it was observed that liver segmented image visual quality is better with the results higher level of threshold.

Most biomechanical tasks of interest to clinicians can be solved only using personalized mathematical models. Such models allow to formalize and relate key pathophysiological processes, basing on clinically available data evaluate non-measurable parameters that are important for the diagnosis of diseases, predict the result of a therapeutic or surgical intervention. The use of models in clinical practice imposes additional restrictions: clinicians require model validation on clinical cases, the speed and automation of the entire calculated technological chain, from processing input data to obtaining a result. Limitations on the simulation time, determined by the time of making a medical decision (of the order of several minutes), imply the use of reduction methods that correctly describe the processes under study within the framework of reduced models or machine learning tools.

Personalization of models requires patient-oriented parameters, personalized geometry of a computational domain and generation of a computational mesh. Model parameters are estimated by direct measurements, or methods of solving inverse problems, or methods of machine learning. The requirement of personalization imposes severe restrictions on the number of fitted parameters that can be measured under standard clinical conditions. In addition to parameters, the model operates with boundary conditions that must take into account the patient’s characteristics. Methods for setting personalized boundary conditions significantly depend on the clinical setting of the problem and clinical data. Building a personalized computational domain through segmentation of medical images and generation of the computational grid, as a rule, takes a lot of time and effort due to manual or semi-automatic operations. Development of automated methods for setting personalized boundary conditions and segmentation of medical images with the subsequent construction of a computational grid is the key to the widespread use of mathematical modeling in clinical practice.

The aim of this work is to review our solutions for personalization of mathematical models within the framework of three tasks of clinical cardiology: virtual assessment of hemodynamic significance of coronary artery stenosis, calculation of global blood flow after hemodynamic correction of complex heart defects, calculating characteristics of coaptation of reconstructed aortic valve.

Getting a qualified medical examination can be difficult for people in remote areas because medical staff available can either be inaccessible or it might lack expert knowledge at proper level. Telemedicine technologies can help in such situations. On one hand, such technologies allow highly qualified doctors to consult remotely, thereby increasing the quality of diagnosis and plan treatment. On the other hand, computer-aided analysis of the research results, anamnesis and information on similar cases assist medical staff in their routine activities and decision-making.

Creating telemedicine system for a particular domain is a laborious process. It’s not sufficient to pick proper medical experts and to fill the knowledge base of the analytical module. It’s also necessary to organize the entire infrastructure of the system to meet the requirements in terms of reliability, fault tolerance, protection of personal data and so on. Tools with reusable infrastructure elements, which are common to such systems, are able to decrease the amount of work needed for the development of telemedicine systems.

An interactive tool for creating distributed telemedicine systems is described in the article. A list of requirements for the systems is presented; structural solutions for meeting the requirements are suggested. A composition of such elements applicable for distributed systems is described in the article. A cardiac telemedicine system is described as a foundation of the tool