Biomedical subjects

Xenophon Papademetris

Publications and source records attributed to Xenophon Papademetris.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Rapid calculations of susceptibility-induced magnetostatic field perturbations for in vivo magnetic resonance.

Static magnetic field perturbations generated by variations of magnetic susceptibility within samples reduce the quality and integrity of magnetic resonance measurements. These perturbations are difficult to predict in vivo where wide variations of internal magnetic susceptibility distributions are common. Recent developments have provided rapid computational means of estimating static field inhomogeneity within the small susceptibility limits of materials typically studied using magnetic resonance. Such a predictive mechanism could be a valuable tool for sequence simulation, field shimming and post-acquisition image correction. Here, we explore this calculation protocol and demonstrate its predictive power in estimating in vivo inhomogeneity within the human brain. Furthermore, we quantitatively explore the predictive limits of the computation. For in vivo comparison, a method of magnetic susceptibility registration using MRI and CT data is presented and utilized to carry out subject-specific inhomogeneity estimation. Using this algorithm, direct comparisons in human brain and phantoms are made between field map acquisitions and calculated inhomogeneity. Distortion correction in echo-planar images due to static field inhomogeneity is also demonstrated using the computed field maps.

Air↗

PubMed2006

Alanine aminotransferase levels and fatty liver in childhood obesity: associations with insulin resistance, adiponectin, and visceral fat.

BACKGROUND: Concurrent with the rise in obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is recognized as the leading cause of serum aminotransferase elevations in obese youth. Nevertheless, the complete metabolic phenotype associated with abnormalities in biomarkers of liver injury and intrahepatic fat accumulation remains to be established. METHODS: In a multiethnic cohort of 392 obese adolescents, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were related with parameters of insulin sensitivity, glucose, and lipid metabolism as well as adipocytokines and biomarkers of inflammation. A subset of 72 adolescents had determination of abdominal fat partitioning and intrahepatic fat accumulation using magnetic resonance imaging. FINDINGS: Elevated ALT (> 35 U/liter) was found in 14% of adolescents, with a predominance of male gender and white/Hispanic race/ethnicity. After adjusting for potential confounders, rising ALT was associated with reduced insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance as well as rising free fatty acids and triglycerides. Worsening of glucose and lipid metabolism was already evident as ALT levels rose into the upper half of the normal range (18-35 U/liter). When hepatic fat fraction was assessed using fast magnetic resonance imaging, 32% of subjects had an increased hepatic fat fraction, which was associated with decreased insulin sensitivity and adiponectin, and increased triglycerides, visceral fat, and deep to superficial sc fat ratio. The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was significantly greater in those with fatty liver. INTERPRETATION: Deterioration in glucose and lipid metabolism is associated even with modest ALT elevations. Hepatic fat accumulation in childhood obesity is strongly associated with the triad of insulin resistance, increased visceral fat, and hypoadiponectinemia. Hence, hepatic steatosis may be a core feature of the metabolic syndrome.

Adiponectin↗

PubMed2005

The "obese insulin-sensitive" adolescent: importance of adiponectin and lipid partitioning.

There is a wide interindividual variation in peripheral insulin sensitivity at any given body mass index or percent body fat among obese adolescents with normal glucose tolerance. The goals of this study were to determine whether variability in insulin sensitivity is associated with differences in patterns of lipid partitioning or substrate use under fasting and hyperinsulinemic conditions. We compared 14 obese insulin-resistant adolescents with 14 obese insulin-sensitive controls, pair matched for age, gender, pubertal stage and body composition. Insulin sensitivity was assessed by the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, intramyocellular lipid content by (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance and visceral fat by magnetic resonance imaging. Obese insulin-sensitive subjects had lower intramyocellular (1.64 +/- 0.68 vs.2.26 +/- 0.62% of water peak, P = 0.017) and visceral lipid deposition (45 +/- 23 vs. 77 +/- 52 cm(2), P = 0.04) and a higher level of adiponectin, compared with their obese-resistant counterparts (8.8 +/- 3.6 vs. 6.5 +/- 1.8 mug/dl, P = 0.015). Glycerol fluxes were similar between the two obese groups yet occurred in the face of different concentrations of insulin. Intramyocellular lipid and visceral fat were negatively related to insulin sensitivity. Obese insulin-sensitive adolescents are characterized by lower lipid deposition in the intramyocellular and visceral compartments and greater levels of adiponectin, despite similar degree of adiposity.

Adiponectin↗

PubMed2005

Articulated rigid registration for serial lower-limb mouse imaging.

