Objectives: Small field of view gamma detection and imaging technologies for monitoring in vivo tracer uptake are rapidly expanding and being introduced for bed-side imaging and image guided surgical procedures. The Hybrid Gamma Camera (HGC) has been developed to enhance the localization of targeted radiopharmaceuticals during surgical procedures; for example in sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies and for bed-side imaging in procedures such as lacrimal drainage imaging and thyroid scanning. In this study, a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed, constructed, and evaluated using representative modelled medical scenarios to study the capability of the HGC to detect SLNs and image small organs. Methods: An anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed to mimic the adult head and neck including some internal organs and tissues of interest, such as the thyroid gland and sentinel lymph nodes. The design of the head and neck phantom included an adjustable inner jig holding the simulated SLNs and thyroid gland. The simulated thyroid gland was designed and 3D printed taking into consideration the size and the shape of a healthy adult thyroid gland. The inner sealed space of the thyroid was filled with 15MBq of 99mTc through two upper filling valves. Sealed micro-tubes (0.2ml) have been employed to simulate SLNs containing various 99mTc activity concentrations ranging between 0.1MBq and 1MBq, and can be positioned at any desired place in the head and neck region. An active background was simulated through mixing 10MBq of 99mTc solution with the water used to fill the outer shell of the head and neck phantom. Results: The head and neck phantom was employed to simulate a situation where there are four SLNs distributed at two different vertical levels and at two depths within the neck. Contrast to noise ratio (CNR) calculations were performed for the detected SLNs at an 80mm distance between both pinhole collimators (i.e. 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameters) and the surface of the head and neck phantom with a 100s acquisition time. The recorded CNR values for the simulated SLNs are higher when the HGC was fitted with the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator. For instance, the recorded CNR values for the superficially simulated SLN containing 0.1MBq of 99mTc using 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimators are 6.48 and 16.42, respectively (~87% difference). The anatomical context provided by the hybrid imaging aided the localization process of radioactivity accumulation in simulated SLNs. Gamma and hybrid optical images were acquired using the HGC with both available pinhole collimators for the simulated thyroid gland. The thyroid images produced varied in terms of spatial resolution and detectability. The count profiles through the middle of the simulated thyroid gland images provided by both pinhole collimators were obtained. The HGC could clearly differentiate the individual peaks of both thyroid lobes in the gamma image produced by the 0.5mm pinhole collimator. In contrast, the recorded count profile for the acquired image using the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator showed broader peaks for both lobes, reflecting the degradation of the spatial resolution with increasing the diameter of the pinhole collimator. Conclusion: The capability of the HGC has been evaluated utilizing a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom, and the gamma and hybrid images obtained demonstrate that it is ideally suited for intraoperative SLNs detection and small organ imaging. The standardization of test phantoms and protocols for SFOV portable gamma systems will provide an opportunity to collect data across various medical centers and research groups. Moreover, it will provide a technical baseline for researchers and clinical practitioners to consider when assessing their SFOV gamma imaging systems. The anthropomorphic head and neck phantom described is cost effective, reproducible, flexible and anatomically representative.
Re-use of the byproduct wastes resulting from different municipal and industrial activities in the reclamation of contaminated water is real application for green projects and sustainability concepts. In this direction, the synthesis of composite sorbent from the mixing of waterworks and sewage sludge coated with new nanoparticles named “siderite” (WSSS) is the novelty of this study. These particles can be precipitated from the iron(II) nitrate using waterworks sludge as alkaline agent and source of carbonate. Characterization tests using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping revealed that the coating process was c
This paper investigates an effective computational method (ECM) based on the standard polynomials used to solve some nonlinear initial and boundary value problems appeared in engineering and applied sciences. Moreover, the effective computational methods in this paper were improved by suitable orthogonal base functions, especially the Chebyshev, Bernoulli, and Laguerre polynomials, to obtain novel approximate solutions for some nonlinear problems. These base functions enable the nonlinear problem to be effectively converted into a nonlinear algebraic system of equations, which are then solved using Mathematica®12. The improved effective computational methods (I-ECMs) have been implemented to solve three applications involving nonli
... Show MoreSpeech is the essential way to interact between humans or between human and machine. However, it is always contaminated with different types of environment noise. Therefore, speech enhancement algorithms (SEA) have appeared as a significant approach in speech processing filed to suppress background noise and return back the original speech signal. In this paper, a new efficient two-stage SEA with low distortion is proposed based on minimum mean square error sense. The estimation of clean signal is performed by taking the advantages of Laplacian speech and noise modeling based on orthogonal transform (Discrete Krawtchouk-Tchebichef transform) coefficients distribution. The Discrete Kra
This study aims at identifying the extent of SMS usage and understanding the role it plays in satisfying users' needs and motivations. In order to achieve this aim, an analytical descriptive method was adopted by conducting a field survey among students at Petra University.
