Medical Engineering & Physics

Oral cancer is a common malignant tumor, and total closed resection is a common treatment. However, it has always been a challenge to determine the exact extent of excision during surgery. The application of medical image examination in surgery can provide important reference information, but the current methods still have some limitations. This study explored the application of gels based on medical image examination in the total closed resection of oral cancer patients to improve the accuracy of resection range and surgical treatment effect...

In this study, amino-functionalized mesoporous silica/hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (MSNS /HAP) with the property of acid dissociation have been prepared as a traditional Chinese medicine monomer carriers to improve the drug loading rate and antibacterial properties of antimicrobial quercetin (QUE) in vitro. The experimental results confirm that the drug loading rate of MSNs/HAP is 28.94 %, which is about 3.6 times higher than that of aminated mesoporous sililca nanoparticles (MSNs). The drug release of QUE on MSNs/HAP is pH-sensitive in phosphate buffered saline (pH=4...

The application of deep learning to the classification of pulse waves in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) related to hypertensive target organ damage (TOD) is hindered by challenges such as low classification accuracy and inadequate generalization performance. To address these challenges, we introduce a lightweight transfer learning model named MobileNetV2SCP. This model transforms time-domain pulse waves into 36-dimensional frequency-domain waveform feature maps and establishes a dedicated pre-training network based on these maps to enhance the learning capability for small samples...

This study aimed to characterize ankle and hindfoot kinematics of healthy men and women during overground running using biplane radiography, and to compare these data to those previously obtained in the same cohort during overground walking. Participants ran across an elevated platform at a self-selected pace while synchronized biplane radiographs of their ankle and hindfoot were acquired. Motion of the tibia, talus, and calcaneus was tracked using a validated volumetric model-based tracking process. Tibiotalar and subtalar 6DOF kinematics were obtained...

BACKGROUND: Two main problems examining the mechanism of cancer progression in the tissues using the computational models are lack of enough knowledge on the effective factors for such events in vivo environments and lack of specific parameters in the available computational models to simulate such complicated reactions. METHODS: In this study, it was tried to simulate the progression of cancerous lesions in the bone tissues by an independent parameter from the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the tissues, so to degrade the orthotropic mechanical properties of the bone tissues, a virtual temperature was determined to be used by a well-known framework for simulation of damages in the composite materials...

The Flow Diverter is a self-expandable braided stent that has helped improve the effectiveness of cerebral aneurysm treatment during the last decade. The Flow Diverter's efficiency heavily relies on proper decision-making during the pre-operative phase, which is currently based on static measurements that fail to account for vessel or tissue deformation. In the context of providing realistic measurements, a biomechanical computational method is designed to aid physicians in predicting patient-specific treatment outcomes...

Microrecurrent glioma is a common neurological tumor, and the key to its surgical treatment is to accurately evaluate the size, location and degree of recurrence of the lesion. The purpose of this study was to explore the surgical treatment of microrecurrent glioma based on MR Imaging, and to provide accurate and reliable basis for clinical decision-making. Before surgery, detailed MR Imaging tests were performed for each patient to accurately locate and evaluate the characteristics of the lesions. Multimodal imaging examination were arranged to accurate the pre-operation diagnosis...

Lung cancer is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Lung cancer detection can save the patient's life. Despite being the best imaging tool in the medical sector, clinicians find it challenging to interpret and detect cancer from Computed Tomography (CT) scan data. One of the most effective ways for the diagnosis of certain malignancies like lung tumours is Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging. So many diagnosis models have been implemented nowadays to diagnose various diseases. Early lung cancer identification is very important for predicting the severity level of lung cancer in cancer patients...

Computer representations of three-dimensional (3D) geometries are crucial for simulating systems and processes in engineering and science. In medicine, and more specifically, biomechanics and orthopaedics, obtaining and using 3D geometries is critical to many workflows. However, while many tools exist to obtain 3D geometries of organic structures, little has been done to make them usable for their intended medical purposes. Furthermore, many of the proposed tools are proprietary, limiting their use. This work introduces two novel algorithms based on Generalized Regression Neural Networks (GRNN) and 4 processes to perform mesh morphing and overclosure adjustment...

3D printed Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) bone plates exhibit limited three-point bending strength, restricting their viability in biomedical applications. The application of polydopamine (PDM) enhances the three-point bending strength by undergoing covalent interactions with PLA molecular structure. However, the heavy nature of PDM particles leads to settling at the container base at higher coating solution concentrations. This study investigates the impact of ultrasonic-assisted coating parameters on the three-point bending strength...