This paper describes a new piecewise rotational transformation model for capturing the articulation of joints such as the hip and the knee. While a simple piecewise rigid model can be applied, such models suffer from discontinuities at the motion boundary leading to both folding and stretching. Our model avoids both of these problems by constructing a provably continuous transformation along the motion interface. We embed this transformation model within the robust point matching framework and demonstrate its successful application to both synthetic data, and to serial x-ray CT mouse images. In the later case, our model captures the articulation of six joints, namely the left/right hip, the left/right knee and the left/right ankle. In the future such a model could be used to initialize non-rigid registrations of images from different subjects, as well as, be embedded in intensity-based and integrated registration algorithms. It could also be applied to human data in cases where articulated motion is an issue (e.g. image guided prostate radiotherapy, lower extremity CT angiography).

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Characterizing vascular connectivity from microCT images.

X-ray microCT (computed tomography) has become a valuable tool in the analysis of vascular architecture in small animals. Because of its high resolution, a detailed assessment of blood vessel physiology and pathology is possible. Vascular measurement from noninvasive imaging is important for the study and quantification of vessel disease and can aid in diagnosis, as well as measure disease progression and response to therapy. The analysis of tracked vessel trajectories enables the derivation of vessel connectivity information, lengths between vessel junctions as well as level of ramification, contributing to a quantitative analysis of vessel architecture. In this paper, we introduce a new vessel tracking methodology based on wave propagation in oriented domains. Vessel orientation and vessel likelihood are estimated based on an eigenanalysis of gray-level Hessian matrices computed at multiple scales. An anisotropic wavefront then propagates through this vector field with a speed modulated by the maximum vesselness response at each location. Putative vessel trajectories can be found by tracing the characteristics of the propagation solution between different points. We present preliminary results from both synthetic and mouse microCT image data.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Preliminary evidence for persistent abnormalities in amygdala volumes in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVES: Abnormalities in volumes of the amygdala have been reported previously in adolescents and adults with bipolar disorder (BD). Several studies have reported reduced volumes in adolescents with BD; however, both decreases and increases in volumes have been reported in adults with BD. Understanding of potential developmental contributions to these disturbances in morphology of the amygdala has been limited by the absence of longitudinal data in persons with BD. Here we use a within-subject longitudinal design to investigate whether amygdala volume abnormalities persist in adolescents and young adults with BD over a time interval of approximately 2 years. METHODS: Participants included 18 adolescents and young adults: 10 participants with BD I and 8 healthy comparison participants. Amygdala volumes were measured on high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans acquired twice for each subject over intervals of approximately 2 years. Amygdala volumes were the dependent measures in a mixed-model statistical analysis to compare amygdala volumes between groups over time while covarying for total brain volume. RESULTS: Amygdala volumes were significantly smaller in adolescents and young adults with BD compared with healthy participants (p = 0.018). The effect of time was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Although the sample size is modest, this study provides preliminary evidence to support the presence of decreased amygdala volumes in adolescents and young adults with BD that persist during this developmental epoch.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Geometric strategies for neuroanatomic analysis from MRI.

In this paper, we describe ongoing work in the Image Processing and Analysis Group (IPAG) at Yale University specifically aimed at the analysis of structural information as represented within magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the human brain. Specifically, we will describe our applied mathematical approaches to the segmentation of cortical and subcortical structure, the analysis of white matter fiber tracks using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and the intersubject registration of neuroanatomical (aMRI) data sets. Many of our methods rally around the use of geometric constraints, statistical (MAP) estimation, and the use of level set evolution strategies. The analysis of gray matter structure and connecting white matter paths combined with the ability to bring all information into a common space via intersubject registration should provide us with a rich set of data to investigate structure and variation in the human brain in neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as provide a basis for current work in the development of integrated brain function-structure analysis.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2002

Estimation of 3-D left ventricular deformation from medical images using biomechanical models.

The quantitative estimation of regional cardiac deformation from three-dimensional (3-D) image sequences has important clinical implications for the assessment of viability in the heart wall. We present here a generic methodology for estimating soft tissue deformation which integrates image-derived information with biomechanical models, and apply it to the problem of cardiac deformation estimation. The method is image modality independent. The images are segmented interactively and then initial correspondence is established using a shape-tracking approach. A dense motion field is then estimated using a transversely isotropic, linear-elastic model, which accounts for the muscle fiber directions in the left ventricle. The dense motion field is in turn used to calculate the deformation of the heart wall in terms of strain in cardiac specific directions. The strains obtained using this approach in open-chest dogs before and after coronary occlusion, exhibit a high correlation with strains produced in the same animals using implanted markers. Further, they show good agreement with previously published results in the literature. This proposed method provides quantitative regional 3-D estimates of heart deformation.

Algorithms↗