SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
With the recent improvement in instrumentation and tracers, pediatric cardiovascular nuclear medicine has become an extremely useful clinical tool. These noninvasive nuclear examinations provide clinicians with information concerning cardiac physiology and pathophysiology. This review outlines the basic diagnostic nuclear examinations used to evaluate the pediatric cardiovascular system.
In the initial evaluation of a possible salivary gland disorder, salivary scintigraphy is a diagnostic and non-invasive examination of function (7). Further definition of anatomical abnormalities may require a panoramic radiograph of teeth and mandible, contrast sialogram, ultrasound, or computerized tomography. However, these latter methods contribute primarily anatomical information, and scintigraphy remains the best assessment of function. Our clinical experience with salivary scintigraphy is summarized in Table 1.
Excellent SPECT images of brain perfusion with Tc-99m HMPAO were obtained by the use of a three-head rotating gamma camera SPECT system with high resolution (FWHM 7mm) in a normal volunteer. These images should be clinically effective for evaluating various neurologic disorders. Transverse, coronal, and sagittal sectional HMPAO-SPECT images are correlated with corresponding brain MRI images of the same normal volunteer in this atlas.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This article describes how a team from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Center for Healthy Communities (VCHC) attended the UNC Management Academy for Public Health to learn skills to address Virginia's commitment to using technology to improve the public's health. After creating a business plan for a food-safety information Web site, team members used that experience as well as Management Academy training in information technology, the management of data and finances, and strategic partnering to create a comprehensive tool with which to place customizable population data in the hands of anyone interested in pursuing population health improvement. The Virginia Atlas of Community Health, launched through the VCHC in 2003, places clear, compelling data in the hands of those who can influence decisions at the local level and create the most impact for health. Since the program's inception, more than 2,000 individuals have registered as ongoing users of the Virginia Atlas. Initially funded by a Turning Point grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program is sustained through a series of smaller grants and funding from the VDH.
One of the key challenges in deformable shape modeling is the problem of estimating a meaningful average or mean shape from a set of unlabeled shapes. We present a new joint clustering and matching algorithm that is capable of computing such a mean shape from multiple shape samples which are represented by unlabeled point-sets. An iterative bootstrap process is used wherein multiple shape sample point-sets are nonrigidly deformed to the emerging mean shape, with subsequent estimation of the mean shape based on these nonrigid alignments. The process is entirely symmetric with no bias toward any of the original shape sample point-sets. We believe that this method can be especially useful for creating atlases of various shapes present in medical images. We have applied the method to create mean shapes from nine hand-segmented 2D corpus callosum data sets and 10 hippocampal 3D point-sets.
BACKGROUND: Map of Dermatology (http://healthcybermap.org/dermap/) is a free web resource that enables users to search for images of skin conditions by body region and morphology rather than by condition name, which is much more useful and natural in answering questions about unknown clinical presentations/diagnoses, especially for non-specialists. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: This paper presents responses received from twelve users, including specialist dermatologists, non-specialists (some with interests in health informatics), and lay persons, who provided their 'first-impression' feedback on Map of Dermatology by responding to a very short e-mail questionnaire covering service usefulness and interface usability. The paper also provides a brief review of the gaps in current online dermatology information service provision in general. RESULTS: The overall user feedback received was very positive. An exploratory discussion of the arguments and possibilities for radically improving Map of Dermatology to produce 'the ultimate web-based dermatology diagnostic tool' is also provided, together with some desiderata and preliminary 'design and feature specifications' for such a tool based on users' suggestions, the gaps highlighted in other existing online dermatology tools, and the author's own reflections and experience. CONCLUSIONS: When successfully developed, the proposed tool is expected to have significant potential for efficiently and effectively addressing many of the currently unmet educational needs of clinicians.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The consecutive steps of a seizure with leftward versive movements of the head and eyes were analyzed after video monitoring and correlated with findings on single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using [99m Tc] hexamethyl propylene amine oxime (HM-PAO). Evaluation included reconstruction of subtraction images from the early postictal state, obtained immediately after the video-monitored seizure, and the interictal baseline. Based on normalized perfusion indexes within voxels of Talairach space, we concluded that the primary epileptogenic focus was in the premotor cortex of the contralateral hemisphere. We then placed the functional data in an anatomic context by adapting a dedicated computerized brain atlas (CBA) to the patient's brain with the aid of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) slices. By inverse transformation, the patient's data were aligned with the standard geometry of the brain atlas for comparison purposes with data from the literature. The validated activation field projected exactly onto the right precentral sulcus with the anterior border zone including the right frontal eye field.
