"Progress in Medical Imaging" contains a collection of interdisciplinary reviews of subtopics in medical imaging written by internationally known experts. Topics contained in the book include automatic recognition of cells and tissue types in light microscopy, computerized manipulation and assembly of two-dimensional scans of an organ into images of the three-dimensional organ which can be rotated in space, techniques for reducing the image degradation produced by scattering radiation in chest radiography, recent advances in instrumentation, and principles of positron-emission tomography. The final chapters of this book describe the advantages of pseudo-random codes as transmitted signals for ultrasonic flow measurement, imaging, and medium characterization. The primary audience for "Progress in Medical Imaging" includes engineers, physicists, and students engaged in research, development, or applications of medical imaging.

This book shows how the various paradigms of computational intelligence, employed either singly or in combination, can produce an effective structure for obtaining often vital information from ECG signals. The text is self-contained, addressing concepts, methodology, algorithms, and case studies and applications, providing the reader with the necessary background augmented with step-by-step explanation of the more advanced concepts. It is structured in three parts: Part I covers the fundamental ideas of computational intelligence together with the relevant principles of data acquisition, morphology and use in diagnosis; Part II deals with techniques and models of computational intelligence that are suitable for signal processing; and, Part III details ECG system-diagnostic interpretation and knowledge acquisition architectures. Illustrative material includes: brief numerical experiments; and, detailed schemes, exercises and more advanced problems.

Radiophannaceutical research has recently undergone a major change in direction. In past years it has been concerned mainly with the development of perfusion tracers, the biodistribution of which reflect the regional blood flow to areas of major organs such as the heart and brain. However, a major new direction of interest now lies in the development of receptor-binding radio-tracers which can be used to perform in-vivo characterisation of diseased tissues and it is likely that much of the future research in this field will follow this direction. The difficulties in developing such tracers are considerable. The researcher must first identify a promising target for radiopharmaceutical development. High specific activity radioactive molecules must be designed and synthesised which will both bind to the target receptor with high affinity, and also have the physicochemical characteristics which will allow them to reach the target site in sufficient quantity while at the same time showing minimal uptake in non-target tissues. Thus the knowledge base required for radiophannaceutical development has now expanded beyond the limits of radiopharmaceutical chemistry to include aspects of biochemistry, molecular biology and conventional drug design. The portfolio of basic knowledge required to support current radiopharmaceutical development is changing and scientists working in this arena need to be trained in this regard. At the same time, the very latest developments in the field need to be communicated to the scientific community in order to stimulate the advancement of this exciting new direction of research.

Today, coronary artery disease is one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in the Western World. In the last decade many major diagnostic and therapeutic advances have been made, considerably furthering our potential in the management of coronary artery disease. At the same time, a new generation of cardiac tools has appeared. The field which has, perhaps, undergone the most important technological innovations is echocardiography. Nowadays, in fact, the world of ultrasounds ofters the cardiologist a wide range of technical applicatons: two-dimensional real-time imaging, intra-and extra-cardiac Doppler flow measurements, real-time imaging of cardiac struc ture and flow by 2D color Doppler, high resolution cardiac imaging by transesophageal echocardiography, tissue characterization by analysis of ultrasound wave characteristics, information on myocardial perfusion by con trast echocardiography, etc. Thanks to these technical improvements and to its consequent increased potentiality, echocardiography now plays an impor tant and irreplaceable role in the management of all cardiac diseases. In the field of coronary artery disease, echocardiography can reliably be used not only in the acute phases of the disease to derive useful functional and prog nostic information but also as a stress diagnostic procedure (thanks to new stress modalities and the continuing improvement of reviewing digital sys tems) for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease and for the evaluation of various therapeutic interventions. Furthermore, other promising applications of ultrasounds in this disease are currently being investigated: tissue charac coronary artery anatomy terization, myocardial contrast echocardiography, and flow evaluation by specially-designed ultrasound catheters."

