Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering - Volume 24, issue 1

Authors: Li, Chun | Li, Haixia | Jiang, Kun | Li, Jing | Gai, Xiaodong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The signaling pathways that trigger tumor cell escape from immune surveillance are not understood completely. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are considered to be expressed in both immune cells and tumor cells. By detecting TLRs expression in mouse Lewis lung cancer (LLC) before and after co-culture with mouse lymphocytes, the authors concluded that LLC cells constitutively expressed TLR1, TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR5, TLR6 and TLR9. Meanwhile, TLR4 expression in LLC cells was the strongest after co-culture with mouse lymphocytes. To investigate the possible roles of TLR4 signaling pathway in LLC, the concentrations of TGF-β1 and IL-10 protein in LLC cells supernatant were …detected by ELISA, and the migration of LLC cells were detected by transwell assay after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. TLR4 protein expression in LLC cells was also detected after LPS stimulation by FCM. The results indicated that both levels of TGF-β1 and IL-10 protein were significantly increased after LPS stimulation and reached to a maximum at 24 h and 10 μg/mL of LPS. The migrated LLC cells with LPS stimulation were significantly increased and reached to a maximum at 10 μg/mL of LPS. The expression of TLR4 protein was significantly enhanced after 10 μg/mL of LPS stimulation. These results suggest that the activation of TLR4 signaling pathway in lung cancer cells may be involved in tumor escape and progression by promoting the expression of TGF-β1 and IL-10 and tumor cells migration. Show more

Keywords: Toll like receptor, TGF-β1, IL-10, migration, mouse Lewis lung cancer, tumor immune escape

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130879

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 869-875, 2014

Authors: Li, Guangping | Yang, Hongfa | Li, Wenxue | Qu, Shanshan | Wang, Xue-Yao | Li, Yulin | Li, Ronggui | Wang, Zonggui

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Background: Genetic, epidemiological and clinical evidence has demonstrated the importance of the human apolipoproteinA5 (apoA5), apolipoproteinA4 (apoA4), apolipoproteinC3 (apoC3), and apolipoproteinA1 (apoA1) genes in the control of the triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations in the blood. However, little is known about the mechanism by which protein kinase C (PKC) regulates the expression of these genes in hepatic and intestinal cells. The aim of this study was to explore the regulatory role of PKC on the expression of apoA5, apoA4, apoC3 and apoA1. Methods: Hepatic HepG2 and intestinal Caco-2 cells were treated with a potent PKC activator, Phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). …The real time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) technique was used to evaluate the effects of PMA on the expression of apoA1, apoA4, apoA5 and apoC3 genes. Nuclear run on assay was used to determine whether the effect of PMA on apoA4 and apoC3 was due to its ability to regulate the transcription of these genes. Results: PMA specifically down-regulated the transcription of apoA4 and apoC3, but exhibited no effects on apoA1 or apoA5 in either HepG2 or Caco-2 cells. Further study by nuclear run on assay proved that the suppressive effect of PMA on apoA4 and apoC3 resulted from PMA's regulation of the transcription rate of the two genes. Conclusions: PMA down-regulated transcription of apoA4 and apoC3 possibly through the common regulatory element shared by these two genes, suggesting a suppressive role of PKC on the transcriptional regulation of specific apolipoproteins in hepatic and intestinal cells. Show more

Keywords: Phorbol myristate acetate, transcription, apolipoproteins, multigene cluster

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130880

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 877-884, 2014

Authors: Wang, Yong-Tang | Lu, Xiu-Min | Zhu, Feng | Zhao, Min

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: As a new type of biomaterials, gold nanoparticles (GNPs), also known as colloidal gold (CG), have a wide biomedical application. In this study, GNPs with diameters of 10, 15, and 25 nm were prepared by sodium citrate reduction, and detected by common optical property, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorbance spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscope (SEM), separately for identification of the particle size and uniformity. In order to observe the effects of GNPs on immune function, adult Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were immunized with the above three GNPs, each having three doses of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 ml, and rats without immunization served …as negative control. After immunization, proliferation activity of blood and spleen lymphocyte and the levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2) in serum and supernatant of spleen lymphocyte were detected by thiazoleblue (MTT) assay and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. The results indicated that different size of GNPs was prepared, and the uniformity increased with the decrease of the size of particles. Different diameters and doses of GNPs have different effects on proliferation of blood and spleen lymphocyte, as well as the levels of IL-2 in serum and supernatant of spleen lymphocyte. The 15 nm CG in 0.6 ml dose group could most significantly promote blood and spleen lymphocyte proliferation, and enhance IL-2 levels in serum and supernatant of spleen lymphocyte. Taken together, the findings revealed that application of CG prepared by sodium citrate reduction could enhance specific and nonspecific immune responses, and the 0.6 ml dose of 15 nm CG might be the best immunizing dose in rats. This fact may serve as a further evidence for using CG as a novel immunoadjuvant in the future. Show more

Keywords: Gold nanoparticles, colloidal gold, immune function, lymphocyte proliferation, interleukin-2

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130882

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 885-892, 2014

Authors: Zhang, Hong | Lin, Shien-fong | Yang, Zhao | Jin, Yin-bin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Cardiac short-term memory is an intrinsic property which can make the action potential duration produce a transient response after a sudden change in heart rate. The change of vulnerability was investigated by using computer simulation method during the transient period which was created by abruptly shortening the cycle length from 800ms to 300ms. The study was performed on a heterogeneous fiber consisting of endo-, mid-, and epi-cardiac canine myocytes. An OpenMP parallel algorithm was used to accelerate the calculation. The study shows that the vulnerable window (VW) relied on both pacing times and locations. At the cycle length of 300ms, …compared with the situation of 500th beat, there was a large transmural dispersion of repolarization (TDR) at the 30th beat. For most of the sites along the fiber, VW consistently demonstrated widely at the beginning of the transient period. Generally, with sustained pacing, VW tended to become small. The results suggested that during a memory-induced transient response, the probability of an occurrence of reentrant wave increased immediately after an abrupt change in pacing rate because of the relatively large TDR and VW within this period. Therefore, avoidance of a sudden heart rate variation was indicated to be helpful for the suppression of reentrant arrhythmias. Show more

Keywords: Arrhythmia, computer simulation, mathematical model of action potentials, short-term memory, vulnerability

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130883

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 893-899, 2014

Authors: Ding, Yang | Luo, Yunjing | Fu, Jun

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Fibrinogen is a plasma glycoprotein that is an established cardiovascular risk and it participates in the blood-clotting mechanism. Nitrated fibrinogen has been shown to inhibit platelet aggregation and thrombus formation. However, there are only a few reports relating to the activity and structural changes of nitrified fibrinogen when metal ions are present in the reaction. Mn (II) ion plays an important physiological role in the nervous system and cardiac function. In this study, we use UV-Vis, 3D-fluorescence, SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and Von-Clauss to detect 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) production and the activity changes of fibrinogen after nitration and oxidation damage caused by ONOO− …in the presence of Mn (II). Results showed that Mn (II) can enhance the production of 3-NT in fibrinogen, promote fluorescence quenching of fibrinogen, and increase the injury to γ and Aα chains of fibrinogen in the presence of peroxynitrite. Consequently, Mn (II) promotes concentration dependent fibrinogen nitrification damage and significantly reduces the biological activity of nitrified fibrinogen. Show more

