Biomedical subjects

Olaf Dössel

Publications and source records attributed to Olaf Dössel.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Dual-contrast single breath-hold 3D abdominal MR imaging.

OBJECT: Multiple contrasts are often helpful for a comprehensive diagnosis. In 3D abdominal MRI, breath-hold techniques are preferred for single contrast acquisitions to avoid respiratory artifacts. In this paper, highly accelerated parallel MRI is used to acquire large 3D abdominal volumes with two different contrasts within a single breath-hold. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In vivo studies have been performed on six healthy volunteers, combining T (1)- and T (2)-weighted, gradient- or spin-echo based scans, as well as water/fat resolved imaging in a single breath-hold. These 3D scans were acquired with an acceleration factor of six, using a prototype 32-element receive array. RESULTS: The presented approach was tested successfully on all volunteers. The whole liver area was covered by a FOV of 350 x 250 x 200 mm(3) for all scans with reasonable spatial resolution. Arbitrary scan protocols generating different contrasts have been shown to be combinable in this single breath-hold approach. Good spatial correspondence with negligible spatial offset was achieved for all different scan combinations acquired in overall breath-hold times between 15 and 25 s. CONCLUSION: Enabled by highly parallel imaging technology, this study demonstrates the technical feasibility and the promising image quality of single breath-hold dual contrast MRI.

Abdomen↗

PubMed2006

Heterogeneous three-dimensional anatomical and electrophysiological model of human atria.

Investigating the mechanisms underlying the genesis and conduction of electrical excitation in the atria at physiological and pathological states is of great importance. To provide knowledge concerning the mechanisms of excitation, we constructed a biophysical detailed and anatomically accurate computer model of human atria that incorporates both structural and electrophysiological heterogeneities. The three-dimensional geometry was extracted from the visible female dataset. The sinoatrial node (SAN) and atrium, including crista terminalis (CT), pectinate muscles (PM), appendages (APG) and Bachmann's bundle (BB) were segmented in this work. Fibre orientation in CT, PM and BB was set to local longitudinal direction. Descriptions for all used cell types were based on modifications of the Courtemanche et al. model of a human atrial cell. Maximum conductances of Ito, IKr and ICa,L were modified for PM, CT, APG and atrioventricular ring to reproduce measured action potentials (AP). Pacemaker activity in the human SAN was reproduced by removing IK1, but including If, ICa,T, and gradients of channel conductances as described in previous studies for heterogeneous rabbit SAN. Anisotropic conduction was computed with a monodomain model using the finite element method. The transversal to longitudinal ratio of conductivity for PM, CT and BB was 1:9. Atrial working myocardium (AWM) was set to be isotropic. Simulation of atrial electrophysiology showed initiation of APs in the SAN centre. The excitation spread afterwards to the periphery near to the region of the CT and preferentially towards the atrioventricular region. The excitation extends over the right atrium along PM. Both CT and PM activated the right AWM. Earliest activation of the left atrium was through BB and excitation spread over to the APG. The conduction velocities were 0.6ms-1 for AWM, 1.2ms-1 for CT, 1.6ms-1 for PM and 1.1ms-1 for BB at a rate of 63bpm. The simulations revealed that bundles form dominant pathways for atrial conduction. The preferential conduction towards CT and along PM is comparable with clinical mapping. Repolarization is more homogeneous than excitation due to the heterogeneous distribution of electrophysiological properties and hence the action potential duration.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2006

The missing link between cardiovascular rhythm control and myocardial cell modeling.

Cardiac arrhythmia is currently investigated from two different points of view. One considers ECG bio-signal analysis and investigates heart rate variability, baroreflex control, heart rate turbulence, alternans phenomena, etc. The other involves building computer models of the heart based on ion channels, bio-domain models and forward calculations to finally reach ECG and body surface potential maps. Both approaches aim to support the cardiologist in better understanding of arrhythmia, improving diagnosis and reliable risk stratification, and optimizing therapy. This article summarizes recent results and aims to trigger new research to bridge the different views.