In 1992 the Editors published the first volume of Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery (MIN I) which described the current state of the art in this rapidly developing field of neurosurgery and reported first clinical experiences with these new technologies. The subject of MIN II is limited to endoscopic anatomy, technical devices and surgical management of disorders suitable for endoscopic procedures. The indications and approaches in different diseases are still highly preliminary and longterm results are not yet available. The clinical value and the benefit to the patients treated with these new techniques must still be proven against the well established standards of microsurgery. This volume presents a critical update of neuroendoscopy.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute "Biomedical Optical Instrumentation and Laser Assisted Biotechnology" was held November 10-22, 1995 in Erice, Sicily. This was the 19 th conference organized by the International School of Quantum Electronics, under the auspices of the "Ettore Majorana" Center for Scientific Culture. The contributions presented at the Institute are written as extended, review-like papers to provide a broad and representative coverage of the fields of laser techniques, optoelectronics systems for medical diagnosis, and light and laser applications to Biology and Medicine. The aim of the Institute was to bring together some of the world's acknowledged scientists and clinicians that belong to different disciplines and consequently do not usually meet, but who have as a common link the use of optoelectronics instrumentation, techniques and procedures. Most of the lecturers attended all the lectures and devoted their spare hours to stimulating discussions. We would like to thank them all for their admirable contributions. The Institute also took advantage of a very active audience; most of the participants were active researchers in the field and contributed with discussions and seminars. Some of these seminars are also included in these Proceedings. The Institute was an important opportunity to discuss latest developments and emerging perspectives on the use of laser sources and optoelectronic techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

The field of Very High Frequency EPR (VHF EPR) or sometimes called Very High Field EPR (conveniently, also abbreviated as VHF EPR) has blossomed during the past decade, especially after the original pioneering work of Ya. S. Lebedev and his group at the Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Although Lebedev suffered heavily under the economic constraints of the communist Soviet Union and then succumbed to cancer at the peak of his scientific career, his groundbreaking work from the 1970's is still considered today to be the 'gold standard' by researchers practicing EPR at high magnetic fields. A stimulus for the production of this book is the legacy of Yakov Levedev in his students now residing in academic positions in the US and elsewhere. The aim of this book is to highlight the state of this growing field. This is an attempt to cover the full scope of VHF EPR in a single volume. The idea for this volume came to the editors at the 2001 Rocky Mountain Analytical Conference during the 24th International EPR Symposium chaired by Sandra and Gareth Eaton. VHF EPR was presented as an independent research field at a workshop organized by LC BruneI and supported by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, a National Science Foundation funded facility at Florida State University.

The importance of osteoporosis in the United Kingdom as a cause of death and disability is now well recognised. There are in excess of 200,000 osteoporotic-related fractures in the UK per annum asso ciated with an estimated cost of GBP942,000,000. Following hip fracture it is known that about 50% of patients are unable to live indepen dently and about 20% of such patients die within the first 6 months. These figures, compelling as they are, reflect poorly on current medical practices which manifestly have failed to identify patients with low bone density at risk of fracture. The hope is that the techni cal advances which have enabled bone mineral density, and other allied indices, to be measured with high precision and accuracy offers the chance of identifying patients at risk of fracture and guiding the clinician to make treatment decisions which may reduce the patients' risk of fracture. In the UK, services for identifying patients at risk of fracture are still in their infancy and are not uniformly available throughout the country. This situation is, however, likely to improve particularly fol lowing the publication of the Royal College of Physicians report "Osteoporosis -clinical guidelines for prevention and treatment" and the recognition in "Our Healthier Nation" that osteoporosis pre vention should be included as a target to achieve a reduction of 20% in accidents by 2010.

Radiophannaceuticals labeled with short-lived radionuclides are utilized to unravel biochemical processes, and to diagnosis and treat diseases of the living body are-developed through extensive evaluation in ~iological models. 'fhC first attempt to compile information was a volume entitled ANIMAL MODELS IN RADIOTRACER DESIGN that was edited by William C. Eckelman and myself in 1983. The volume had a focus on the animal models that investigators were using in order to design radiotracers that displayed in vivo selectivity as measured by biodistribution and pharmacokinetic studies. A concern in the early days of nuclear medicine was species differences. Often a series of labeled compounds were evaluated in a several different animal models in order to gain confidence that the selected radiotracer would behave appropriately in humans. During the past 12 years there have been remarkable advances in molecular genetics, molecular biology, synthetic radiopharmaceutical chemistry, molecular modeling and visualization, and emission tomography. Biological models can now be selected that are better defined in terms of molecular aspects of the disease process. The development of high resolution PET and SPET for clinical applications facilitates the development of new radiopharmaceuticals by the use of models to quantitatively evaluate drug effects, and progression of disease, and hence to arrive at better diagnosis and treatments for animals and humans. With these advances there is an effective use of biological models, and the refinement of alternatives for the development of new radiophannaceuticals.

