Objective To provide an automatical method for quality assurance (QA) of magnetic resonance imaging. Methods Digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) protocol was used to control the process of QA calculation and storage;the region of interest was auto delineated by process. Results The parameters of stability calculated by process reflected the equipment states in a certain extent and avoided the subjectivity which referring to the region of interest. Conclusion Automatical QA method brings the convenience to QA work on aspects of acquiring, analysis and data saving.

BACKGROUND:Non-operation therapies are commonly used in the treatment of cervical spondylopathy. All of these therapies involve biological mechanics; especially for traction and massage of the cervical vertebrae, they have an obvious property of biological mechanics in rehabilitation of the cervical vertebrae. OBJECTIVE: To probe into the biological mechanics of different rehabilitation methods through comparing the intervention effects between traction and traction combined with massage on cervical spondylopathy.DESIGN: A case-controlled observation. SETTING: Rehabilitation Center of West China Hospital of Sichuan University. PARTICIPANTS: Among the patients who came to the Rehabilitation Center of West China Hospital of Sichuan University between October 2002 and July 2003 for the treatment of spondylopathy, totally 52 patientsmet the criteria for non-operation therapy. They participated in the experiment voluntarily and were randomly divided into 2 groups: the experimental group and the control group, with 26 patients for each. METHODS: ①The patients in the experimental group were treated by traction in combination with massage. Traction was performed once a day,30 minutes each time, 5 times as a course of treatment, and one or two courses of treatment in total. Massage was performed for 8 to 10 minutes each time, once a day, 5 times as a course of treatment, and one or two courses in total. ② The patients in the control group were treated with traction only. Cervical Spondylopathy Therapeutic Effect Rating Scale was adopted to evaluate the effects, three items were selected to set as our scoring criterion, which included clinical symptoms, physical examinations and activities of the daily life (ADL). The improvement index was figured out on the basis of the pre-treatment score and post-treatment score. The improvement index is worked out by the following equation: improvement index = (The post-treatment score-pre-treatment score) / the post-treatment score. The improvement index was evaluated by physicians after the treat ment. Effectual: Clinical symptoms and body symptoms were obviously improved; work, learning, and daily life are not affected. Effective: Clinical symptoms and body symptoms have improved , and work, learning, and the daily life are partially affected. In-effective: There was no improvement in clinical symptoms and body symptoms and showed no effect on the work ,learning, and the daily life. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① Score of the treatment of cervical spondylopathy of the patients before and after the treatment. ② Intervention effect on the patients after the treatment RESULTS: Totally 52 patients with cervical spondylopathy entered the stage of result analysis with none missing in the midway. ① Comparison of the scores of the treatment of cervical spondylopathy of the patients before and after the treatment: After the treatment, the score in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group [ 16.431 ±3.212,13.147 ±3.036 ( t =4.676, P ＜ 0.01 )], and the improvement index of the patients in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group [0.505±0.163,0.368±0.145 (t=3.860, P ＜ 0.01 )]. ② Comparison of the intervention effects on the patients after the treatment: The effectual rate of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (80.8%,46.2%).CONCLUSION: The approach of traction combined with massage is superior to simple traction. Different rehabilitation approaches have different properties in biological mechanics. It has showed that the force change is important to therapeutic effectiveness on cervical spondylopathy.

Our purpose is to introduce and analyze the data quality assurance (DQA) protocol of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A water phantom was scanned to get DQA indexes. An fMRI sequence was used to get signal noise ratio (SNR) and Drift, which was calculated from maximum difference ratio of the average signal intensity in the region of interest (ROI) of image serials. The long period application of this method demonstrated that this DQA protocol can reflect imaging performance and the state of stability of the MRI scanner. Some application experience and discussion involved in DQA were also presented here.
Algorithms ; Artifacts ; Artificial Intelligence ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; methods ; Phantoms, Imaging ; standards ; Quality Control

PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) is the hot spot of hospital information construction research and DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) is the international standard about data compression and translation of medical image and relational information. Supporting DICOM standard is the necessary condition for medical image devices to join into PACS net. In making reforms in the old fashioned medical devices in hospitals, it is necessary to add DICOM interface for medical image devices. In this paper, DICOM information model is introduced and software system is implemented with Visual C + + programming, especially the writing, reading and C-STORE service in communication function are introduced in detail.
Computer Communication Networks ; instrumentation ; Data Display ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; standards ; Medical Records Systems, Computerized ; Radiology Information Systems ; instrumentation ; standards

In view of the fact that the large quantities of data contained in the medical image do not have a favorable setting for effective storage and transmission in the existing network, we have developed a JPEG2000 DICOM image compression kit using VC++, and we have realized the medical image storage service according to the C-STORE rule of DICOM standard. The results showed that the medical image processed by JPEG2000 compression algorithm not only greatly saved the storage space, but also reduced the band width needed by transmission. In this paper is discussed the DICOM image compressed by JPEG2000 compression algorithm in DICOM strorage service application. The significance of JPEG2000 compression algorithm in the development of picutre archiving and communication systems (PACS) and telemedicine is also explained.
Algorithms ; Computer Communication Networks ; instrumentation ; Data Compression ; Diagnostic Imaging ; instrumentation ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Medical Records Systems, Computerized

A technique based on release of the human atrial natriuretic peptide (hANP) from plasmid hANP cDNA transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells encapsulated in polycaprolactone (PCL)-capsules was used for a potential therapeutic approach to hypertension or congestive heart failure (CHF). The plasmid combining with hANP cDNA was transfected into CHO cells, and then encapsulated plasmid hANP cDNA transfected CHO cells were implanted into two-kidney, one-clip (2K1C) hypertensive rats intraperitoneally. The morphological changes, histological changes were investigated after the implantation of PCL-capsules in 2K1C hypertensive rats. The results showed that the implantation of encapsulated hANP-producing cells caused a significant delay of blood pressure (BP) increase after the encapsulated cells being implanted in 2K1C hypertensive rats. These effects were reflected morphologically by an attenuation of the glomerular sclerotic lesions, tubular damage and renal arterial thickening, comparing with control group. The plasma levels of hANP in 2K1C rats implanted with the PCL-capsules containing hANP-producing cells were higher than that of the control rats. These results demonstrated the usefulness of encapsulated hANP gene transfected cells as a new tool for hANP gene delivery in studying renovascular hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, thus implying the potential of using gene transfected cells as therapeutic agents in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
Animals ; Atrial Natriuretic Factor ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; therapeutic use ; CHO Cells ; Capsules ; Cell Transplantation ; Cricetinae ; DNA, Complementary ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Genetic Therapy ; methods ; Humans ; Hypertension, Renovascular ; pathology ; therapy ; Kidney ; pathology ; Male ; Plasmids ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Recombination, Genetic ; Transfection ; Transgenes