Keywords: fibrinogen, peroxynitrite, Von-Clauss, fluorescence, Mn (II)

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130884

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 901-907, 2014

Authors: Chang, Can | Wu, Shao Ling | Zhao, Xin Dong | Zhao, Chun Ting | Li, Yan Hui

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Doxorubicin hydrochloride is widely used to treat various types of cancers. Its therapeutic and side effects are well documented. However, the developmental toxicity of doxorubicin has not been previously described. Lethal and sublethal effects on embryo-larval stages of zebrafish in a study of the developmental toxicity of doxorubicin were observed. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to different concentrations (0–100 mg/L) of doxorubicin between 4 and 120 h post fertilization, and zebrafish larvae were exposed to different concentrations (0–200 mg/L) of doxorubicin for 96 h. The markers about the development toxicity of doxorubicin in zebrafish were observed under a stereomicroscope. Higher doxorubicin …concentrations mainly caused acute lethal effects, and lower doxorubicin concentrations mainly caused sublethal effects, such as multiple malformations in embryos and larvae. Moreover, with the increase of doxorubicin concentration, the malformation rate increased. The heart rate of embryos was accelerated at lower concentrations of doxorubicin (≤ 10 mg/L) and decelerated at higher concentrations (≥ 25 mg/L). The hatching rate and body length were inhibited at higher concentrations of doxorubicin (≥ 25 mg/L).In conclusion, doxorubicin has serious developmental toxicity and this raises a concern for developmental effects of doxorubicin in clinical practice. Show more

Keywords: Doxorubicin hydrochloride, developmental toxicity, zebrafish, embryotoxicity

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130885

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 909-916, 2014

Authors: Jang, Dong-Jin | Kim, Sung Tae | Oh, Euichaul | Lee, Kooyeon

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Dry emulsion containing curcumin (DE-CUR) was prepared for oral delivery of poorly water-soluble curcumin, and its oral bioavailability and antiasthmatic efficacy was evaluated. After comparison of the solubility of curcumin in various oils, Plurol® Oleique CC497 was selected to be the oil phase due to its higher solubility of CUR than other oils. A dry emulsion prepared by spray-drying of a homogenized oil-in-water emulsion was well-reconstituted in water, fabricating similar particle distribution and in vitro release to that of a dispersed homogeneous emulsion before spraying. The release of DE-CUR was much higher than that of curcumin (85.3 vs. 1.7% …release at 60 min). Consequently, DE-CUR resulted in 12.0- and 7.1-fold higher Cmax and AUC0-24h than curcumin. In a murine asthma model, DE-CUR effectively suppressed airway hyperresponsiveness and levels of T-helper cytokines such as interleukin-4, inteleukin-5, and interleukin-13. These findings demonstrate that the DE-CUR shows a potential for the development of functional foods or medicines including CUR. Show more

Keywords: Curcumin, poorly water-soluble, dry emulsion, bioavailability, antiasthmatic efficacy, functional food

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130886

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 917-930, 2014

Authors: Zeng, Xinping | Zhang, Min | Li, Weihao | Li, Chang | Tang, Wenwei

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pseudomonas sp. R1), which can efficiently decolorize reactive red X-3B, was isolated from activated sludge in a dye plant, and the decolorizing mechanism was explored in this paper. The result shows that Pseudomonas sp. R1 has very good capability for decolorization of reactive red X-3B and the decolorization rate is increased by 9.1% after optimization of the experimental parameters, which means that 89.6% of the reactive red can be removed. Investigation on decolorization mechanism showed that the decolorizing capability of Pseudomonassp. R1 was significantly affected after plasmids in Pseudomonassp. R1 were eliminated by acridine orange …(AO). Meanwhile, E. coli DH5a could gain decolorizing capability after transformed with the plasmids. Plasmid elimination and transformation tests proved that the decolorizing gene in Pseudomonas sp. R1 exists in the plasmid. Show more

Keywords: Dye wastewater, azo-dye, bacteria decolorization, Pseudomonas, plasmid, decolorization mechanism

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130887

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 931-937, 2014

Authors: He, Lianghua | Hu, Die | Wan, Meng | Wen, Ying

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), which is used to measure blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) from resting brains, is a relatively new and powerful method for evaluating regional interactions that occur when a participant is not performing an explicit task. Because of the sensitiveness to the phase shift and length of time courses of the BOLD recordings, region of interest based conventional correlation and coherence methods are no longer suitable for rs-fMRI analyses. In this paper, we propose a more robust and consistent method, dominant frequency mapping, to analyze rs-fMRI data. We found a dominant frequency of BOLD recordings, 0.0137Hz, in …resting human brains that is consistent across participants and brain regions. This frequency is detected mainly in Gyrus Rectus, Frontal Medial Orbital, Frontal Superior Orbital and Olfactory Sulcus, which control the human social behavior, emotion, and decision making. In the meantime, we found that BOLD frequencies are most inconsistent in the brain regions of PrecentralGyrus, Superior Frontal gyrus, Insula, Caudate nucleus, Putamen, and part of the cerebellum, whose functions are about motor. Show more

Keywords: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Resting-state, Spectral Analysis, Low frequency

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130888

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 939-945, 2014

Authors: Noh, Dong K. | Lee, Jae J. | You, Joshua H.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Recent ultrasound imaging evidence asserts that the diaphragm is an important multifunctional muscle to control breathing as well as stabilize the core and posture in humans. However, the validity and accuracy of ultrasound for the measurement of dynamic diaphragm movements during breathing and functional core activities have not been determined. The specific aim of this study was to validate the accuracy of ultrasound imaging measurements of diaphragm movements by concurrently comparing these measurements to the gold standard of radiographic imaging measurements. A total of 14 asymptomatic adults (9 males, 5 females; mean age =28.4±3.0 years) were recruited to participate in …the study. Ultrasound and radiographic images were used concurrently to determine diaphragm movement (inspiration, expiration, and excursion) during tidal breathing. Pearson correlation analysis showed strong correlations, ranging from r=0.78 to r=0.83, between ultrasound and radiographic imaging measurements of the diaphragm during inhalation, exhalation, and excursion. These findings suggest that ultrasound imaging measurement is useful to accurately evaluate diaphragm movements during tidal breathing. Clinically, ultrasound imaging measurements can be used to diagnose and treat diaphragm movement impairments in individuals with neuromuscular disorders including spinal cord injuries, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. Show more

Keywords: Diaphragm movement, ultrasound imaging, radiographic imaging, validity

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130889

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 947-952, 2014

Authors: Zhou, Bin | Chang, Jun | Wang, Ping | Li, Jie | Cheng, Dan | Zheng, Peng-Wu