Generation of polyethylene wear debris and peri‑prosthetic bone resorption have been identified as potential causes of acetabular component loosening in Total Hip Arthroplasty. This study was aimed at optimization of a functionally graded porous acetabular component to minimize peri‑prosthetic bone resorption and polyethylene liner wear. Porosity levels (porosity values at acetabular rim, and dome) and functional gradation exponents (radial and polar) were considered as the design parameters. The relationship between porosity and elastic properties were obtained from numerical homogenization...

Biphasic models have been widely used to simulate the time-dependent biomechanical response of soft tissues. Modelling techniques of joints with biphasic weight-bearing soft tissues have been markedly improved over the last decade, enhancing our understanding of the function, degenerative mechanism and outcomes of interventions of joints. This paper reviews the recent advances, challenges and opportunities in computational models of joints with biphasic weight-bearing soft tissues. The review begins with an introduction of the function and degeneration of joints from a biomechanical aspect...

In terms of speed and accuracy, the deep learning-based polyp segmentation method is superior. It is essential for the early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer and has the potential to greatly reduce the disease's overall prevalence. Due to the various forms and sizes of polyps, as well as the blurring of the boundaries between the polyp region and the surrounding mucus, most existing algorithms are unable to provide highly accurate colorectal polyp segmentation. Therefore, to overcome these obstacles, we propose an adaptive feature aggregation network (AFANet)...

This work reports a novel POC diagnostic technique to identify the cancerous liver cell lines by designing a Source-Extended (SE) Tunnel Field Effect Transistor (TFET) having a Single-Gate (SG) with Single-Metal (SM) and Dual-Metal (DM) structure. The proposed structures have been equipped with nanocavities by trenching the gate oxide layer where the needle biopsy obtained liver sample has been immobilized. The detection is based on the difference in drain current and the ratio of the proposed device's ON and OFF state currents, which has been evaluated by obtaining the sensitivities...

Variations in muscular contraction are known to significantly impact the quality of the generated EMG signal and the output decision of a proposed classifier. This is an issue when the classifier is further implemented in prosthetic hand design. Therefore, this study aims to develop a deep learning classifier to improve the classification of hand motion gestures and investigate the effect of force variations on their accuracy on amputees. The contribution of this study showed that the resulting deep learning architecture based on DNN (deep neural network) could recognize the six gestures and robust against different force levels (18 combinations)...

The monitoring of the neuromuscular blockade is critical for patient's safety during and after surgery. The monitoring of neuromuscular blockade often requires the use of Train of Four (TOF) technique. During a TOF test two electrodes are attached to the ulnar nerve, and a series of four electric pulses are applied. The electrical stimulation causes the thumb to twitch, and the amount of twitch varies depending on the amount of neuromuscular blockade in patient's system. Current medical devices used to assist anesthesiologists to perform TOF monitoring often require free hand movement and do not provide accurate or reliable results...

BACKGROUND: Increasingly, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is helping explore the impact of variables like: cannula design/size/position/flow rate and patient physiology on venovenous (VV) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Here we use a CFD model to determine what role cardiac output (CO) plays and to analyse return cannula dynamics. METHODS: Using a patient-averaged model of the right atrium and venae cava, we virtually inserted a 19Fr return cannula and a 25Fr drainage cannula...

BACKGROUND: Proprioceptive function assessment is crucial in clinical practice for patients with chronic non-specific neck pain (CNNP) as it is a major issue affecting their condition. PURPOSE: To verify the reliability and validity of baiobit sensor in measuring the neck proprioceptive function of CNNP patients. METHODS: Fifty-three CNNP patients were recruited (36 females, 17 males; age range 21-60 years) and were assessed for cervical joint position error by two blinded raters using the Baiobit sensor and laser pointer devices...

BACKGROUND: The frequent occurrence of thromboembolic cerebral events continues to limit the widespread implementation of Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD) despite continued advancements in VAD design and anti-coagulation treatments. Recent studies point to the optimal positioning of the outflow graft (OG) as a potential mitigator of post implantation thromboembolism. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the tailoring of the OG implantation orientation with the goal of minimizing the number of thrombi reaching the cerebral vessels by means of a formal shape optimization scheme incorporated into a multi-scale hemodynamics analysis...

We are developing an automatic fingertip-blood-sampling system to reduce the burden on trained medical personnel. For this system to withdraw a consistent volume of sampled blood for blood tests, we developed a mechanism for our system to select and puncture the vicinity of a large blood vessel from the blood-vessel image of an individual's fingertip. We call this mechanism the fingertip-vessel-puncture mechanism. From the results of an experiment in which the fingertips of 20 individuals (men and women in their 20 s to 60 s) were manually punctured at near and far locations from the blood vessel selected with our mechanism, the following conclusions were obtained...