Automatic background recognition and removal (ABRR) in computed radiography images

Automated bone age assessment: motivation, taxonomies, and challenges

Bone age assessment (BAA) of unknown people is one of the most important topics in clinical procedure for evaluation of biological maturity of children. BAA is performed usually by comparing an X-ray of left hand wrist with an atlas of known sample bones. Recently, BAA has gained remarkable ground from academia and medicine. Manual methods of BAA are time-consuming and prone to observer variability. This is a motivation for developing automated methods of BAA. However, there is considerable research on the automated assessment, much of which are still in the experimental stage. This survey provides taxonomy of automated BAA approaches and discusses the challenges. Finally, we present suggestions for future research.

Medical image security in a HIPAA mandated PACS environment

Medical image security is an important issue when digital images and their pertinent patient information are transmitted across public networks. Mandates for ensuring health data security have been issued by the federal government such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), where healthcare institutions are obliged to take appropriate measures to ensure that patient information is only provided to people who have a professional need. Guidelines, such as digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) standards that deal with security issues, continue to be published by organizing bodies in healthcare. However, there are many differences in implementation especially for an integrated system like picture archiving and communication system (PACS), and the infrastructure to deploy these security standards is often lacking. Over the past 6 years, members in the Image Processing and Informatics Laboratory, Childrens Hospital, Los Angeles/University of Southern California, have actively researched image security issues related to PACS and teleradiology. The paper summarizes our previous work and presents an approach to further research on the digital envelope (DE) concept that provides image integrity and security assurance in addition to conventional network security protection. The DE, including the digital signature (DS) of the image as well as encrypted patient information from the DICOM image header, can be embedded in the background area of the image as an invisible permanent watermark. The paper outlines the systematic development, evaluation and deployment of the DE method in a PACS environment. We have also proposed a dedicated PACS security server that will act as an image authority to check and certify the image origin and integrity upon request by a user, and meanwhile act also as a secure DICOM gateway to the outside connections and a PACS operation monitor for HIPAA supporting information.

Absorption and scattering images of heterogeneous scattering media can be simultaneously reconstructed by use of dc data

We present a carefully designed phantom experimental study aimed to provide solid evidence that both absorption and scattering images of heterogeneous scattering media can be reconstructed independently from dc data. We also study the important absorption-scattering cross-talk issue. In this regard, we develop a simple normalizing scheme that is incorporated into our nonlinear finite-element-based reconstruction algorithm. Our results from the controlled phantom experiments show that the cross talk of an absorption object appearing in scattering images can be eliminated and that the cross talk of a scattering object appearing in absorption images can be reduced considerably. In addition, these carefully designed phantom experiments clearly suggest that both absorption and scattering images can be simultaneously recovered and quantitatively separated in highly scattering media by use of dc measurements. Finally, we discuss our results in light of recent theoretical findings on nonuniqueness for dc image reconstruction.

Computer-assisted bone age assessment: image preprocessing and epiphyseal/metaphyseal ROI extraction

Clinical assessment of skeletal maturity is based on a visual comparison of a left-hand wrist radiograph with atlas patterns. Using a new digital hand atlas an image analysis methodology is being developed. To assist radiologists in bone age estimation. The analysis starts with a preprocessing function yielding epiphyseal/metaphyseal regions of interest (EMROIs). Then, these regions are subjected to a feature extraction function. Accuracy has been measured independently at three stages of the image analysis: detection of phalangeal tip, extraction of the EMROIs, and location of diameters and lower edge of the EMROIs. Extracted features describe the stage of skeletal development more objectively than visual comparison.

Multilevel adaptive process control of acquisition and post-processing of computed radiographic images in picture archiving and communication system environment

Computed radiography (CR) has become a widely used imaging modality replacing the conventional screen/film procedure in diagnostic radiology. After a latent image is captured in a CR imaging plate, there are seven key processes required before a CR image can be reliably archived and displayed in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) environment. Human error, computational bottlenecks, software bugs, and CR system errors often crash the CR acquisition and post-processing computers which results in a delay of transmitting CR images for proper viewing at the workstation. In this paper, we present a control theory and a fault tolerance algorithm, as well as their implementation in the PACS environment to circumvent such problems. The software implementation of the control theory and the algorithm is based on the event-driven, multilevel adaptive processing structure. The automated software has been used to provide real-time monitoring and control of CR image acquisition and post-processing in the intensive care unit module of the PACS operation at the University of California, San Francisco. Results demonstrate that the multilevel adaptive process control structure improves CR post-processing time, increases the reliability of the CR images delivery, minimizes user intervention, and speeds up the previously time-consuming quality assurance procedure.