Biological Clocks↗

PubMed2005

Ghost artifact removal using a parallel imaging approach.

Parallel imaging techniques, which use several receive coils simultaneously, have been shown to enable a significant scan time reduction by subsampling k-space. Nevertheless, the data acquired with multiple coils in parallel exhibit some redundancy if the number of receive coils exceeds the subsampling factor. This redundancy leads to an overdetermination of the reconstruction problem, which is generally used to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, it can yield further information about the quality of the reconstructed image, and can thus be used to identify and correct image artifacts. While some known approaches try to solve this problem in k-space, this study addresses it in the spatial domain and uses a modified SENSE reconstruction to reduce or completely remove ghost-type artifacts arising from processes such as motion or flow during data acquisition. Phantom and in vivo studies show significant improvements in image quality after correction, and serve as a basis for the discussion of the performance and limitations of this new approach.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Modelling of short QT syndrome in a heterogeneous model of the human ventricular wall.

AIMS: A percentage of sudden cardiac death events occur in individuals with structurally normal hearts due to an abnormality in the ion channel activity. While the majority of these hereditary syndromes are well-established, little is known about the significance of the short QT syndrome. METHODS: This study is based on discovered insights into the molecular basis of the originally described form of this disease. A biophysically detailed model of cellular electrophysiology was adapted to emulate the behaviour of cells affected by the short QT syndrome. Simulations were performed in single cell and homogeneous as well as heterogeneous anisotropic multi-cellular environment describing the human left ventricle. RESULTS: The short QT mutation increased the activity of the repolarizing outward potassium current I(Kr). The heterogeneous abbreviation of the action potential duration decreased the dispersion of repolarization in heterogeneous tissue. Repolarization was homogenized and the final repolarization was shifted to epicardial sites. The transmural ECG showed a shortened QT interval and a T wave with reduced amplitude. CONCLUSION: The altered characteristics of the mutant I(Kr) current were consistent with experimental findings. The heterogeneous reduction of the action potential duration and the reduced T wave amplitude need to be verified by measurements.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2004

A simulation study of the reaction of human heart to biphasic electrical shocks.

BACKGROUND: This article presents a study, which examines the effects of biphasic electrical shocks on human ventricular tissue. The effects of this type of shock are not yet fully understood. Animal experiments showed the superiority of biphasic shocks over monophasic ones in defibrillation. A mathematical computer simulation can increase the knowledge of human heart behavior. METHODS: The research presented in this article was done with different models representing a three-dimensional wedge of ventricular myocardium. The electrophysiology was described with Priebe-Beuckelmann model. The realistic fiber twist, which is specific to human myocardium was included. Planar electrodes were placed at the ends of the longest side of the virtual cardiac wedge, in a bath medium. They were sources of electrical shocks, which varied in magnitude from 0.1 to 5 V. In a second arrangement ring electrodes were placed directly on myocardium for getting a better view on secondary electrical sources. The electrical reaction of the tissue was generated with a bidomain model. RESULTS: The reaction of the tissue to the electrical shock was specific to the initial imposed characteristics. Depolarization appeared in the first 5 ms in different locations. A further study of the cardiac tissue behavior revealed, which features influence the response of the considered muscle. It was shown that the time needed by the tissue to be totally depolarized is much shorter when a biphasic shock is applied. Each simulation ended only after complete repolarization was achieved. This created the possibility of gathering information from all states corresponding to one cycle of the cardiac rhythm. CONCLUSIONS: The differences between the reaction of the homogeneous tissue and a tissue, which contains cleavage planes, reveals important aspects of superiority of biphasic pulses.

Electric Countershock↗

PubMed2003

Quantitative reconstruction of cardiac electromechanics in human myocardium: regional heterogeneity.