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The quality of Morindaofficinalis, which has been used as a Yang-tonic agent for a long time in China, can be evaluated. A double-development high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method has been established to simultaneously analyze quality and quantity of seven inulin-type oligosaccharides (DP=3-9) in Morindaofficinalis. The chromatography was performed on a silica gel 60 plate with the 7:5:2:1 proportion (v/v) of n-butanol-isopropanol-water-acetic acid for the first and second developments, respectively. The bands were visualized by the reaction with aniline-diphenylamine-phosphoric acid solution and analyzed by densitometric TLC at 540 nm. Quantification of seven oligosaccharides was achieved by densitometry at 540 …nm. The investigated standard sugar had good linearity (R2>0.99) within test ranges. The amounts of seven oligosaccharides were calculated by the relative correction factor (RCF). Therefore, the developed TLC method could be used for quality control of Morindaofficinalis. Show more

Keywords: TLC, Quantitative determination, Morindaofficinalis, oligosaccharide

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130890

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 953-960, 2014

Authors: Yu, Chang Ho | Ohta, Makoto | Kwon, Tae Kyu

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, we investigated several parameters with effect on the compressive force to assess the mechanical properties of interventional device. We find several parameters are highly influential and others are not. In our evaluation system, we prepared a box-shaped PVA-H and silicone with realistic geometry and carried out the measurement and evaluation of the pushability by using load cell machine. The parameters of velocity, position of device in the system do not affect the compressive force, whereas the length of catheter from the tip to fixed point is one of the most influential parameters for the force. Several behaviors …such as passing through the curve or slip and stop can be observed and defined using this system. The balance of the bending force and the pushing force may make the tip with behavior of slip and stop or passing thorough the curve. The investigation of the evaluation system confirmed that high reproducibility with short error bar is indicated. The observation with movie record is also an advantage of our system because the high transparency of materials with silicone and PVA-H can check the inside of artery. Show more

Keywords: Blood vessel biomodel, PVA-H, pushability, interventional device

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130891

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 961-968, 2014

Authors: Li, Bin | Meng, Xianjun | Zhu, Lijie | Jiao, Xinyao | Zhang, Jiachen

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Triterpenes have shown many beneficial activities in researches, but their separation and preparation usually require multiple methods. Following an initial cleaning-up step on the AB-8 macroporous resin, a preparative high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) with a two-phase solvent system comprising chloroform-n-butyl alcohol-methanol-water (10:1:7:4, v/v/v/v) was used to isolate and separate triterpenes from caculis of Schisandra Chinensis (Turcz.) baill. A total of 89 mg corosolic acid with purities of 98.5% were obtained from 400 mg crude extract in one-step elution and less than 4 h, and the structure identification was performed by UV, IR, MS, 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The inhibition …on liver fibrosis activities of the triterpenes against HSC-T6 in vitro were studied by cell culture methods. The results showed that the corosolic acid have better inhibitory effects on HSC-T6 cells with the IC50 value of 5~25 μg/mL and the study also indicated that corosolic acid might be a potential Chinese medical component to inhibit liver fibrosis. Show more

Keywords: Schisandra Chinensis (Turcz.) baill, triterpenes, liver fibrosis

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130892

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 969-977, 2014

Authors: Yang, Yueh-Lung | Chang, Ching-Hsien | Huang, Ching-Cheng | Kao, Wenny Mei-Wen | Liu, Wei-Chung | Liu, Hsia-Wei

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Numerous materials have been proposed for bone tissue engineering. In this study, a newly designed hybrid composite scaffold composed of poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) and a naturally bioceramic hybrid material, nanonized pearl powder, were prepared and the biological activities and physical properties of the scaffold for bone tissue engineering were evaluated. It is a composite consisting calcium carbonate crystal in an aragonite structure, embedded in an organic matrix. Peral contains one or more signal molecules capable of stimulating bone formation. The nanonized pearl powder is considered as a promising osteoinductive biomaterial. This biomaterial is biocompatible and shows osteogenic activity. In this study, …the designed biohybrid of nanonized pearl powder/poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (NPP/PLGA) biocomposite scaffolds would employ biodegradable material as MC3T3-E1 cells seeded scaffolds. Therefore, the biocomposite scaffolds would be used to culture with MC3T3-E1 cells under spinner bioreactor in vitro. Furthermore, it also detailed how these tissues were characterized, qualitatively and quantitatively, with scanning electron microscopy and biochemical testing. The identity and the mode of action of these molecules on the osteoblast differentiation were analyzed. This study indicates that the efficiency of nanonized pearl powders in bone cell differentiation are certainly different from that of proteins. Further sudy will look forward to manufacturing the promising new generation bone substitute, three dimensional biocomposite scaffolds to replace the implant and autogeneous bone graft, which combines basic research and clinical application. Show more

Keywords: nanonized pearl powder, poly (D, L-lactide-co-glycolide), osteoblast, bio-mineralization, bone tissue engineering

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130893

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 979-985, 2014

Authors: Kim, Hyun-Joo | Kim, Hyung-Sik | Choi, Mi-Hyun | Lee, In-Hwa | Hong, Sang-Pyo | You, Na-Rae | Chung, Soon-Cheol | Lim, Dae-Woon | Yi, Jeong-Han

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between response time of visual matching task and heart rate (HR) in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Thirty boys who were diagnosed with ADHD and are under treatment participated in the study. The experiment consisted of three phases, a total of 5 min with rest phase, control phase, and visual matching task phase. HR was measured during each phase. The HR in visual matching task phase increased, compared to that in rest phase. There was a negative correlation between response time of visual matching task and magnitude of …the HR in the visual matching task phase. In other words, as HR increased, response time of the visual matching task decreased. This means that increasing in HR increased the supply of oxygen by fast circulation of blood for cognitive processing and this induced the improvement of cognitive ability in the ADHD children. This means that increasing HR increased the supply of oxygen by fast circulation of blood for cognitive processing and this induced the improvement of cognitive ability in the ADHD children. The result of this study supports previous studies that the administration of high oxygen concentration can positively affect the cognitive performance of the ADHD children. The results of the present and previous studies also may provide scientific evidence that can be used for treating patients with cognitive problems such as ADHD. Show more

Keywords: response time, heart rate, visual matching task, ADHD children

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130895

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 987-991, 2014

Authors: Qiao, Dengyu | He, Tan | Hu, Boping | Li, Ye

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The aim of this work is to show non-contact physiological signal monitoring system based on continuous-wave (CW) Doppler radar, which is becoming highly attractive in the field of health care monitoring of elderly people. Two radar signal processing methods were introduced in this paper: one to extract respiration and heart rates of a single person and the other to separate mixed respiration signals. To verify the validity of the methods, physiological signal is obtained from stationary human subjects using a CW Doppler radar unit. The sensor operating at 24 GHz is located 0.5 meter away from the subject. The simulation …results show that the respiration and heart rates are clearly extracted, and the mixed respiration signals are successfully separated. Finally, reference respiration and heart rate signals are measured by an ECG monitor and compared with the results tracked by the CW Doppler radar monitoring system. Show more

Keywords: Physiological signal detection, continuous wave Doppler radar, non-contact

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130896

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 993-1000, 2014

Authors: Xu, Jiucheng | Sun, Lin | Gao, Yunpeng | Xu, Tianhe

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Correlation-based feature selection (CFS) using neighborhood mutual information (NMI) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are combined into an ensemble technique in this paper. Based on this observation, an efficient gene selection algorithm, denoted by NMICFS-PSO, is proposed. Several cancer recognition tasks are gathered for testing the proposed technique. Moreover, support vector machine (SVM), integrated with leave-one-out cross-validation and served as a classifier, is employed for six classification profiles to calculate the classification accuracy. Experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce the redundant features effectively and achieve superior performance. The classification accuracy obtained by our method is higher in …five out of the six gene expression problems as compared with that of other classifi cation methods. Show more

Keywords: Feature selection, neighborhood mutual information, particle swarm optimization, support vector machine

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130897

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1001-1008, 2014

Authors: Kim, DongWook | Seong, KiWoong | Kim, MyoungNam | Cho, JinHo | Lee, JyungHyun

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, a digital audio processing chip which uses a wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) algorithm is designed and implemented for implantable hearing aids system. The designed chip operates at a single voltage of 3.3V and drives a 16 bit parallel input and output at 32 kHz sample. The designed chip has 1-channel 3-band WDRC composed of a FIR filter bank, a level detector, and a compression part. To verify the performance of the designed chip, we measured the frequency separations of bands and compression gain control to reflect the hearing threshold level.

