Search results for "ULTRASOUND"
showing 10 items of 1259 documents
Clinical use of intracoronary imaging. Part 1: guidance and optimization of coronary interventions. An expert consensus document of the European Asso…
2018
This Consensus Document is the first of two reports summarizing the views of an expert panel organized by the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) on the clinical use of intracoronary imaging including intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). The first document appraises the role of intracoronary imaging to guide percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) in clinical practice. Current evidence regarding the impact of intracoronary imaging guidance on cardiovascular outcomes is summarized, and patients or lesions most likely to derive clinical benefit from an imaging-guided intervention are identified. The relevance of the u…
Vaginal progesterone decreases preterm birth and neonatal morbidity and mortality in women with a twin gestation and a short cervix: an updated meta‐…
2017
Objective To assess the efficacy of vaginal progesterone for the prevention of preterm birth and neonatal morbidity and mortality in asymptomatic women with a twin gestation and a sonographic short cervix (cervical length ≤ 25 mm) in the mid-trimester. Methods This was an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data (IPD) from randomized controlled trials comparing vaginal progesterone with placebo/no treatment in women with a twin gestation and a mid-trimester sonographic cervical length ≤ 25 mm. MEDLINE, EMBASE, POPLINE, CINAHL and LILACS (all from inception to 31 December 2016), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Research Registers of ongoing tr…
Photo-acoustic phase-delayed excitation of guided waves in coated bone phantoms
2013
Photo-acoustic skeletal quantitative ultrasound enables assessment of the fundamental flexural guided wave (FFGW) propagating in bone. This mode, consistent with the F(1,1) tube mode can now be measured through a coating of soft tissue. Interference due to ultrasound propagation in the soft tissue surrounding the bone is reduced by using phase-delayed ultrasound excitation. Photo-acoustic phase-delayed excitation was done on five axisymmetric bone phantoms (1-5 mm wall thickness), coated by a 5 mm thick soft-tissue mimicking layer. A fiber head comprising a linear array of four optical fibers (400 μm diameter), illuminated by pulsed laser diodes (905 nm wavelength) generated ultrasound. Thi…
Investigation of correction factors for non-reference conditions in ion chamber photon dosimetry with Monte-Carlo simulations.
2009
Current dosimetry protocols require geometrical reference conditions for the determination of absorbed dose in external radiotherapy. Whenever these geometrical conditions cannot be maintained the application of additional corrections becomes necessary, in principle. The current DIN6800-2 protocol includes a corresponding factor k(NR), but numerical values are lacking and no definite information about the magnitude of this correction is available yet. This study presents Monte-Carlo based calculations within the 6 MV-X photon field of a linear accelerator for a common used ion chamber (PTW31010) employing the EGSnrc code system. The linear accelerator model was matched to measurements, show…
Characterization of PTW-31015 PinPoint ionization chambers in photon and proton beams
2018
The increased use of complex forms of radiotherapy using small-field photon and proton beams has invoked a growing interest in the use of micro-ionization chambers. In this study, 48 PTW-TM31015 PinPoint-type micro-ionization chambers that are used in the commissioning and patient specific QA of a proton pencil beam scanning (PBS) delivery system have been characterized in proton and high-energy photon beams. In both beam modalities, the entire set of PinPoint chambers was characterized by imaging them, by evaluating their stability using check source measurements, by experimentally determining the ion recombination, polarity effect and by cross calibrating them in terms of absorbed dose to…
A Monte-Carlo based model of the AX-PET demonstrator and its experimental validation
2013
AX-PET is a novel PET detector based on axially oriented crystals and orthogonal wavelength shifter (WLS) strips, both individually read out by silicon photo-multipliers. Its design decouples sensitivity and spatial resolution, by reducing the parallax error due to the layered arrangement of the crystals. Additionally the granularity of AX-PET enhances the capability to track photons within the detector yielding a large fraction of inter-crystal scatter events. These events, if properly processed, can be included in the reconstruction stage further increasing the sensitivity. Its unique features require dedicated Monte-Carlo simulations, enabling the development of the device, interpreting …
Collision-kerma conversion between dose-to-tissue and dose-to-water by photon energy-fluence corrections in low-energy brachytherapy
2016
The AAPM TG-43 brachytherapy dosimetry formalism, introduced in 1995, has become a standard for brachytherapy dosimetry worldwide; it implicitly assumes that charged-particle equilibrium (CPE) exists for the determination of absorbed dose to water at different locations, except in the vicinity of the source capsule. Subsequent dosimetry developments, based on Monte Carlo calculations or analytical solutions of transport equations, do not rely on the CPE assumption and determine directly the dose to different tissues. At the time of relating dose to tissue and dose to water, or vice versa, it is usually assumed that the photon fluence in water and in tissues are practically identical, so tha…
Sensitivity recovery for the AX-PET prototype using inter-crystal scattering events
2014
The development of novel detection devices and systems such as the AX-positron emission tomography (PET) demonstrator often introduce or increase the measurement of atypical coincidence events such as inter-crystal scattering (ICS). In more standard systems, ICS events often go undetected and the small measured fraction may be ignored. As the measured quantity of such events in the data increases, so too does the importance of considering them during image reconstruction. Generally, treatment of ICS events will attempt to determine which of the possible candidate lines of response (LoRs) correctly determine the annihilation photon trajectory. However, methods of assessment often have low su…
Picosecond time-resolved study on the nature of high-energy-state quenching in isolated pea thylakoids different localization of zeaxanthin dependent…
1996
Abstract The influence of the transthylakoid proton gradient on the kinetics of picosecond fluorescence decay was examined using isolated pea thylakoids having high or low zeaxanthin contents. Fluorescence lifetime measurements were performed with open (Fo) and closed (Fm) PS II reaction centers. Zeaxanthin formation in membrane energized isolated thylakoids led to a marked decrease of the average fluorescence lifetime at both Fm and Fo. In contrast, when zeaxanthin synthesis was blocked by the inhibitor DTT, the fluorescence lifetime decrease was less pronounced in the Fm state and totally missing in the Fo state. Samples containing the uncoupler ammonium chloride did not exhinit any zeaxa…
An Ultrasonic Lens Design Based on Prefractal Structures
2016
The improvement in focusing capabilities of a set of annular scatterers arranged in a fractal geometry is theoretically quantified in this work by means of the finite element method (FEM). Two different arrangements of rigid rings in water are used in the analysis. Thus, both a Fresnel ultrasonic lens and an arrangement of rigid rings based on Cantor prefractals are analyzed. Results show that the focusing capacity of the modified fractal lens is better than the Fresnel lens. This new lens is believed to have potential applications for ultrasonic imaging and medical ultrasound fields.