"Duplex Sonography" is the first comprehensive text written about this modality. The book offers the reader detailed information about all major uses of duplex and is introduced by a brief chapter on the physical principles of doppler ultrasound as it relates to duplex scanning. "Duplex " "Sonography" is intended to provide relevant information on all aspects of the technique, ranging from the basics of performing the examination to the features of sometimes complex pathological states. The book is intended for anyone interested in non-invasive vascular diagnosis including radiologists, vascular surgeons and ultrasound/peripheral vascular technologists. Other groups may find individual chapters appealing: carotid/cardiac sonography for cardiologists, fetal sonography for obstetricians or carotid sonography for neurologists. Each chapter is not only a guide to duplex evaluation, but also provides valuable information about vascular dynamics of the organ system under discussion. Physicians or technologists reading this book should come away with a well-rounded background in state-of-the-art duplex sonography and will undoubtedly discover new possibilities for using this non-invasive vascular technique.

Until recently, CT scanner performance was limited by a series of compromises. With single-detector scanners, one cannot select thin collimation and still maintain the required extent of volumetric coverage. Slow scans cause motion artifacts that impair image quality. The introduction of multidetector CT technology, however, has revolutionized the field. Currently multidetector, multislice CT scanners acquire up to four channels of data from interweaving spirals. The minimum gantry rotation period is as low as half of a second. This increased scan speed allows for thinner collimation and thus higher longitudinal or z-axis resolution in comparison with single-detector CT. The improved image quality with multidetector technology leads to new applications of CT, particularly in cardiac, vascular, and abdominal imaging. On-going clinical studies are evaluating the suitability of this new imaging tool for non-invasive screening and diagnosis of coronary artery disease. A particular advantage to the increased scan speed in vascular imaging is the ability to cut intra venous contrast dosage and still maintain peak enhancement CT throughout the entire acquisition. Thin-section, multiphasic acquisition during optimal arterial-phase and venous-phase enhan cement significantly improves the accuracy for small lesion and vessel detection, and enhances overall classification of abdominal neoplasms. On the other hand, the increasingly large volume data sets force to new ways of looking at, presenting, storing, and trans ferring images. Networking and two- and three dimensional data processing are the key words."

Intrauterine Growth Restriction: Aetiology and Management will be the first book to focus exclusively on this extremely important and common complication of pregnancy. There have been many recent developments in our understanding of the aetiology and pathogenesis of the condition as well as in screening, monitoring and therapy. This book is unique in that it covers both the aetiology and pathogenesis as well as clinical management and also includes sections on definitions and potential future advances. Every aspect is covered by an international expert which will provide the reader with a valuable insight into this condition.

Where do you begin to look for a recent, authoritative article on the diagnosis or management of particular malignancy? The few general oncology textbooks are generally out of date. Single papers in specialized journals are informative but seldom comprehensive; these are more often preliminary reports on a very limited number of patients. Certain general journals frequently publish good in-depth reviews of cancer topics, and published symposium lectures are often the best overviews available. Unfortunately, these reviews and supplements appear sporadically, and the reader can never be sure when a topic of special interest will be covered. Cancer Treatment and Research is a series of authoritative volumes which aim to meet this need. It is an attempt to establish a critical mass of oncology literature covering virtually all oncology topics, revised frequently to keep the coverage up to date, easily available on a single library shelf or by a single personal subscription. We have approached the problem in the following fashion. First, by dividing the oncology literature into specific subdividions such as lung cancer, genitouri nary cancer, pediatric oncology, etc. Second, by asking eminent authorities in each of these areas to edit a volume on the specific topic on an annual or biannual basis. Each topic and tumor type is covered in a volume appearing frequently and predictably, discussing current diagnosis, staging, markers, all forms of treatment modalities, basic biology, and more."