Keywords: wide dynamic range compression, implantable hearing aids, vibration transducer, fitting formula, application specific integrated circuit

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130898

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1009-1017, 2014

Authors: Jiang, Jiangtao | Yuan, Xuan | Zhao, Hong | Yan, Xinyan | Sun, Xiling | Zheng, Qiusheng

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between proliferation inhibition and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by Licochalcone A (LCA). Cell viability was evaluated using sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. Intracellular ROS level was assessed using the 2, 7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (H2DCFDA) probe and dihydroethidium (DHE) probe assay. The results indicate that LCA inhibits human bladder cancer T24 proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner, with an IC50 value of approximately 55 μM. The LCA-induced ROS production is inhibited by the co-treatment of LCA and free radical scavenger N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), on the contrary, the proliferation rate and ROS …production increase when treated by the combination of LCA and L-buthionine-(S,R)-sulfoximine (BSO). The ratio of reduced glutathione (GSH) to oxidized glutathione (GSSG) decreases in a concentration-dependent manner. The results suggest that LCA inhibits proliferation by increasing intracellular ROS levels resulted in an oxidative stress status in T24 cells. Show more

Keywords: Licochalcone A, T24 cells, ROS, Cell proliferation, GSH, GSSG

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130899

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1019-1025, 2014

Authors: Li, Jian | Zhou, Haiying | Zuo, Decheng | Hou, Kun-Mean | De Vaulx, Christophe

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: As the symptoms and signs of heart diseases that cause sudden cardiac death, cardiac arrhythmia has attracted great attention. Due to limitations in time and space, traditional approaches to cardiac arrhythmias detection fail to provide a real-time continuous monitoring and testing service applicable in different environmental conditions. Integrated with the latest technologies in ECG (electrocardiograph) analysis and medical care, the pervasive computing technology makes possible the ubiquitous cardiac care services, and thus brings about new technical challenges, especially in the formation of cardiac care architecture and realization of the real-time automatic ECG detection algorithm dedicated to care devices. In this …paper, a ubiquitous cardiac care prototype system is presented with its architecture framework well elaborated. This prototype system has been tested and evaluated in all the clinical-/home-/outdoor-care modes with a satisfactory performance in providing real-time continuous cardiac arrhythmias monitoring service unlimitedly adaptable in time and space. Show more

Keywords: Ubiquitous health monitoring, smart healthcare, cardiac arrhythmias, ambulatory ECG detection

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130900

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1027-1033, 2014

Authors: Liu, Tian | Lin, Pan | Chen, Yanni | Wang, Jue

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study investigated the changes in synchronization of different electroencephalogram (EEG) bands in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children. EEG data were obtained from 13 children diagnosed with ADHD and 13 normal control children in the resting state. The statistical dependencies between each EEG channel were generated by calculating synchronization likelihood. The differences of synchronization between the ADHD and control groups were statistically evaluated. Overall, the synchronization was significantly higher in the ADHD group in the alpha and beta bands. The present study found that synchronization was significantly altered in the fast EEG bands in patients with ADHD. These findings …may enhance our understanding for the relationship between ADHD and cerebral dysfunction. Show more

Keywords: ADHD, EEG, synchronization likelihood

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130901

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1035-1039, 2014

Authors: Chang, Yen-Ching | Lai, Li-Chun | Chen, Liang-Hwa | Chang, Chun-Ming | Chueh, Chin-Chen

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The discrete-time fractional Gaussian noise (DFGN) has been proven to be a regular process. According to Wold and Kolmogorov theorems, this process can be described as an autoregressive (AR) model of an infinite order. An estimator for the Hurst exponent based on autoregressive power spectrum estimation has been proposed, but without considering order selection. In this paper, six common order selection methods for the AR model were used to select appropriate orders of the AR model in order to raise the accuracy of estimating the Hurst exponent. Experimental results show that these six AR methods with considering order selection are …more accurate than the original AR method without considering order selection. Show more

Keywords: Fractional Brownian motion, fractional Gaussian noise, Hurst exponent, autoregressive, order selection

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130902

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1041-1051, 2014

Authors: Liang, Fuyou

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Central aortic pressures are better predictors of cardiovascular events than peripheral pressures. However, central aortic blood pressures cannot be measured noninvasively; for this reason, estimating aortic pressures from noninvasive measurements of peripheral pressures has been the subject of numerous studies. In the present study, a novel method was proposed to noninvasively estimate aortic pressures from the oscillometric wave of a suprasystolic brachial cuff. The errors of estimation were evaluated in relation to various cardiovascular properties using an integrated cardiovascular-cuff model. Obtained results demonstrated that the estimation errors are affected mainly by aortic stiffness. The estimation errors for aortic systolic pressure, …diastolic pressure, pulse pressure and wave shape under the assumed cardiovascular conditions were 5.84±1.58 mmHg, −0.28±0.41 mmHg, 6.12±1.42 mmHg and 1.72±0.57 mmHg, respectively, all of which fell within the error ranges established by existing devices. Since the method is easy to be automated and bases the estimation fully on patient-specific information, its clinical application is promising, although further clinical studies are awaited to validate the method in vivo. Show more

Keywords: Central aortic pressure, suprasystolic brachial cuff, oscillometric signal, wave separation, wave reconstruction

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130903

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1053-1062, 2014

Authors: Guo, Lei | Wang, Yao | Yu, Hongli | Yin, Ning | Li, Ying

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Acupuncture is based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. Its therapeutic effectiveness has been proved by clinical practice. However, its mechanism of action is still unclear. Magnetic stimulation at acupuncture point provides a new means for studying the theory of acupuncture. Based on the Graph Theory, the construction and analysis method of complex network can help to investigate the topology of brain functional network and understand the working mechanism of brain. In this study, magnetic stimulation was used to stimulate Neiguan (PC6) acupoint and the EEG (Electroencephalograph) signal was recorded. Using non-linear method (Sample Entropy) and complex network theory, …brain functional network based on EEG signal under magnetic stimulation at PC6 acupoint was constructed and analyzed. In addition, the features of complex network were comparatively analyzed between the quiescent and stimulated states. Our experimental results show the topology of the network is changed, the connection of the network is enhanced, the efficiency of information transmission is improved and the small-world property is strengthened through stimulating the PC6 acupoint. Show more

