A novel box for aerosol and droplet guarding and evacuation in respiratory infection (BADGER) for COVID-19 and future outbreaks.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected millions and killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide as of December 2020. Healthcare providers are at increased risk of infection when caring for patients with COVID-19. The mechanism of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is beginning to emerge as airborne spread in addition to direct droplet and indirect contact as main routes of transmission. Here, we report on the design, construction, and testing of the BADGER (Box for Aerosol and Droplet Guarding and Evacuation in Respiratory Infection), an affordable, scalable device that contains droplets and aerosol particles, thus minimizing the risk of infection to healthcare providers. A semi-sealed environment is created inside the BADGER, which is placed over the head of the patient and maintains at least 12-air changes per hour using in-wall vacuum suction. Multiple hand-ports enable healthcare providers to perform essential tasks on a patient's airway and head. Overall, the BADGER has the potential to contain large droplets and small airborne particles as demonstrated by simulated qualitative and quantitative assessments to provide an additional layer of protection for healthcare providers treating COVID-19 and future respiratory contagions.

Impact of image reconstruction parameters when using 3D DSA reconstructions to measure intracranial aneurysms.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Safe and effective use of newly developed devices for aneurysm treatment requires the ability to make accurate measurements in the angiographic suite. Our purpose was to determine the parameters that optimize the geometric accuracy of three-dimensional (3D) vascular reconstructions. METHODS: An in vitro flow model consisting of a peristaltic pump, plastic tubing, and 3D printed patient-specific aneurysm models was used to simulate blood flow in an intracranial aneurysm. Flow rates were adjusted to match values reported in the literature for the internal carotid artery. 3D digital subtraction angiography acquisitions were obtained using a commercially available biplane angiographic system. Reconstructions were done using Edge Enhancement (EE) or Hounsfield Unit (HU) kernels and a Normal or Smooth image characteristic. Reconstructed images were analyzed using the vendor's aneurysm analysis tool. Ground truth measurements were derived from metrological scans of the models with a microCT. Aneurysm volume, surface area, dome height, minimum and maximum ostium diameter were determined for the five models. RESULTS: In all cases, measurements made with the EE kernel most closely matched ground truth values. Differences in values derived from reconstructions displayed with Smooth or Normal image characteristics were small and had only little impact on the geometric parameters considered. CONCLUSIONS: Reconstruction parameters impact the accuracy of measurements made using the aneurysm analysis tool of a commercially available angiographic system. Absolute differences between measurements made using reconstruction parameters determined as optimal in this study were, overall, very small. The significance of these differences, if any, will depend on the details of each individual case.

Feasibility of reduced-dose three-dimensional/four-dimensional-digital subtraction angiogram using a weighted edge preserving filter.

A conventional three-dimensional/four-dimensional (3D/4D) digital subtraction angiogram (DSA) requires two rotational acquisitions (mask and fill) to compute the log-subtracted projections that are used to reconstruct a 3D/4D volume. Since all of the vascular information is contained in the fill acquisition, it is hypothesized that it is possible to reduce the x-ray dose of the mask acquisition substantially and still obtain subtracted projections adequate to reconstruct a 3D/4D volume with noise level comparable to a full-dose acquisition. A full-dose mask and fill acquisition were acquired from a clinical study to provide a known full-dose reference reconstruction. Gaussian noise was added to the mask acquisition to simulate a mask acquisition acquired at 10% relative dose. Noise in the low-dose mask projections was reduced with a weighted edge preserving filter designed to preserve bony edges while suppressing noise. Two-dimensional (2D) log-subtracted projections were computed from the filtered low-dose mask and full-dose fill projections, and then 3D/4D-DSA reconstruction algorithms were applied. Additional bilateral filtering was applied to the 3D volumes. The signal-to-noise ratio measured in the filtered 3D/4D-DSA volumes was compared to the full-dose case. The average ratio of filtered low-dose SNR to full-dose SNR was 0.856 for the 3D-DSA and 0.849 for the 4D-DSA, indicating that the method is a feasible approach to restoring SNR in DSA scans acquired with a low-dose mask. The method was also tested in a phantom study with full-dose fill and 22%-dose mask.