Biomedical subjects

Eric L Miller

Publications and source records attributed to Eric L Miller.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Spherical harmonics microwave algorithm for shape and location reconstruction of breast cancer tumor.

A reconstruction algorithm to simultaneously estimate the shape and location of three-dimensional breast cancer tumor is presented and its utility is analyzed. The approach is based on a spherical harmonic decomposition to capture the shape of the tumor. We combine a gradient descent optimization method with a direct electromagnetic solver to determine the coefficients in the harmonic expansion as well as the coordinates of the center of the tumor. The results demonstrate the potential advantage of collecting data using a multiple-view/tomographic-type strategy. We show how the order of the harmonic expansion must be increased to capture increasingly "irregularly" shaped tumors and explore the resulting increase in the central processing unit (CPU) time required by the algorithm. Our approach shows accurate reconstruction of the tumor image regardless of the source polarization. This work demonstrates the promise of the algorithm when used on data corrupted with Gaussian noise and when perfect knowledge of the tumor electrical properties is not available.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Quantitative spectroscopic diffuse optical tomography of the breast guided by imperfect a priori structural information.

Spectroscopic diffuse optical tomography (DOT) can directly image the concentrations of physiologically significant chromophores in the body. This information may be of importance in characterizing breast tumours and distinguishing them from benign structures. This paper studies the accuracy with which lesions can be characterized given a physiologically realistic situation in which the background architecture of the breast is heterogeneous yet highly structured. Specifically, in simulation studies, we assume that the breast is segmented into distinct glandular and adipose regions. Imaging with a high-resolution imaging modality, such as magnetic resonance imaging, in conjunction with a segmentation by a clinical expert, allows the glandular/adipose boundary to be determined. We then apply a two-step approach in which the background chromophore concentrations of each region are estimated in a nonlinear fashion, and a more localized lesion is subsequently estimated using a linear perturbational approach. In addition, we examine the consequences which errors in the breast segmentation have on estimating both the background and inhomogeneity chromophore concentrations.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Optimal linear inverse solution with multiple priors in diffuse optical tomography.

A general framework for incorporating single and multiple priors in diffuse optical tomography is described. We explore the use of this framework for simultaneously utilizing spatial and spectral priors in the context of imaging breast cancer. The utilization of magnetic resonance images of water and lipid content as a statistical spatial prior for the diffuse optical image reconstructions is also discussed. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the significant improvement in image quality afforded by combining spatial and spectral priors.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2004

Reconstructing chromosphere concentration images directly by continuous-wave diffuse optical tomography.

We present an algorithm to reconstruct chromosphere concentration images directly rather than following the traditional two-step process of reconstructing wavelength-dependent absorption coefficient images and then calculating chromosphere concentration images. This procedure imposes prior spectral information into the image reconstruction that results in a dramatic improvement in the image contrast-to-noise ratio of better than 100%. We demonstrate this improvement with simulations and a dynamic blood phantom experiment.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2004

Adaptive two-pass rank order filter to remove impulse noise in highly corrupted images.

In this paper, we present an adaptive two-pass rank order filter to remove impulse noise in highly corrupted images. When the noise ratio is high, rank order filters, such as the median filter for example, can produce unsatisfactory results. Better results can be obtained by applying the filter twice, which we call two-pass filtering. To further improve the performance, we develop an adaptive two-pass rank order filter. Between the passes of filtering, an adaptive process is used to detect irregularities in the spatial distribution of the estimated impulse noise. The adaptive process then selectively replaces some pixels changed by the first pass of filtering with their original observed pixel values. These pixels are then kept unchanged during the second filtering. In combination, the adaptive process and the second filter eliminate more impulse noise and restore some pixels that are mistakenly altered by the first filtering. As a final result, the reconstructed image maintains a higher degree of fidelity and has a smaller amount of noise. The idea of adaptive two-pass processing can be applied to many rank order filters, such as a center-weighted median filter (CWMF), adaptive CWMF, lower-upper-middle filter, and soft-decision rank-order-mean filter. Results from computer simulations are used to demonstrate the performance of this type of adaptation using a number of basic rank order filters.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2003

Tomographic optical breast imaging guided by three-dimensional mammography.

We introduce a modified Tikhonov regularization method to include three-dimensional x-ray mammography as a prior in the diffuse optical tomography reconstruction. With simulations we show that the optical image reconstruction resolution and contrast are improved by implementing this x-ray-guided spatial constraint. We suggest an approach to find the optimal regularization parameters. The presented preliminary clinical result indicates the utility of the method.

Breast↗

PubMed2003

Three-dimensional shape-based imaging of absorption perturbation for diffuse optical tomography.

We present a shape-based approach to three-dimensional image reconstruction from diffuse optical data. Our approach differs from others in the literature in that we jointly reconstruct object and background characterization and localization simultaneously, rather than sequentially process for optical properties and postprocess for edges. The key to the efficiency and robustness of our algorithm is in the model we propose for the optical properties of the background and anomaly: We use a low-order parameterization of the background and another for the interior of the anomaly, and we use an ellipsoid to describe the boundary of the anomaly. This model has the effect of regularizing the inversion problem and provides a natural means of including additional physical properties if they are known a priori. A Gauss-Newton-type algorithm with line search is implemented to solve the underlying nonlinear least-squares problem and thereby determine the coefficients of the parameterizations and the descriptors of the ellipsoid. Numerical results show the effectiveness of this method.

Absorption↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Determination of nitrogen solubility in dilute pepsin hydrochloric acid solution of fishmeal: interlaboratory study.

A revised method to determine solubility of nitrogen in dilute pepsin, using 0.0002% pepsin in place of 0.2% in AOAC Official Method 971.09, was tested in 16 laboratories with 12 samples of fishmeal. Results were calculated according to 2 procedures: AOAC Official Method 971.09 and a method described in 1964 by researchers at the Torry Research Station (Aberdeen, Scotland), and generally referred to as the modified Torry method. Variations in the method of shaking and source of pepsin were also investigated. Pepsin solubility values were lower and more variable when calculated by the Torry procedure. The method of shaking apparently affected the result when calculated according to the Torry but not the AOAC method. The source of pepsin had no significant effect on between-laboratory variability, but a comparison of the 2 main sources within one laboratory resulted in highly significant differences. Based on this study, the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organization has adopted this new method, using 0.0002% pepsin but keeping the AOAC method of calculation. The type of shaker and source of pepsin are recommended but are not mandatory. The repeatability and reproducibility limits of this new method are 1.6 and 3.3% units of solubility, respectively.

Algorithms↗