Central noradrenergic responsiveness to a clonidine challenge in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography study

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) may involve hypo-responsiveness of noradrenaline a2 receptors. To test this hypothesis, we used (99m)Tc-hexa-methyl-propylene-amine-oxime (HMPAO) Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography to measure regional cerebral perfusion in patients with untreated GAD, venlafaxine-treated patients and healthy controls during word generation before and after clonidine. Concurrent psychological and physiological measures supported noradrenergic hypofunction in GAD in some cases. A single-day split-dose technique was used. Images were processed using SPM5 (Institute of Neurology). Factorial analysis revealed no significant results. Exploratory analyses were done. Regional perfusion during verbal fluency differed by group pre-clonidine. Compared with healthy controls, patients with untreated GAD displayed increased perfusion in the left Broca's area and left occipitotemporal region. Treated GAD patients displayed increased cerebellar perfusion bilaterally. Clonidine was associated with different changes in cerebral perfusion in each group. Increases were seen in the right supra-marginal gyrus in healthy subjects, in the left pre-central gyrus in treated GAD patients and in the right cerebellum and middle frontal gyrus in untreated GAD patients. Despite these differences, the findings were not consistent with a noradrenergic hypo-responsiveness hypothesis, as the treated group showed a different pattern of response rather than a normalization of response.

Pupil-plane imager for scintillometry over long horizontal paths

A pupil plane imaging (PPI) system has been designed and implemented to measure scintillation induced by atmospheric turbulence and to estimate key parameters of atmospheric turbulence. A high-speed, high-resolution camera images the pupil of a telescope. The process of estimating normalized intensity variance and the underlying rationale is discussed. Experimental results are presented for data taken at North Oscura Peak in southern New Mexico from light originating at Salinas Peak or an aircraft, over near-horizontal paths of approximately 50 km. Strong scintillation is often observed. The results are compared to those of other instruments operating in parallel, and systematic and random errors are discussed. The primary goal is to accurately estimate scintillation strength using PPI in order to assess adaptive optics performance as a function of such scintillation.

Investigation of the Cauchy-Riemann equations for one-dimensional image recovery in intensity interferometry

A method of image recovery using noniterative phase retrieval is proposed and investigated by simulation. This method adapts the Cauchy-Riemann equations to evaluate derivatives of phase based on derivatives of magnitude. The noise sensitivity of the approach is reduced by employing a least-mean-squares fit. This method uses the analytic properties of the Fourier transform of an object, the magnitude of which is measured with an intensity interferometer. The solution exhibits the degree of nonuniqueness expected from root-flipping arguments for the one-dimensional case, but a simple assumption that restricts translational ambiguity also restricts the space of solutions and permits essentially perfect reconstructions for a number of non-symmetric one-dimensional objects of interest. Very good reconstructions are obtained for a large fraction of random objects, within an overall image flip, which may be acceptable in many applications. Results for the retrieved phase and recovered images are presented for some one-dimensional objects and for different noise levels. Extensions to objects of two dimensions are discussed. Requirements for signal-to-noise ratio are derived for intensity interferometry with use of the proposed processing.

Description and simulation of an active imaging technique utilizing two speckle fields: root reconstructors

Quasi-monochromatic light will form laser speckle upon reflection from a rough object. This laser speckle provides information about the shape of the illuminated object. Further information can be obtained if two colors of coherent light are used, provided that the colors are sufficiently close in wavelength that the interference is also measurable. It is shown that no more than two intensities of two speckle patterns and their interference are required to produce an unambiguous band-limited image of an object, to within an overall spatial translation of the image, in the absence of measurement errors and in the case where all roots of both fields and their complex conjugates are distinct. This result is proven with a root-matching technique, which treats the electric fields as polynomials in the pupil plane, the coefficients of which form the desired complex object. Several root-matching algorithms are developed and tested. These algorithms are generally slow and sensitive to noise. So motivated, several other techniques are applied to the problem, including phase retrieval, expectation maximization, and probability maximization in a sequel paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 19, 458 (2002)]. The phase-retrieval and expectation-maximization techniques proved to be most effective for reconstructions of complex objects larger than 10 pixels across.

Description and simulation of an active imaging technique utilizing two speckle fields: iterative reconstructors

Quasi-monochromatic light will form laser speckle upon reflection from a rough object. This laser speckle provides information about the shape of the illuminated object. In a prior paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 19, 444 (2002)], it was shown that two intensities of two speckle patterns and their interference are sufficient to produce an unambiguous (except for object translation) band-limited image of the object, based on a root-matching technique described therein, in the absence of measurement error and in the case of distinct roots of the field polynomials and their complex conjugates. On the other hand, algorithms based on the root-matching technique are found to be slow and sensitive to noise. So motivated, several other techniques are applied to the problem, including phase retrieval, expectation maximization, and statistical maximization. The phase-retrieval and expectation-maximization techniques proved to be most effective for reconstructions of complex objects larger than 10 pixels across, and high-quality images were formed by using three independent sets of two-field data (three frames of two-wavelength data), each comprising two speckle intensity patterns and their interference. Two additional results of note are reported. First, the expectation-maximization algorithm produced relatively good images when three or more frames each of only one speckle intensity pattern (data at just one wavelength) were used and second, the phase-retrieval algorithm when only the object autocorrelation was used also produced relatively good images for the chosen test object.