Animal hearts display diverse anatomical structures during adaptive evolution. Here, we present a multiomics atlas of adult hearts from 27 species across chordates, arthropods, and mollusks. Joint analysis indicates that Bilateria hearts share a core gene repertoire, taking a stepwise "add-on" approach as a universal evolutionary strategy. The "proto-heart" is populated by key cell types, including cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and neural cells, which maintained core signatures while evolving with shifts in living environments and corresponding adaptations in the cardiovascular system. Additionally, we reveal an evolutionarily conserved cardiomyocyte state dynamic potentially linked to cardiac development and stress responses. Finally, we identify a common molecular program underpinning chamber evolution from a ventricular foundation. This work establishes a resource for understanding the intrinsic mechanisms of heart evolution.
In current practice, anatomical atlases are based on a collection of planar images presented in a book or, recently, stored on digital media. We present a new kind of interactive true three-dimensional (3D) anatomical atlases based on a volume model derived from MRI and CT. The model has a two-layer structure. The lower level is a volume model with a set of semantic attributes connected to each voxel. The semantic attributes are assigned by an anatomist using a volume editor. THe upper level represents a set of relations between these attributes. Interactive visualization tools such as multiple surface display, preparation of transparent material and cutting are provided. It is shown that the combination of this model with advanced tools for volume visualization provides the 'look and feel' of real dissection. The system therefore represents a bridge between real dissection of a cadaver and textbooks and classical atlases of anatomy. First tests have shown that the atlas system may be used successfully for teaching anatomy, but also as a reference for radiologists or surgeons. The powerful underlying data structure potentially includes all classical visual teaching aids. As a replacement of classical atlases, however, spatial resolution has still to be improved.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Brain atlases are equivalent to neuroimage databases provided an appropriate coordinate system to enable multisubject comparisons, along with comprehensive descriptions of the data, are included. Warping tools, visualization, and statistical analyses that accommodate the various neuroimaging modalities can be used to integrate diverse data and form comprehensive maps describing a particular subpopulation's brain structure and function. By linking task performance and genetic information to brain morphology, complex interrelations between genotype, phenotype, and behavior can be established. Several examples of these multimodal, multisubject atlases, including those that are dynamic, are presented.
Brain regions drive multiple physiological functions through specific gene expression patterns that adapt to environmental influences, drug treatments and disease conditions. To generate a detailed atlas of the brain transcriptome in the context of diabetes, we carried out RNA sequencing in hypothalamus, hippocampus, brainstem and striatum of the Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat model of spontaneous type 2 diabetes, which was applied to identify gene transcription adaptation to improved glycemic control following vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG) in the GK. Over 19,000 distinct transcripts were detected in the rat brain, including 2794 which were consistently expressed in the four brain regions. Region-specific gene expression was identified in hypothalamus (n = 477), hippocampus (n = 468), brainstem (n = 1173) and striatum (n = 791), resulting in differential regulation of biological processes between regions. Differentially expressed genes between VSG and sham operated rats were only found in the hypothalamus and were predominantly involved in the regulation of endothelium and extracellular matrix. These results provide a detailed atlas of regional gene expression in the diabetic rat brain and suggest that the long term effects of gastrectomy-promoted diabetes remission involve functional changes in the hypothalamus endothelium.
Diffusion tensor imaging and fiber tracking were used to measure fiber bundles connecting the two occipital lobes in 53 children of 7-12 years of age. Independent fiber bundle estimates originating from the two hemispheres converge onto the lower half of the splenium. This observation validates the basic methodology and suggests that most occipital-callosal fibers connect the two occipital lobes. Within the splenium, fiber bundles are organized in a regular pattern with respect to their cortical projection zones. Visual cortex dorsal to calcarine projects through a large band that fills much of the inferior half of the splenium, while cortex ventral to calcarine sends projections through a band at the anterior inferior edge of the splenium. Pathways projecting to the occipital pole and lateral-occipital regions overlap the dorsal and ventral groups slightly anterior to the center of the splenium. To visualize these pathways in a typical brain, we combined the data into an atlas. The estimated occipital-callosal fiber paths from the atlas form the walls of the occipital horn of the lateral ventricle, with dorsal paths forming the medial wall and the ventral paths bifurcating into a medial tract to form the inferior-medial wall and a superior tract that joins the lateral-occipital paths to form the superior wall of the ventricle. The properties of these fiber bundles match those of the hypothetical pathways described in the neurological literature on alexia.