POSSIBILITIES OF COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF PNEUMONIA ASSOCIATED WITH COVID-19

Актуальность проблемы быстрой и точной диагностики пневмонии, ассоциированной с covid-19, в период присвоения коронавирусной инфекции (covid-19) статуса пандемии, безусловно бесспорна. Своевременная диагностика влияет на прогноз заболевания. Цель оценить возможности КТ при выявлении пневмонии, ассоциированной с covid-19 и уточнения стадии развития пневмонии. Материал и методы. Исследования проводились на мультиспиральном компьютерном томографе SOMATOM Difinition AS (Siemens). В исследования включены пациенты, прошедшие КТ грудной полости с 01.06.2020. по 31.08.2020. из базы Центральной Городской Клинической Больницы (ЦГКБ) г.Алматы. Результаты КТ оценивали визуальным методом. Визуальную оценку осуществляли с использованием трехплоскостной реформации изображений, что позволяло определить локализацию, контуры, протяженность измененных участков легочной ткани. Результаты. По данным проведенных обследований у большинства пациентов были выявлены признаки воспалительных изменений в легких, которые оценивались рентгенологами нашей клиники с учетом уже известных на тот момент специфических паттернов, характерных для пневмонии, ассоциированной с covid-19. По результатам КТ органов грудной клетки при дифференциальной диагностике пневмонии, ассоциированной с covid-19 от другой легочной патологии. Специфичность составила 88%. Заключение. КТ органов грудной полости является высокоспецифичным методом исследования при диагностике пневмонии, ассоциированной с covid-19. The urgency of the problem of rapid and accurate diagnosis of pneumonia associated with covid-19 during the assignment of coronavirus infection (covid-19) pandemic status is certainly indisputable. Timely diagnosis affects the prognosis of the disease. The aim is to evaluate the possibilities of CT in detecting pneumonia associated with covid-19 and to clarify the stage of development of pneumonia. Material and methods. The studies were carried out on a multispiral computed tomograph SOMATOM Difinition AS (Siemens). The study included patients who underwent CT of the thoracic cavity from 01.06.2020. to 31.08.2020. from the base of the Central City Clinical Hospital (CGKB) in Almaty. CT results were evaluated by visual method. Visual assessment was carried out using a three-plane image reformation, which made it possible to determine the localization, contours, and extent of the altered areas of lung tissue. Results. According to the conducted examinations, most patients showed signs of inflammatory changes in the lungs, which were evaluated by radiologists of our clinic taking into account the specific patterns already known at that time, characteristic of pneumonia associated with covid-19. According to the results of CT of the chest organs in the differential diagnosis of pneumonia associated with covid-19 from other pulmonary pathology. The specificity was 88%. Conclusion. CT of the thoracic cavity is a highly specific method of investigation in the diagnosis of pneumonia associated with covid-19.

Ultrasonographic prevalence and proposed morphologic classification of bilobed gallbladder in cats

Objectives Morphologic anomalies of the feline gallbladder (GB) have been previously reported in the literature. These morphologic variants are frequently encountered on routine abdominal ultrasound examination. The aim of this study was to provide an ultrasonographic classification system of these variants and document the overall incidence in the feline population. Methods A prospective, descriptive study was undertaken; cats that had an abdominal ultrasound examination that included at least one sagittal and transverse plane image of the GB were included. GB shape was evaluated and categorized based on a classification scheme of morphologic variants modified from the human literature. Septated (S), bilobed (B1, B2, B3), duplex (D) and complex (C) categories were described. Results Of 516 cats included in the study, 389 had normal GB morphology, while 127 had anomalous GB morphology. The overall incidence rate of anomalous GB morphology was 24.61%. When examined by morphologic type, the septated (S) morphology had an incidence of 9.69%. A bilobed (B) morphology was the most commonly observed classification; incidence was 14.35% within our population; incidence of B1, B2 and B3 subtypes were 2.91%, 6.98% and 4.46%, respectively. Duplex GBs only made up 0.39% of the total population. The incidence of complex (C) morphologies was 0.19%. Conclusions and relevance The incidence of GB morphologic anomalies was higher in our population than previously reported. Identification of these anomalies on routine ultrasound evaluation is common; numerous different morphologies can be identified and a standardized classification scheme is proposed. Complete evaluation of morphology can be challenging, particularly with regard to cystic duct anatomy. Clinical significance is uncertain and future studies are warranted to determine the relationship between morphologic variants and hepatobiliary disease.

Optimizing touchscreen measures of rodent cognition by eliminating image bias

For the last twenty years, the Bussey-Saksida touchscreen-based operant conditioning platform has evolved in close parallel alongside the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) to produce batteries of tests for studying complex cognitive functions in rodents that are increasingly analogous to human diagnostic tests and greatly narrow the translational gap in cognition research. Naturally, with this increasing usefulness comes increasing use, and with it, a need for a greater understanding of and controlling for confounding factors that may limit the system's ability to optimally detect cognitive deficits. In the present study, we show a strong image preference bias in a standard pairwise discrimination task with a widely used spider-plane image pairing. This bias greatly influenced the performance of our experimental mice, significantly affecting the length of time it took mice to complete the task, their progress over time, and several accessory measures usefully recorded by the Bussey-Saksida touchscreen system. We further show that this bias can be corrected by using more highly similar image pairings without sacrificing the animal's ability to learn to distinguish the stimuli. This eliminated all significant stimuli specific differences seen with the spider-plane pairing. We then analyze the pixel composition of the various stimuli to suggest that the bias is due to a difference in image brightness. These findings highlight the importance of carefully modulating paired touchscreen stimuli to ensure equivalence prior to learning and the need for more studies of visual perception in mice, particularly as it relates to their performance in cognitive assays.

Automatic Segmentation and Measurement of Infantile Hemangioma

Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are a type of vascular tumors that affect around 10% of newborns. The measurement of the lesion size and the assessment of the evolution is done manually by the physician. This paper presents an algorithm for the automatic computation of the IH lesion surface. The image scale is computed by using the Hough transform and the total variation. As pre-processing, a geometric correction step is included, which ensures that the lesions are viewed as perpendicular to the camera. The image segmentation is based on K-means clustering applied on a five-plane image; the five planes being selected from seven planes with the use of the Karhunen-Loeve transform. Two of the seven planes are 2D total variation filters, based on symmetrical kernels, designed to highlight the IH specific texture. The segmentation performance was assessed on 30 images, and a mean border error of 9.31% was obtained.

High-Identical Numerical Aperture, Multifocal Microlens Array through Single-Step Multi-Sized Hole Patterning Photolithography

Imaging applications based on microlens arrays (MLAs) have a great potential for the depth sensor, wide field-of-view camera and the reconstructed hologram. However, the narrow depth-of-field remains the challenge for accurate, reliable depth estimation. Multifocal microlens array (Mf-MLAs) is perceived as a major breakthrough, but existing fabrication methods are still hindered by the expensive, low-throughput, and dissimilar numerical aperture (NA) of individual lenses due to the multiple steps in the photolithography process. This paper reports the fabrication method of high NA, Mf-MLAs for the extended depth-of-field using single-step photolithography assisted by chemical wet etching. The various lens parameters of Mf-MLAs are manipulated by the multi-sized hole photomask and the wet etch time. Theoretical and experimental results show that the Mf-MLAs have three types of lens with different focal lengths, while maintaining the uniform and high NA irrespective of the lens type. Additionally, we demonstrate the multi-focal plane image acquisition via Mf-MLAs integrated into a microscope.