This book has been assembled from the radiographic and photo graphic records of patients presenting to craniofacial units on four continents over 7 years. It is our purpose to illustrate a wide range of craniofacial deformities with the technique of three-dimensional com puted tomography. Many topics are briefly addressed with descriptive text intended to amplify the accompanying images but not to exclude the need for more comprehensive references as recommended in the reading list of each chapter. The ability to generate three-dimensional radiographic images rep resents a successful integration of computed tomography with com puter graphics. Although this technique remains an electronic substi tute for the study of dry skull specimens, it offers a permanent pictorial record of anatomical structures with the opportunity for fu ture interactive data manipulation. It is hoped, therefore, that this work will assist others to gain a more complete understanding of disorders of the craniofacial region. We encourage other surgeons and investigators to examine and employ the techniques used to gather these images but also to ensure that standardized scanning regimens are adapted. The importance of data collection within its full anatomical context was borne out with many of our early studies, which were limited owing to computational con straints. Often an image requirement for surgical intervention is much less than an image necessary for strict scientific inquiry."

Dr. Dobranowski and his associates are to be highly commended for this excellent manual. I am not aware of a similar text covering the subject. Although all of us perform gastrointestinal studies in a differ ent manner, this text provides an excellent overview. The reader will discover that the text is especially well written and focuses on the important issues relating to GI contrast studies. Because Dr. Steven son's group performs endoscopic procedures, they are included in the manual. These authors are recognized scholars and leaders in gastrointesti nal radiology. Thus, it is easy to understand why the manual is so well done. I am particularly impressed with the emphasis placed on the patient-radiologist relationship before, during, and after completion of a study. All of us who teach gastrointestinal radiology are concerned about the decline in the number of gastrointestinal contrast studies. We are not sure how we can continue to teach our residents the proper tech niques and maintain high-quality teaching programs in gastrointesti nal radiology. A manual of this type is thus timely and appropriate. The manual will be a valuable addition to the library of all radiologists. It will be particularly useful for residents who are learning how to per form GI contrast studies."

Sonography is an ideal real-time imaging technique for the evaluation of muscles and tendons of the extremities, and this book is a useful reference for both the technique of examination and normal ultrasound anatomy. The first part considers technical aspects of the examination such as sonographic equipment, water-path systems, and dynamic maneuvers. The basic sonographic patterns of normal muscles, tendons, and other components of the extremities are then presented. Emphasis has been placed on pitfalls and artifacts. The other available imaging techniques for muscles and tendons are also discussed. The second part comprises an atlas of normal ultrasound scans of shoulder, arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, hand, thigh, knee, leg, ankle, and foot, with accompanying explanatory line drawings.

New developments in the field of high resolution imaging focus on functional parameters pertaining to disease-specific medical imaging. Such new diagnostic strategies are possible using scintigraphic techniques and, more recently, by MRI and US. In addition, new therapeutic concepts, including gene therapy, require specific tracers or contrast media for therapy monitoring, for example, enzyme activity and changes in receptor expression. For this purpose scientists conducting basic research, expecially molecular biologists, and clinicians must collaborate in order to exploit the available interdisciplinary knowledge in the development of new imaging technologies so as to incorporate the molecular signals of diseases.

Posttraumatic cerebral contusions, lacerations and hematomas in the past could often only be suspected by clinical symptomatology and be visualized by angiography in a restricted manner, but they are now diag nosed with precision through CT and MRI; they remain in the limelight in our daily management of severe head injuries. Stalhammar's longlasting research in biomechanics is he re condensed in a concise review of the current knowledge in this field, thus providing the basis for our understanding of the parenchymal cerebral posttraumatic lesions. The neuropathological investigations and findings remain fundamental to the clinical features, and in this text there is the advantage that they were carried out and interpreted by a very experienced neurasurgeon, Ion Oprescu, who most regretfully died before the completion of this volume. The special morphological and clinical investigations by Nakamura, concerning diffuse brain injury, contribute to our necessary diagnosis and treatment of this phenomenon where, without grass visible lesions of cerebral tissue, a high mortality occurs. The clinical features, the princip1es of therapy and the outcome are described by Vigouroux and Guillermain, whose clinical study clearly demonstrates the limitations of all our efforts in severe brain injuries, in spite of decades of clinical experience and research."

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Workshop on Multimodal Brain Image Analysis, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2011, in Toronto, Canada, in September 2011.
The 15 revised full papers presented together with 4 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 24 submissions. The objective of this workshop is to facilitate advancements in the multimodal brain image analysis field, in terms of analysis methodologies, algorithms, software systems, validation approaches, benchmark datasets, neuroscience, and clinical applications.