Synthetic-aperture imaging through an aberrating medium: experimental demonstration

A simple technique for high-resolution imaging of distant objects is described and experimentally demonstrated. The technique, referred to as Fourier telescopy, is a variant of Fourier microscopy, which additionally uses phase closure for correction of intervening aberrations. It is an active-illumination technique that is scalable to angular resolutions of 1 nrad and to illuminators of extremely low power. A laboratory experiment demonstrates reconstruction of images of two simple objects with an angular resolution of 83 µrad.

Ultrasound quantitation of respiratory organ motion in the upper abdomen

Organ motion can cause artefacts in abdominal imaging particularly with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and may often limit the diagnostic quality of an image. If spatial resolution and image quality are to improve in MRI and other imaging techniques, a more detailed understanding of organ motion is required. Despite the importance of organ motion little quantitative information is available to date. This study was the continuation of work instigated to investigate and quantify respiratory movements of upper abdominal organs for a group of healthy volunteers in order to provide the design criteria for a motion test object for use in MRI. A previous phase of the project allowed construction of a test object but refinements were needed to represent respiratory motion more closely as a consequence of the data presented in this paper. Improvements in the scanning technique and the recording procedure have revealed that, contrary to our initial findings, motion of the diaphragm and liver is predominantly in the superior-inferior (SI) direction with an average displacement (+/- SD) (quiet respiration) of 12 +/- 7 mm (range 7-28 mm) and 10 +/- 8 mm (range 5-17 mm), respectively. For some volunteers, motion of the kidneys can be complex, especially during deep inspiration. New data have been provided by this phase of the motion study on the displacement, velocity and acceleration of abdominal organs as a function of time. These data show that MRI motion artefact reduction techniques which assume that either organ displacement, velocity or acceleration are constant are only applicable during certain phases of the respiratory cycle.

Application of the mode approximation to reconstruction holography

The result of holographic processing is described by using the well-known mode approximation. This approximation yields new expressions for degenerate read-write holography in the optically thick scattering regime in the case in which many transverse modes are occupied. The approach differs from those of previous efforts by the inclusion of the effect of multiple dynamic gratings. The presentation makes clear the limitations of the practical applicability and the mathematical validity of the new result in relation to the better known regimes, using various approximations to predict the lowest-order fields. The application of reconstruction holography to aberration compensation is specifically considered. The effects of phase-mismatch terms are estimated. The effects of both phase and absorption gratings are obtained. Self-modulation of the recording wave is included and unstable solutions are predicted for some regimes. It is found that the various regimes have fundamentally different processing capabilities.

Effect of finite phosphor thickness on detective quantum efficiency

In this paper we describe theoretically the relationship between the finite thickness of a phosphor screen and its spatial-frequency-dependent detective quantum efficiency DQE(f-). The finite thickness of the screen causes a variation in both the total number of light quanta emitted from the screen in a burst from a given x-ray interaction and in the spatial distribution of the quanta within the light burst [i.e., shape or point spread function (PSF) of the light burst]. The variation in magnitude of the burst gives rise to a spatial-frequency-independent reduction in DQE, characterized by the scintillation efficiency As. The variation in PSF causes a roll off in DQE with increasing spatial frequency which we have characterized by the function Rc(f). Both As and Rc(f) can be determined from the moments of the distribution of the spatial Fourier spectrum of light bursts emitted from the phosphor and thus they are related: As is a scaling factor for Rc(f). Our theory predicts that it is necessary for all light bursts which appear at the output to have the same magnitude to maximize As and the same shape to maximize Rc(f). These requirements can lead to the result that the fluorescent screen with the highest modulation transfer function will not necessarily have the highest DQE(f) even at high spatial frequencies.

Getting the most out of more

The Canadian health care system is like the leaning tower of Pisa--a fine structure which everyone wants to preserve and improve. The officials in charge are caught between demands from those who want a new escalator for the visitors, and those who say the main priority is to find ways to prevent the tower from falling over. Our system has evolved in a sound and orderly way and few would wish to dismantle it. It has become caught up in conflict between pressures for growth and problems of how to pay for that growth. The challenge is to keep the system as a whole viable, while adding improvements in a fair and rational manner. No specific solutions are suggested, but rather a positive approach to finding them. While there will be no easy victories, this suggestion should be considered seriously by any who have an interest in getting the most out of more for Canadians.

Advances in radiology; The "new look" in radiology

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