Keywords: EEG signal, magnetic stimulation, acupuncture point, brain functional network, sample entropy

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130904

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1063-1069, 2014

Authors: Tang, Wenwei | Zhang, Min | Zeng, Xinping

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, the anti-cancer drug 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) was taken as the detection object. The biosensor of dsDNA/GNs/chit/GCE was established using the grapheme (GNs) and chitosan (chit) as the compound modified material. The electrochemical behavior of 6-MP on the sensor was discussed, and the damage and its mechanism of 6-MP on DNA were studied. The experimental result showed that, after the modification of GNs-chit, the electrode activation area of GNs/chit/GCE increased remarkably, which was improved from 1.76cm2 to 8.64 cm2 , and the responsive oxidation peak current of GNs/chit/GCE to K3 [Fe(CN)6 ] also increased remarkably. At the meantime, …it was demonstrated that DNA was effectively fixed on the GNs/chit/GCE electrode;6-MP caused obvious damage to dsDNA, and the damage degree on the adenine was bigger than that on the guanine; the interaction between 6-MP and dsDNA was preliminarily deduced as the intercalation, and its electrochemical oxidation process was an irreversible process controlled by the adsorption. Show more

Keywords: Biosensor, grapheme, 6-MP, intercalation, DNA damage

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130905

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1071-1077, 2014

Authors: Xiao, Bao-Lin | Hong, Jun | Gao, Yun-Fei | Yang, Tian | Moosavi-Movahedi, Ali Akbar | Ghourchian, Hedayatollah

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Direct electron transfer of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was achieved by immobilizing HRP on a functional nanocomplex modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode. The cyclic voltammograms (CVs) of the modified electrode have a pair of well-defined redox peaks with a formal potential (E°′) of −26±2 mV versus Ag/AgCl, in 0.05M, pH7.0 phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at a scan rate of 0.05 V/s. The heterogeneous electron transfer constant (ks) was calculated to be 1.94 s−1 . The modified electrode response toward hydrogen peroxide was linear in the concentrations ranging from 0.28 μM to 10 μM, with a detection limit of 0.28 μM. The …apparent Michaelis–Menten constant (Km app ) for H2 O2 was 2.54 μM. Moreover, results of biochemical computation showed that the amino acid residues (Ala34, Arg38, Ser73, Arg75, Ala140, Pro141, Phe172, Gly173, Lys174, Phe179, Arg31, Ser35, Lys174, Gln176) of HRP may playa crucial role in the improvement of electron transport between electro-active site (heme group) of an HRP molecule and nanocomplex modified GC electrode. Show more

Keywords: Horseradish peroxidase, direct electron transfer, gold nanoparticles, carboxylic multi-walled carbon nanotubes, biochemical computation

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130906

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1079-1084, 2014

Authors: Zeng, Hongjuan | Wang, Deshun | Yu, Junsheng

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A layer of L-glycine-molecule-imprinted polyaniline (LMIP-PANI) polymer film has been modified on a carbon fiber electrode for the determination of L-glycine standard samples and L-glycine in cerebrospinal fluid of wistar mice. It has been found that a linear relationship exists between current and concentration for the glycine standard samples in the range of 0–12 μM by using the LMIP-PANI-modified carbon fiber electrode as a sensor. However, there is no any relationship between current and concentration for the carbon fiber electrode modified with no-glycine-molecule-imprinted polyaniline (NIP-PANI). The MIP-PANI- and NIP-PANI-modified carbon fiber films have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), …X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemistry methods. The investigation shows that the MIP-PANI-imprinted carbon fiber electrode will have a potential application in in-situ monitoring neurotransmitter due to its easy fabrication, low cost, bio-compatibility and flexibility. Show more

Keywords: Glycine, polyaniline, imprint, film, cerebrospinal fluid

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130907

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1085-1091, 2014

Authors: Tsai, Ming-Chang | Huang, Shyh-Chour

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This research probes into the strain changes of the great saphenous vein (GSV) during step exercises. Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) were used to process and develop Gauge Factors (GF=4.79±0.247), 5 males and 5 females with an average age of 20±0.6 years were asked to engage in step exercises (with step height of 25cm), and the strain changes of the GSV in the lower limbs of the dorsal venous arch were measured. The results show that the effect the exercise has on the vein vessel is not prominent within 0.87 min; between 0.87 and 13.71 min, the average rates of the strain …changes in the GSV show a linear increase; after 13.4±0.31 min, the linear curve of the increase rate is alleviated. This shows that to prevent varicose veins in the lower limbs, continuous exercise between 0.87 to 13.71 minutes has better effects in training. Exercising for over 13.71 minutes has its beneficial effects, but the effects are considerably less obvious than exercising for 0.87~13.71 min. Show more

Keywords: Great saphenous vein, strain, carbon nanonets, gauge factor

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130908

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1093-1099, 2014

Authors: Wang, Xiaoyan | Wang, Haifeng | Zhou, Jing

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Among the methods of parallel magnetic resonance imaging (PMRI), Generalized Auto-calibrating Partially Parallel Acquisitions (GRAPPA) technique reconstructs the missing k-space data by a set of weights, which are derived from auto-calibration signal (ACS) lines acquired in parallel to the reduced lines. In this paper, a novel hybrid method is proposed to reconstruct by cross sampling the ACS lines orthogonal to the reduced lines and estimating weights with a second-order nonlinear model. The proposed method can mix the benefits of cross sampling and the nonlinear kernel model. The in vivo experiments demonstrate this method, named as cross-sampled nonlinear (CSNL) GRAPPA, can …effectively reduce the aliasing artifacts and noises when high acceleration is desired. Show more

Keywords: parallel MRI, GRAPPA, cross-sampled, nonlinear

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130909

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1101-1108, 2014

Authors: Meng, Lu

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) is a parallel computing platform and programming model invented by NVIDIA. It enables dramatic increase in computing performance via the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU). In medical image analysis, 3D image registration generally takes relatively long time, which is not feasible for clinical applications. To solve this problem, this paper proposed a high performance computational method based on CUDA, which took full advantage of GPU parallel computing under CUDA architecture combined with image multiple scale and maximum mutual information. Experiments showed that this algorithm can not only maintain the registration accuracy but also …greatly increase the speed of registration process and meet the real-time requirement of clinical application. Show more

Keywords: Three dimensional image registration, CUDA acceleration, mutual information, multiple scale

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130910

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1109-1116, 2014

Authors: Zhang, Shu-xu | Han, Peng-hui | Zhang, Guo-qian | Wang, Rui-hao | Ge, Yong-bin | Ren, Zhi-gang | Li, Jian-sheng | Fu, Wen-hai