INTRODUCTION: Regional heterogeneity of electrophysiologic properties within the human ventricles is based on changes in ion channel kinetics and density inside the wall. The heterogeneity not only influences the electrophysiologic properties but also cellular force development. In this study, the influence of heterogeneity was investigated using mathematical models. METHODS AND RESULTS: An overview of measurements of the heterogeneity of electrophysiology and force development is presented. This knowledge is transferred to an electromechanical heart model composed of a human ionic cell model describing electrophysiologic properties and a model for the development of forces. Heterogeneity is included in the ionic model by changing ion channel kinetics and density. The characteristics and dependencies of the electromechanical model are demonstrated in a single-cell environment and a multicell environment. In the single-cell environment, the effects of heterogeneity on electrical activity are demonstrated. The notch in the action potential decreases from epicardium to endocardium, and action potential duration is longest in the mid-myocardium. The developed forces are largest in the subendocardial cells and decrease continuously toward the epicardium. The multicell environment describes a transmural line of cells in the left ventricular free wall using a bidomain approach. The transmural ECG shows typical characteristics with a positive monophasic T wave. CONCLUSIONS: This work demonstrates the need to incorporate regional heterogeneity in order to model human cardiac electromechanics. The results of electrophysiologic simulations correspond to measured data. The dependencies of regional heterogeneity on force development need to be validated in experiments, because little is known about the influence of heterogeneity on electromechanical coupling.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2002

Respiratory motion in coronary magnetic resonance angiography: a comparison of different motion models.

PURPOSE: To assess respiratory motion models for coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA). In this study various motion models that describe the respiration-induced 3D displacements and deformations of the main coronary arteries were compared. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Multiple high-resolution 3D coronary MR images were acquired in healthy volunteers using navigator-based respiratory gating, each depicting the coronary vessels at different respiratory motion states. In the images representing the different inspiratory states the displacements and deformations of the main coronary vessels with respect to the end-expiratory state were determined, by means of elastic registration. Several correction models (superior-inferior (SI) translation, 3D translation, and 3D affine transformation) were tested and compared with respect to their ability to map a selected inspiratory to the end-expiratory motion state. RESULTS: 3D translation was found to be superior over SI translation, which is commonly used for prospective motion correction in CMRA. The 3D affine transformation was found to be the best correction model considered in this study. Furthermore, a large intersubject variability of the model parameters was observed. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that a patient-adapted 3D correction model (3D translation or better 3D affine) will considerably improve prospective motion correction in CMRA.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Model evaluation and calibration for prospective respiratory motion correction in coronary MR angiography based on 3-D image registration.

Image processing was used as a fundamental tool to derive motion information from magnetic resonance (MR) images, which was fed back into prospective respiratory motion correction during subsequent data acquisition to improve image quality in coronary MR angiography (CMRA) scans. This reduces motion artifacts in the images and, in addition, enables the usage of a broader gating window than commonly used today to increase the scan efficiency. The aim of the study reported in this paper was to find a suitable motion model to be used for respiratory motion correction in cardiac imaging and to develop a calibration procedure to adapt the motion model to the individual patient. At first, the performance of three motion models [one-dimensional translation in feet-head (FH) direction, three-dimensional (3-D) translation, and 3-D affine transformation] was tested in a small volunteer study. An elastic image registration algorithm was applied to 3-D MR images of the coronary vessels obtained at different respiratory levels. A strong intersubject variability was observed. The 3-D translation and affine transformation model were found to be superior over the conventional FH translation model used today. Furthermore, a new approach is presented, which utilizes a fast model-based image registration to extract motion information from time series of low-resolution 3-D MR images, which reflects the respiratory motion of the heart. The registration is based on a selectable global 3-D motion model (translation, rigid, or affine transformation). All 3-D MR images were registered with respect to end expiration. The resulting time series of model parameters were analyzed in combination with additionally acquired motion information from a diaphragmatic MR pencil-beam navigator to calibrate the respiratory motion model. To demonstrate the potential of a calibrated motion model for prospective motion correction in coronary imaging, the approach was tested in CMRA examinations in five volunteers.

Adult↗