AIM: To find a more efficient and accurate method for medical image enhancement to resolve the problem of low local contrast, which often appears in magnetic resonance (MR) images.METHODS: Based on the investigation into the previous methods, a new algorithm was presented. The main features were as follows: Non-dual was used in the morphological operations and addition instead of multiplication was used in the contrast stretching operations. To avoid some gray-level bias, the method of normalized gray-level under condition was proposed.RESULTS: The new algorithm was tested by real MR images and simulated experiments. Compared with the previous method, the new method is more accurate, faster and less sensitive to noise.CONCLUSION: Non-dual morphological operations can achieve local contrast enhancement in a more accurate way, and the gray level bias can be eliminated by normalization.

Background and purpose:Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) enables the delivery of higher radiation dose to the primary tumor target, while sparing the organs and tissues at risk (OARs). Chemotherapy is an effective means to prevent distant metastasis. The purpose of this study was to observe clinical effect of concurrent intensity-modulated radiation therapy and chemotherapy for advanced esophageal carcinoma. Methods: A total number of 62 cases of advanced esophageal carcinoma were divided into two groups. There were 32 cases in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, and 30 cases were in radiotherapy alone group. The patients in two groups were both used IMRT radiotherapy, while the patients of concurrent chemoradiotherapy group were plused adjuvant chemotherapy. The chemotherapy regimen was TP. Twenty-eight days was a treatment cycle, 2 treatment cycles were lasted during chemoradiotherapy.After that, recent curative effect and toxicside reaction were compared between two groups. Results: The total relief rate (CR+PR) in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group was 93.8%. The total relief rate in radiotherapy alone group was 76.7%. There were signiifcant differences between the two groups (P<0.05). One-year local response rate(84.4%) and 2-year local response rate (59.4%) in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group were both higher than those (70.0%, 36.7%) in radiotherapy alone group (P<0.05), while the survival rate was similar between the two groups (P>0.05). Toxicside reaction in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, including leucocytes decrease, radioactive esophagitis andⅢ,Ⅳtoxicity, were higher than those in radiotherapy alone group (P<0.05). Conclusion:After treating advanced esophageal carcinoma with concurrent intensity-modulated radiation therapy and chemotherapy, the recent curative effect and the local response were ifne, while toxicity was more serious.

Objective To establish a new approach based on mathematical morphology that can effectively reduce the drifts in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals. Methods Based on investigation of the characteristic of drifted fMRI signals, a mathematical morphology method for baseline drift correction was presented. Results With both simulated data and real fMRI data, the results of the experiment showed that the mathematical morphology method can effectively correct the baseline drifts. Conclusion Both linear and nonlinear drifts can be removed with the proposed method without any statistical model assumption.

Objective To establish mathematical model for the differential diagnosis of endoscopic gastric ulcerative lesions with the help of image processing software and statistical analysis method. Methods The microscopic images of 25 gastric ulcers and 25 gastric peptic cancers were collected from January 2013 to December 2013.Then the Photoshop CS4 software was used for image processing and representative measurements gathering(area,perimeter,roundness,height,width,gray scale,involving the density,color,lightness,pixels).Then the principal component analysis,the scatter plot and cluster analysis were performed by SPSS 16.0.Results According to the results of principal component analysis, Z1 showed a strong positive correlation with area,perimeter,height,width,cumulative density,pixel,which represented the shape statistics of ulcer.And Z2 showed a strong positive correlation with gray scale,color, lightness,which represented the color statistics of ulcer.On the Scatter plot,gastric peptic cancer images showed a stronger positive correlation with the principal component Z1 and Z2 .Clustering analysis results showed that for the majority of patients,there was a pattern in its incidence.In the gastric ulcer diagnostic models,the effective information should include area≤10 000;perimeter≤250;height≤90;width≤60;gray scale≥90;cumulative density≤190 000;color≥110;and lightness≥110(unit:pixel).In the gastric ulcera-tive cancers,the effective information should include area≥38 000,perimeter≥690,height≥300,width ≥ 426,gray scale ≤ 100,cumulative density ≥ 14 000 000,color ≤ 125,and lightness ≤ 130 (unit:pixel). Conclusion Among the endoscopic image data,area,perimeter,roundness,height,width,gray scale, cumulative density,color,brightness,pixels are important indices,which can contribute to the differential diagnosis of gastric ulcerative lesions.The established mathematical model based on the ten indices can be applied to predict and diagnose gastric ulcerative lesions.

PURPOSE: Rituximab with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone administered every 3 weeks (R-CHOP-21) is the standard care for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). It is unknown whether the dose-dense R-CHOP (R-CHOP-14) could improve the outcome of the disease in Asian population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Newly diagnosed DLBCL patients were centrally, randomly assigned (1:1) to receive R-CHOP-14 or R-CHOP-21. R-CHOP-14 was administered every 2 weeks, and R-CHOP-21 was administered every 3 weeks. Primary end point was disease-free survival (DFS). Secondary end points included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), response rate and toxicities. RESULTS: Seven hundred and two patients were randomly assigned to receive R-CHOP-14 (n=349) or R-CHOP-21 (n=353). With a median follow-up of 45.6 months, the two groups did not differ significantly in 3-year DFS (79.6% for R-CHOP-14 vs. 83.2% for R-CHOP-21, p=0.311), 3-year OS (77.5% for R-CHOP-14 vs. 77.6% for R-CHOP-21, p=0.903), or 3-year PFS (63.2% for R-CHOP-14 vs. 66.1% for R-CHOP-21, p=0.447). Patients with an International Prognostic Index (IPI) score ≥ 2 had a poorer prognosis compared to those with an IPI score < 2. Grade 3/4 hematologic and non-hematologic toxicities were manageable and similar between R-CHOP-14 and R-CHOP-21. CONCLUSION: R-CHOP-14 did not improve the outcome of DLBCL compared to R-CHOP-21 in Asian population. With manageable and similar toxicities, both of the two regimens were suitable for Asian DLBCL patients. For high-risk patients with IPI ≥ 2, new combination regimens based on R-CHOP deserve further investigation to improve efficacy.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; B-Lymphocytes ; Cyclophosphamide ; Disease-Free Survival ; Doxorubicin ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; Prednisone ; Prognosis ; Rituximab ; Vincristine