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Early detection of skull base invasion in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is crucial for correct staging, assessing treatment response and contouring the tumor target in radiotherapy planning, as well as improving the patient's prognosis. To compare the diagnostic efficacy of single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) for the detection of skull base invasion in NPC. Sixty untreated patients with histologically proven NPC underwent SPECT/CT imaging, contrast-enhanced MRI and CT. Of the 60 patients, 30 had skull base invasion confirmed by the final results of contrast-enhanced MRI, CT and six-month follow-up imaging …(MRI and CT). The diagnostic efficacy of the three imaging modalities in detecting skull base invasion was evaluated. The rates of positive findings of skull base invasion for SPECT/CT, MRI and CT were 53.3%, 48.3% and 33.3%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 93.3%, 86.7% and 90.0% for SPECT/CT fusion imaging, 96.7%, 100.0% and 98.3% for contrast-enhanced MRI, and 66.7%, 100.0% and 83.3% for contrast-enhanced CT. MRI showed the best performance for the diagnosis of skull base invasion in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, followed closely by SPECT/CT. SPECT/CT had poorer specificity than that of both MRI and CT, while CT had the lowest sensitivity. Show more

Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission computed tomography, computerized tomography, skull base invasion

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130911

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1117-1124, 2014

Authors: Zhang, Ling | Kong, Hui | Chin, Chien Ting | Wang, Tianfu | Chen, Siping

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper proposes a method to segment the cytoplasm in cervical cell images using graph cut-based algorithm. First, the A* channel in CIE LAB color space is extracted for contrast enhancement. Then, in order to effectively extract cytoplasm boundaries when image histograms present non-bimodal distribution, Otsu multiple thresholding is performed on the contrast enhanced image to generate initial segments, based on which the segments are refined by the multi-way graph cut method. We use 21 cervical cell images with non-ideal imaging condition to evaluate cytoplasm segmentation performance. The proposed method achieved a 93% accuracy which outperformed state-of-the-art works.

Keywords: Cervical cell, cytoplasm segmentation, A* channel, graph cut

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130912

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1125-1131, 2014

Authors: Kim, Hyung-Sik | Choi, Mi-Hyun | Yoon, Hee-Jeong | Kim, Hyun-Joo | Jeoung, Ul-Ho | Park, Sung-Jun | Lim, Dae-Woon | Chung, Soon-Cheol | Lee, Beob-Yi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study investigated the changes of cerebral activation and lateralization due to the cognition of three driving speeds in comparison to a reference driving speed using functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI. A driving video as a visual stimulation source was recorded with four different driving speeds in a real driving situation. The experiment consisted of three blocks and each block included a one-minute control phase and a one-minute stimulation phase. The activation area and the lateralization index were analyzed by subtracting high speed data from low speed data. Such areas as occipital, parietal and frontal lobes, which is related to …visual cognition, high order visual and spatial attention (or vigilance), were activated due to the cognition of various driving speed differences. As the driving speed difference increased, the activation area increased in the areas related to spatial attention (or vigilance), such as the frontal lobe, however, changes of neuronal activation in the occipital and parietal lobes were inconsistent. As the driving speed difference increased, the absolute value of cerebral lateralization decreased. These results may provide some basic data for elucidating the brain-function mechanism related to the cognition of a various driving speed difference based on a realistic visual stimulation. Show more

Keywords: Cerebral activation, Cerebral lateralization, Driving speed difference, fMRI

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130913

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1133-1139, 2014

Authors: Ji, Yu-Bin | Ji, Chen-Feng | Yue, Lei

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study was to investigate the effect of Sargassum fusiforme polysaccharides (SFPS-B2) on the proliferation and apoptosis of human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901. Cells were treated with different concentrations of SFPS-B2. MTT and flow cytometry (FCM) assays were performed to evaluate the effect of SFPS-B2 on the cell growth and apoptosis. Inverted fluorescent microscope was used to observe cell morphology. Laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) was used to analyze intracellular calcium ion concentration, mitochondrion permeability transition pore (MPTP) and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Spectrophotometer was applied to quantify the activity of Caspase-9 and Caspase-3. FCM was used to determine …the expressions of Bcl-2, Bax and cytochrome C. It was shown that SFPS-B2 inhibited the growth of SGC-7901. After the treatment for 72 h, the cell apoptosis morphology was obvious, which showed that cell protuberance and apoptotic body appeared, and the cytoplasm was concentrated; the apoptotic peak appeared and the apoptotic rate increased in a dose-dependent manner. After the treatment for 24 h, SFPS-B2 activated intracellular MPTP and decreased MMP. It also increased the activity of Caspase-9 and Caspase-3, down-regulated the expression of Bcl-2 and up-regulated the expression of Bax, induced the release of Cyt-C. SFPS-B2 induced SGC-7901 apoptosis through a mitochondrial-mediated pathway, suggesting it may be an agent for cancer treatment. Show more

Keywords: Sargassum fusiforme, polysaccharide, human gastric cancer, apoptosis, mitochondria

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130914

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1141-1147, 2014

Authors: Liu, Bin | Zhang, Bingbing | Wan, Chao | Dong, Yihuan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In order to reduce the motion artifact caused by the patient in cerebral DSA images, a non-rigid registration method based on stretching transformation is presented in this paper. Unlike other traditional methods, it does not need bilinear interpolation which is rather time-consuming and even produce ‘originally non-existent gray value’. By this method, the mask image is rasterized to generate appropriate control points. The Energy of Histogram of Differences criterion is adopted as similarity measurement, and the Powell algorithm is utilized for acceleration. A forward stretching transformation is used to complete motion estimation and an inverse stretching transformation to generate target …image by pixel mapping strategy. This method is effective to maintain the topological relationships of the gray value before and after the image deformation. The mask image remains clear and accurate contours, and the quality of the subtraction image after the registration is favorable. This method can provide support for clinical treatment and diagnosis of cerebral disease. Show more

Keywords: Digital subtraction angiography, non-rigid registration, stretching transformation, pixel mapping

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130915

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1149-1155, 2014

Authors: Wan, Xiong | Wang, Peng | Zhang, Huaming

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, a thermal computed tomography (TCT) for structural reconstruction of optical-thin biological tissues is proposed, which is based on a radiation balance between adjacent infinitesimals. A theoretical analysis has been carried out and several influential factors have been analyzed for the reconstructions of a physical model in numerical simulations. The simulation results give a criterion of how to choose an appropriate set of parameters to reconstruct biological tissues with the TCT. Besides, a TCT system was established and a validation experiment was carried out. The studies of both numerical simulations and experiments have verified the feasibility of the …proposed TCT and give a valuable reference for the future applications of TCT in biology. Show more

Keywords: Thermal computed tomography, numerical simulation, biological tissues

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130916

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1157-1165, 2014

Authors: Xia, Chenchen | Peng, Yi-feng | Arun, Kumar Yadav | Xiao, Tiqiao | Zhu, Peiping | He, Wei

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper explores mouse kidney imaging with diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) and inline outline X-ray imaging (IOXI) technology, and evaluates latent value of kidney imaging with phase contrast imaging technology. In our experiment, spatial resolution and tissue contrast serve as element evaluation and comparison. Images obtained from our experiment exhibit clearly observable contrasts and high resolution, suggesting X-RAY and IOXO are suitable for capturing kidney images. Also, further comparison shows IOXO has a better performance than DEI in capturing microstructures.