The study resulted in many conclusions, the most important of which is that using SMS meets the students' cognitive, social and communicational needs and desires, the highest being communicating with friends at 75%, followed by exchanging songs and videos at 52%, as well as exchanging photos at 45%. In regards to their motivation for using text messaging, forgetting daily problems scored highest at 81.4% and spending free time followed at 77.4%. This proves th
... Show MorePathological blood clot in blood vessels, which often leads to cardiovascular diseases, are one of the most common causes of death in humans. Therefore, enzymatic therapy to degrade blood clots is vital. To achieve this goal, bromelain was immobilized and used for the biodegradation of blood clots. Bromelain was extracted from the pineapple fruit pulp (Ananas comosus) and purified by ion exchange chromatography after precipitation with ammonium sulphate (0-80 %), resulting in a yield of 70%, purification fold of 1.42, and a specific activity of 1175 U/mg. Bromelain was covalently immobilized on functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), with an enzyme loading of 71.35%. The results of the characterization of free and immobilized
... Show MoreBackground: Dysfunction of sinoatrial node is a set of abnormal rhythms which are resulted from the sinoatrial node malfunctionof the sinus node, the chief natural cardiac pacemaker. The common, and occasionally, the single method for treatment of heart arrhythmias wasimplantation of pacemaker, which reduce symptoms exactly occurs after implantation. Aim: To detect the association between red cell width diameter (RDW) and some cardiac electrophysiology parameters in sinus node dysfunction in Iraqi patients such as SNRT and AH. Methods: A cross sectional study, was conducted on 59 patient ranging between 20-50 years old and involving 35 female and 24 male patients, suffering from an unexplained symptoms of sinoatrial node dysfunction (SND).
... Show MoreBackground: Conventional MR imaging is essential for diagnosis and evaluation of the posterior fossa tumors Objectives: To assess the value of diffusion weighted imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient in making distinction between different histological types of posterior fossa tumors.
Type of the study: Cross-sectional study.
Methods: Brain MRI and DWI assessed 19 patients (12 female and 7 male) with MRI diagnosis of posterior fossa tumors. absolute ADC values of contrast -enhancing solid tumor region and ADC ratio of solid tumor to ADC of normal -appearing deep White matter were compared with histological diagnosis postoperatively .The m
... Show Moreresearch objectives to:
1. identify the social, economic and cultural factors affecting consumption.
2. detect the consumption culture among the population in the city of Erbil.
3. Identify the GATT consumer protection and rights.
The most important results:
1. that there is variation in the answers of respondents about keep up with modernity in the basic consumption (necessary), it swallowed the proportion of yes answers about keep up with modernity in food consumption (72%), and is an indication of growing consumer awareness of the individual in the side of nutrition. The clothing on the side of the proportion of yes answers amounted to (85%), in the health field note that the percentage of yes answers (83%), who are abr
The effect of 0.662MeV gamma radiation on the optical properties of the CdTe thin films was studied. 300nm thickness of CdTe samples were irradiated with doses (10, 20, 30,60krad) in room temperature. The absorption spectra for all the samples were recorded using UV- Visible spectrometer in order to calculate the energy gap, width of localized states and optical constants(refractive index, extinction coefficient, real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant). The optical energy gap was found to decrease from (1.53 to 1.48 eV), while the width of localized states increased from (1.34 to 1.49 eV) with the increasing of radiation dose. The behavior of energy gap with the irradiation dose makes the material a good candidate for dosimetry
... Show MoreIntroduction: The use of screw-retained hybrid arch bars (HABs) is a relatively recent development in the treatment of mandibular fractures. The purpose of this study is to compare the clinical outcome between HAB and the conventional Erich arch bar (EAB) in the closed treatment of mandibular fractures. Materials and methods: This study included 18 patients who were treated for mandibular fractures with maxillomandibular fixation (MMF), patients were randomly assigned into a control group (n = 10) in which EAB was used and study group (n = 8) in which HAB was used. The outcome variables were time required for application and removal, gingival inflammation scores, postoperative complications, and incidence of wire-stick injury or gloves perf
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