Automated chronic wounds medical assessment and tracking framework based on deep learning.

Chronic wounds are a latent health problem worldwide, due to high incidence of diseases such as diabetes and Hansen. Typically, wound evolution is tracked by medical staff through visual inspection, which becomes problematic for patients in rural areas with poor transportation and medical infrastructure. Alternatively, the design of software platforms for medical imaging applications has been increasingly prioritized. This work presents a framework for chronic wound tracking based on deep learning, which works on RGB images captured with smartphones, avoiding bulky and complicated acquisition setups. The framework integrates mainstream algorithms for medical image processing, including wound detection, segmentation, as well as quantitative analysis of area and perimeter. Additionally, a new chronic wounds dataset from leprosy patients is provided to the scientific community. Conducted experiments demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the proposed framework, with up to 84.5% in precision.

Central Nervous System Mycobacterium Infection: Tuberculosis and Beyond.

Tuberculosis is a contagious infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. Imaging plays an important role in the early diagnosis of central nervous system tuberculosis and may prevent unnecessary morbidity and mortality. This article presents an extensive review of pathogenesis, clinical symptoms, typical and atypical imaging appearances of intracranial and spinal tuberculosis, and advanced imaging of intracranial tuberculosis. Furthermore, we explore central nervous system infection of nontuberculous mycobacteria and leprosy and their imaging findings.

Imaging techniques in leprosy clinics.

Leprosy is the most common treatable peripheral nerve disorder worldwide, with periods of acute neuritis leading to functional impairment of limbs and stigmatizing deformities. The nerve involvement in leprosy reactions, if recognized early and promptly treated with steroids and nerve release surgery, can be reversible. Currently, the nerve assessment in leprosy relies mainly on clinical assessment and nerve conduction studies. High-resolution ultrasonography (HRUS) of peripheral nerves is finding wider application in the differential diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy. HRUS provides a noninvasive tool that gives information on location and degree of nerve enlargement, nerve morphologic alterations, echo texture, fascicular pattern, and vascularity of the nerve, which mirrors the histologic changes. HRUS is amenable to studying structural changes in nerve sites that cannot be biopsied for histopathologic examination and is more cost effective than magnetic resonance imaging. So far other there are only five studies available on the sonographic findings in leprosy. These findings are reviewed and the technique of HRUS is described in this paper, with a recommendation of a standard protocol and proforma.

Granulomatous disease in the head and neck: developing a differential diagnosis.

Granulomatous diseases have a varied etiology that includes autoimmune, infectious, idiopathic, and hereditary causes. The unifying factor in these diseases is the formation of granulomas, which histologically are mononuclear inflammatory cells or macrophages surrounded by lymphocytes. Granulomatous diseases often have systemic manifestations that affect organs throughout the body. Granulomatous diseases with head and neck manifestations include granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Churg-Strauss syndrome, Behçet disease, chronic granulomatous disease, and sarcoidosis. Infectious causes include tuberculosis, cat-scratch disease, syphilis, leprosy, actinomycosis, rhinoscleroma, and fungal infections. In the head and neck, granulomatous disease may affect the orbits, sinonasal cavities, salivary glands, aerodigestive tract, temporal bone, or skull base. Imaging findings include sinonasal opacification, ocular and other soft-tissue masses, osseous erosion, airway narrowing, lymphadenopathy, and salivary gland infiltration. Vascular involvement may also be evident, with displacement, narrowing, or occlusion of arteries and veins. Some radiologic findings of granulomatous processes have a considerable overlap with findings of malignancy, and a radiologic differential diagnosis inclusive of both is critical to avoid incorrect clinical treatment. Without the benefit of a prior clinical diagnosis, laboratory findings, or suggestive clinical signs and symptoms, granulomatous diseases may be difficult to differentiate radiologically. Although individual granulomatous diseases may have overlapping findings at imaging, certain radiologic findings should prompt the inclusion of granulomatous diseases in the differential diagnosis, thus facilitating appropriate clinical management.

Sidestream dark field imaging: the evolution of real-time visualization of cutaneous microcirculation and its potential application in dermatology.

Technological advances during the last years have enhanced the image quality of the microcirculation. Intravital microscopy (IM) has been considered the "gold standard" for many years, but it can be used mostly in anesthetized animals which is a disadvantage. The nailfold videocapillaroscopy, a non-invasive examination that includes a microscope with an epiillumination system, came afterward, but its major disadvantage is the restricted area available for investigation namely the nailfold capillary bed. The orthogonal polarization spectral (OPS) imaging technique, where reflected light allows the visualization of the microcirculation, was the next non-invasive exam, but it still presents some drawbacks such as suboptimal capillary visualization and image blurring due to red blood cell movements. Excessive probe pressure modifies red blood cell velocity. There is suboptimal imaging of capillaries due to motion-induced image blurring by movements of OPS device, tissue and/or flowing red blood cells. Sidestream dark field (SDF) imaging is the newest tool for microcirculatory research. Illumination is provided by concentrically placed light-emitting diodes to avoid image blurring and to enhance image contrast. It represents a simple and non-invasive imaging technique, with low cost, good portability and high sensitivity that provides fine, well-defined images. In addition, the microcirculation can be studied through laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) or reflectance-mode confocal-laser-scanning microscopy (RCLM). However, LDF cannot show microcirculatory vessels and high cost of RCLM can be an inconvenience. New applications of SDF technique could include skin microcirculatory evaluation and allow dermatological studies on psoriasis, skin tumors and leprosy.