Keywords: Synchrotron radiation (SR), phase contrast imaging technology, in-line outline X-ray imaging (IOXI), Mouse Kidney

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130917

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1167-1172, 2014

Authors: Oh, Jin Kyoung | Chung, Yong An | Kim, Yeon Sil | Jeon, Hae Myung | Kim, Sung Hoon | Park, Young Ha | Chung, Soo Kyo

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: We assessed the role of F-18 FDG PET/CT in evaluating isolated extra-axillary lymph node recurrences in postoperative breast cancer patients and its prognostic value on clinical outcome. We reviewed PET/CT scans of postoperative breast cancer patients performed at our institution between July 2003 and February 2012. We recorded PET/CT findings, clinicopathologic variables and treatment modalities. We analyzed metabolic parameters from PET/CT and clinicopathologic variables with respect to progression free survival (PFS). A total of 3561 PET/CT scans were performed in 1906 postoperative breast cancer patients with a median interval of 43 month from curative surgery. Fifty seven patients (2.99%) demonstrated …isolated extra-axillary nodal recurrences (n=85) on PET/CT (internal mammary node recurrences in 28, supraclavicular 24, infraclavicular 4, interpectoral 8, cervical 12, and mediastinal 9).The median SUVmax was 7.8 (range, 1.8~19.0), and the median node size was 15 mm (range, 6~38 mm). All recurrences were nonpalpable. Based on PET/CT findings, 53 out of 57 patients with extra-axillary node recurrences underwent subsequent chemotherapy/radiation therapy. The estimated 3-year PFS rate was 48.6%. Cutoff points of SUVmax 2.7 and size 14 mm were the best discriminative values for predicting clinical outcome. SUVmax and size of extra-axillary nodal recurrences were significantly correlated to PFS on univariate and multivariate analyses (p<0.001 and p=0.019, respectively). Show more

Keywords: Breast cancer, extra-axillary lymph node, recurrence, PET/CT, prognosis

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130918

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1173-1184, 2014

Authors: Jie, Xiang | Cao, Rui | Li, Li

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A sample entropy (SampEn)-based emotion recognition approach was presented. The SampEn results of notable EEG channels screened by K-S test were fed to the support vector machine (SVM)-weight classifier for training, after which it was applied to two emotion recognition tasks. One is to distinguish positive and negative emotion with high arousal and the other genitive emotion with different arousal status. Results showed that channels related to emotions were mostly located on the prefrontal region, i.e., F3, CP5, FP2, FZ, and FC2. And they were applied to form the input vectors of SVM-weight classifier. The accuracies of the present algorithm …for the two tasks were 80.43% and 79.11%, respectively indicated by the leave-one-person-out validation procedure, demonstrating that the present algorithm had a reasonable generalization capability. Show more

Keywords: Emotion recognition, sample entropy, SVM, brain computer interface, EEG

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130919

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1185-1192, 2014

Authors: Liu, Wen | Cheng, Yangjie | Liu, Dong C.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Veterinary ultrasound has been used in a large number of animal husbandry-related circumstances while many corresponding applications also call for the use of ultrasound in human patients. However, veterinary ultrasound images are affected by speckle, an interference pattern that can reduce the quality and contrast of ultrasound images. In this paper, a filter-based receive-side spatial compounding technique for veterinary ultrasound B-Mode imaging is used to create a compounded veterinary B-Mode image based on multiple looks. In particular, filtering in the lateral direction has been proved to be able to preserve the axial information in the sub-bands and to create decorrelation …between sub-bands at the expense of some lateral resolution. A new method was proposed to obtain B-Mode IQ data by special veterinary ultrasonic probe. This approach is tested on 275 in-vivo swine. The effect is accomplished in real-time veterinary ultrasonic imaging with a measurable improvement of SNRe. Meanwhile, the speckle and electronic noise in the compounded image have been greatly reduced and smoothed in the visual result. Show more

Keywords: Speckle, spatial compounding, Veterinary ultrasound, filter-based

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130920

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1193-1199, 2014

Authors: He, Zhengyao

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A method is proposed to calculate the weight vector of a transducer array for ultrasound imaging to obtain a low-sidelobe transmitting beam pattern based on the near-field response vector. An optimization problem is established, and the second-order cone (SOC) algorithm is used to solve the problem to obtain the weight vector. The optimized acoustic emitted field of the transducer array is then calculated using the Field II program by applying the obtained weight vector to the array. The simulation results with a 64-element 26 MHz linear phased array show that the proposed method can be used to control the sidelobe …of the near-field transmitting beam pattern of the transducer array and achieve a low-sidelobe level. The near-field sound pressure distribution of the transducer array using the proposed method focuses much better than that using the standard delay and sum (DAS) beamforming method. The sound energy is more concentrated using the proposed method. Show more

Keywords: transducer array, acoustic emitted field, optimization, ultrasound imaging

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130921

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1201-1208, 2014

Authors: Gao, Shuang | Peng, Yuhua | Guo, Huizhi | Liu, Weifeng | Gao, Tianxin | Xu, Yuanqing | Tang, Xiaoying

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Ultrasound as a noninvasive imaging technique is widely used to diagnose liver diseases. Texture analysis and classification of ultrasound liver images have become an important research topic across the world. In this study, GLGCM (Gray Level Gradient Co-Occurrence Matrix) was implemented for texture analysis of ultrasound liver images first, followed by the use of GLCM (Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix) at the second stage. Twenty two features were obtained using the two methods, andseven most powerful features were selected for classification using BP (Back Propagation) neural network. Fibrosis was divided into five stages (S0–S4) in this study. The classification accuracies of …S0–S4 were 100%, 90%, 70%, 90% and 100%, respectively. Show more

Keywords: liver fibrosis, ultrasonic image, texture features analysis, texture features extraction, artificial neural network

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130922

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1209-1216, 2014

Authors: Wang, Rui-hao | Zhang, Shu-xu | Zhou, Ling-hong | Zhang, Guo-qian | Yu, Hui | Lin, Xiao-dan | Lin, Shengqu

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The aims of this study were to evaluate the volume and dosimetric variations during IMRT for locally advanced NPC and to identify the benefits of a two-phase adaptive IMRT method. Twenty patients with locally advanced NPC having received IMRT treatment were included. Each patient had both an initial planning CT (CT-1) and a repeated CT scan (CT-2) after treatment at a dose of 40 Gy. Three IMRT planning scenarios were compared: (1) the initial plan on the CT-1 (plan-1); (2) the hybrid plan recalculated the initial plan on the CT-2 (plan-2); (3) the replan generated on the CT-2 being used …to complete the course of IMRT (plan-3). The mean gross target volume and mean volumes of the positive neck lymph nodes, high-risk clinical target volume, and the left and right parotid glands significantly decreased by 30.2%, 45.1%, 21.1%, 14.7% and 18.2%, respectively on the CT-2. Comparing plan-2 with plan-1, the dose coverage of the targets remained unchanged, whereas the dose delivered to the parotid glands and spinal cord increased significantly. These patients with locally advanced NPC might benefit from replanning because of the sparing of the parotid glands and spinal cord. Show more

Keywords: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, anatomic changes, adaptive replanning