Interventional cardiology means the cardiological practice of the future. This book provides the physician with practical guidelines to interventions. All procedures involving modern technology and drugs are described with emphasis on the "how to" aspects. The indications, techniques, results and merits of each procedure are given. These include: coronary angioplasty and angioscopy, valvuloplasty, lasers and cardiac transplantation as well as basic procedures such as cardiac catheterization, electrophysiologic studies and automatic implantable defibrillators. Readers of the book will find the way to new dimensions in cardiologic practice.

In the past, determination of bone maturity relied on visual evaluation of skeletal development in the hand and wrist, most commonly using the Greulich and Pyle atlas. The Gilsanz and Ratib digital atlas takes advantage of digital imaging and provides a more effective and objective approach to assessment of skeletal maturity. The atlas integrates the key morphological features of ossification in the bones of the hand and wrist and provides idealized, sex- and age-specific images of skeletal development New to this revised second edition is a description and user manual for Bone Age for iPad(r), iPhone(r) and iPod touch(r), which can be purchased and used separately from this book. The App can be easily employed to calculate the deviation of the patient's age from the normal range and to predict a possible growth delay. This easy-to-use atlas and the related App will be invaluable for radiologists, endocrinologists, and pediatricians and also relevant to forensic physicians.

The field of medical imaging advances so rapidly that all of those working in it, scientists, engineers, physicians, educators and others, need to frequently update their knowledge in order to stay abreast of developments. While journals and periodicals play a crucial role in this, more extensive, integrative publications that connect fundamental principles and new advances in algorithms and techniques to practical applications are essential. Medical Image Processing: Techniques and Applications meets this challenge and provides an enduring bridge in the ever expanding field of medical imaging. It serves as an authoritative resource and self-study guide explaining sophisticated techniques of quantitative image analysis, with a focus on medical applications. The book emphasizes the conceptual framework of image analysis and the effective use of image processing tools. It presents a detailed approach to each application while emphasizing insight and "tricks of the trade," and the applicability of techniques to other research areas. Although each chapter is written by an expert (or experts) in that area and is essentially self-contained, fundamental connections between the different topics are emphasized so that the book forms an integrated whole. The book is designed for end users who wish to update their skills and understanding with the latest techniques in image analysis. Providing unprecedented breadth and detail, it will be a valuable cross-disciplinary resource both at the graduate and specialist level. It is also well suited to supplement and motivate learning in graduate-level image processing classes within biomedical engineering, radiology and computer science.

The book has focussed on the different aspects of sensing technology, i.e. high reliability, adaptability, recalibration, information processing, data fusion, validation and integration of novel and high performance sensors specifically aims to use to inspect mechanical health of structure and similar applications. This book is dedicated to Sensing systems for Structural Health Monitoring offers to variety of users, namely, Master and PhD degree students, researchers, practitioners, especially Civil and Construction engineers. The book will provide an opportunity of a dedicated and a deep approach in order to improve their knowledge in this specific field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Information Processing in Medical Imaging, IPMI 2011, held at Kloster Irsee, Germany, in July 2011. The 24 full papers and 39 poster papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 224 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on segmentation, statistical methods, shape analysis, registration, diffusion imaging, disease progression modeling, and computer aided diagnosis. The poster sessions deal with segmentation, shape analysis, statistical methods, image reconstruction, microscopic image analysis, computer aided diagnosis, diffusion imaging, functional brain analysis, registration and other related topics.

A goldmine of theoretical insights and practical suggestions, Achieving Excellence in Medical Education, Second Edition explores the essential question facing medical educators and learners today: What is our vision of educational excellence, and what can we do to enhance our performance? Among the topics explored within this updated, engaging, informative, and thought-provoking text are: * Education's position as a priority of medical schools * Seminal educational insights from non-medical educators * Best practices of outstanding educators and learners * Promises and pitfalls of new educational technologies * Key resources for promoting excellence in medical education * Medical education's role in preparing future leaders * Leadership roles for medical schools in universities and society Reviews of the first edition: "This is an eloquent, quotable, and inspirational book that provides a template for "Achieving Excellence in Medical Education." - Journal of the American Medical Association "Gunderman is an accomplished educator, well known as a thoughtful and provocative teacher. . . I recommend his book to department chairs, clerkship and residency program directors, and education professionals who are shaping the future of medical education." - New England Journal of Medicine