Fratura diafisária do fêmur: reprodutibilidade das classificações AO-ASIF e Winquist / Femoral shaft fracture: reproducibility of AO-ASIF and Winquist classifications

OBJETIVO: Avaliar a reprodutibilidade interobservadores das classificações AO/ASIF e de Winquist para as fraturas diafisárias do fêmur no adulto. MÉTODOS: foram selecionadas aleatoriamente 50 radiografias de pacientes adultos portadores de fratura diafisária do fêmur nas incidências em antero-posterior e perfil. As radiografias foram analisadas por 5 observadores, sendo um membro da Sociedade Brasileira de Trauma Ortopédico, um radiologista, um residente do terceiro ano de Ortopedia e Traumatologia, um do segundo e um do primeiro. Para avaliar a concordância interobservadores destas classificações, foi utilizado o índice estatístico Kappa (K). RESULTADOS: Em todas as análises, observou-se um coeficiente de concordância entre observadores estatisticamente significativo (valor p < 0,05) e classificado como bom (valores de 0,61 a 0,80) ou muito bom (valores acima de 0,80), segundo os critérios de Landis e Koch. CONCLUSÃO: As classificações AO e Winquist apresentam alto índice de concordância interobservadores para as fraturas diafisárias do fêmur no adulto.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate inter-observer reproducibility of AO / ASIF and Winquist-Hansen classifications for shaft fractures of the femur in adults. METHODS: 50 anterior-posterior and profilelateral radiographs were randomly selected, of adult patients awith diaphyseal fracture of the femur. The radiographs were analyzed by 5 observers-a member of the Brazilian Society of Orthopedic Trauma, a radiologist and 3 residents. To assess the concordance between these classifications, we used the statistical index Kappa (K). RESULTS: In all analyses, we observed a statistically significant correlation coefficient between observers (p <0.05) and according to the criteria of Landis and Koch, they were ranked them as good (values of 0.61 to 0.80) or very good (values above 0.80). CONCLUSION: The AO rating and Winquist present a high rate of concordance between observers for shaft fractures of the femur in adults.

Remote navigation systems in electrophysiology.

Today, atrial fibrillation (AF) is the dominant indication for catheter ablation in big electrophysiologists (EP) centres. AF ablation strategies are complex and technically challenging. Therefore, it would be desirable that technical innovations pursue the goal to improve catheter stability to increase the procedural success and most importantly to increase safety by helping to avoid serious complications. The most promising technical innovation aiming at the aforementioned goals is remote catheter navigation and ablation. To date, two different systems, the NIOBE magnetic navigation system (MNS, Stereotaxis, USA) and the Sensei robotic navigation system (RNS, Hansen Medical, USA), are commercially available. The following review will introduce the basic principles of the systems, will give an insight into the merits and demerits of remote navigation, and will further focus on the initial clinical experience at our centre with focus on pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) procedures.

Utilización de análisis de imágenes para cuantificar células dendríticas S100 positivas en piel con lepra / Image analysis to cuantify S100 - positive dendritic cells in leprosy - affected skin

Se realizó un análisis morfométrico de células dendríticas de piel, que incluyó la determinación de la cantidad y el área ocupada, empleando un anticuerpo anti-S100 en biopsias de pacientes con diferentes tipos de lepra. El análisis reveló las diferencias entre los pacientes que presentaban una mejor respuesta inmune al bacilo, reflejada en una mayor cantidad de células dendriticas en los casos de lepra dimorfa tuberculoide y lepra tuberculoide con respecto a aquellos pacientes con lepra dimorfa lepromatosa y lepra lepromatosa.

Nuclear medicine in tropical disease: an overview

Leprosy is an infectious granulomatous disease. Incidence is again increasing and millions of people are affected in the world. Ga-67 scintigraphy is a good tool to identify active disease; bone scintigraphy is useful in the evaluation of mutilation and 99mTc-DTPA is good to evaluate kidney function. Paracoccidioidomycosis is a deep mycosis that affects nearly all organs. The following scintigraphic exams are useful to evaluate such patients: Ga-67, bone scintigraphy, liver / spleen / bone marrow scintigraphy, 99mTc-DISIDA scintigraphy, lymphoscintigraphy. Mycetoma is bone and soft tissue mycosis and gallim-67 and bone studies are very useful for the detectio of active disease. Tuberculosis is the most well studied tropical disease and dozens of radiopharmaceuticals and techniques were described to evaluate such patients. Jorge Lobo's disease is a rare mycosis that affects mainly indians from the Amazon region and gallium-67 was shown to accumulate in active disease. Neurocysticercosis is spread worldwide and brain SPECT (99mTc-ECD or 99mTc-HMPAO) is a very good tool for the functional evaluation of the disease. Patients suffering from Cutaneous and mucous leishmaniosis may benefit from Gallium-67 scintigraphy. Chagas' disease may affect the heart and/or the digestive tract and several scintigraphic exams may be helpful in the evaluation of such cases (gated blood pool, heart perfusion tests, pharyngeal transit tests, gastric emptying tests, intestinal transit tests, hepato-billiary scintigraphy, among others). Scintigraphy should be more largely used in the functional evaluation of organs and systems of patients affected by topical diseases

Neuropathic osteoarthropathy: diagnostic dilemmas and differential diagnosis.

The purpose of this pictorial essay is to illustrate the radiologic spectrum of imaging findings of neuropathic osteoarthropathy. Typical findings include joint destruction, disorganization, and effusion with osseous debris. A variety of other imaging findings related to neuropathic osteoarthropathy such as resorption of the ends of tubular bones and neuropathic fracture are shown. The two prevailing theories for the pathophysiology of neuropathic bone and joint disease, the neurovascular and neurotraumatic theories, are briefly described. Examples of osteoarthropathy from diverse causes are presented including syringomyelia, spinal cord injury, meningomyelocele, diabetes mellitus, congenital insensitivity to pain, steroid injections, syphilis, leprosy, and others. The discussion focuses on key imaging features with emphasis on disease patterns and differential diagnosis, which vary by skeletal location.