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130923

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1217-1225, 2014

Authors: Zhang, Xubing | Zhang, Penglin | Hirai, Shinichi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Due to the nonlinear and nonuniform local deformation of nonrigid tissues, it is difficult to match a number of feature points distributing somewhat uniform in the tissues from MR images for deformation measurement. This paper proposes TSSC (TPS-SURF-SAC-Clustering) based method of feature point matching and elimination of mismatching. First, Fast-Hessian and Harris operator are utilized to extract the feature points in the initial MR image, and the matching region is identified by TPS transformation model for every query point in the deformed image. Then the SURF descriptors and the proposed Spatial Association Correspondence (SAC) method are combined to match the …feature points. Finally, by clustering the coordinate differences between the matching points obtained by TPS-SURF-SAC and the matching points calculated by TPS model, most incorrectly matched points are eliminated. After every iterative processing of matching and mismatching elimination, the updated TPS model becomes more accurate and more correctly so that the matched points can be identified than those of last iteration. The experimental results show that the proposed SAC was efficient and that TSSC based method outperformed the single SURF or SIFT method. Show more

Keywords: Feature point, extraction, matching, deformation

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130924

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1227-1237, 2014

Authors: Wang, Shanshan | Xia, Yong | Dong, Pei | Luo, Jianhua | Huang, Qiu | Feng, Dagan | Li, Yuanxiang

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Due to the imperfections of the radio frequency (RF) coil or object-dependent electrodynamic interactions, magnetic resonance (MR) images often suffer from a smooth and biologically meaningless bias field, which causes severe troubles for subsequent processing and quantitative analysis. To effectively restore the original signal, this paper simultaneously exploits the spatial and gradient features of the corrupted MR images for bias correction via the joint entropy regularization. With both isotropic and anisotropic total variation (TV) considered, two nonparametric bias correction algorithms have been proposed, namely IsoTVBiasC and AniTVBiasC. These two methods have been applied to simulated images under various noise levels …and bias field corruption and also tested on real MR data. The test results show that the proposed two methods can effectively remove the bias field and also present comparable performance compared to the state-of-the-art methods. Show more

Keywords: Bias correction, magnetic resonance (MR) images, joint entropy, total variation (TV)

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130925

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1239-1245, 2014

Authors: Wen, Junling | Yan, Zhuangzhi | Jiang, Jiehui

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The lattice Boltzmann (LB) method is a mesoscopic method based on kinetic theory and statistical mechanics. The main advantage of the LB method is parallel computation, which increases the speed of calculation. In the past decade, LB methods have gradually been introduced for image processing, e.g., image segmentation. However, a major shortcoming of existing LB methods is that they can only be applied to the processing of medical images with intensity homogeneity. In practice, however, many medical images possess intensity inhomogeneity. In this study, we developed a novel LB method to integrate edge and region information for medical image segmentation. …In contrast to other segmentation methods, we added edge information as a relaxing factor and used region information as a source term. The proposed method facilitates the segmentation of medical images with intensity inhomogeneity and it still allows parallel computation. Preliminary tests of the proposed method are presented in this paper. Show more

Keywords: active contour method, lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, level set method, partial differential equation

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130926

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1247-1252, 2014

Authors: Wen, Ying | He, Lianghua

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The aim of this study is to design a statistical segmentation technique to allow extraction of grey matter, white matter and cerebral spinal fluid volumes from diffusion tensor imaging. Four channel maps of the DTI are used as the input features, which provide more information for brain tissue segmentation compared with single channel map. An Improved Bayesian decision in the subspace spanned by the eigenvectors which are associated with the smaller eigenvalues in each class is adopted as the brain tissue segmentation criterion. Our method performed well, giving an average segmentation accuracy of about 0.88, 0.85 and 0.76 for white …matter, gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid respectively in terms of volume overlap. Show more

Keywords: Diffusion tensor imaging, image segmentation, bayesian decision

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130927

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1253-1259, 2014

Authors: Wang, Weiming | Qin, Jing | Zhu, Lei | Ni, Dong | Chui, Yim-Pan | Heng, Pheng-Ann

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Due to the characteristic artifacts of ultrasound images, e.g., speckle noise, shadows and intensity inhomogeneity, traditional intensity-based methods usually have limited success on the segmentation of fetal abdominal contour. This paper presents a novel approach to detect and measure the abdominal contour from fetal ultrasound images in two steps. First, a local phase-based measure called multiscale feature asymmetry (MSFA) is de ned from the monogenic signal to detect the boundaries of fetal abdomen. The MSFA measure is intensity invariant and provides an absolute measurement for the signi cance of features in the image. Second, in order to detect the ellipse …that ts to the abdominal contour, the iterative randomized Hough transform is employed to exclude the interferences of the inner boundaries, after which the detected ellipse gradually converges to the outer boundaries of the abdomen. Experimental results in clinical ultrasound images demonstrate the high agreement between our approach and manual approach on the measurement of abdominal circumference (mean sign difference is 0.42% and correlation coef cient is 0.9973), which indicates that the proposed approach can be used as a reliable and accurate tool for obstetrical care and diagnosis. Show more

Keywords: Ultrasound images, fetal abdominal contour, multiscale feature asymmetry, iterative randomized Hough transform

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130928

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1261-1267, 2014

Authors: Chen, Yongjun | Luo, Yuanfang | Jia, Zhixin | Jia, Demin | Chen, Juan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this work, a novel silicone rubber/nano-copper nanocomposite for use in intrauterine devices (IUDs) was developed. Moreover, the release rate of Cu2+ ions and the water absorption of the prepared nanocomposite were investigated in detail. The results indicate that the release rate of Cu2+ ions and water absorption capability of the silicone rubber/nanocopper nanocomposite increase as the nano-copper content increases. SEM analysis suggested there is a uniform dispersion of nano-copper in the silicone matrix. Further, systematic analysis indicated that the release rate of Cu2+ ions in the prepared nanocomposite-based IUD can be stabilized for months, which is …not possible in the case of traditional IUDs. Show more

Keywords: silicone rubber, nano-copper, nanocomposites, intrauterine devices

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130929

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1269-1274, 2014

Authors: Sun, Yuchun | Yuan, Fusong | Li, Hong | Zhao, Yijiao | Lv, Peijun | Wang, Yong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study was to design a method to quantitatively evaluate three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction accuracy of spatial relationship of dental models based on a 7-axis contact 3D measuring system, and to evaluate the accuracy of a common regional registration method for edentulous jaw relation reconstruction. 3D surface data of edentulous dental casts with 10 positioning cylinders and wax occlusion rims of five patients were obtained using a dental scanner. The jaw relation was reconstructed using the common regional registration in the Geomagic software. Measurements were obtained for line length, vertical distance and horizontal distance between centric points from two sources with …upper jaw model base plane as a reference plane. The statistical description of measurement data was done. $\bar{x}\pm s$ of line length, vertical distance and horizontal distance between the center points of each data set were 0.107±0.354, 0.076±0.576 and 0.108±0.530 mm, respectively. Data was analyzed using the paired samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance. Paired t-test results of each patient and one-way analysis of variance for the five patients showed no significant differences (P>0.05). Using the Faro Edge system and standardized positioning cylinders, quantitative evaluation of the 3D reconstruction accuracy of edentulous jaw relation was workable. And results of common regional registration method met clinical requirements. Show more

Keywords: Edentulous jaw, jaw relation, three-dimensional scanning, three-dimensional reconstruction

DOI: 10.3233/BME-130930

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1275-1287, 2014