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“High Resolution Breast Diffusion Weighted Imaging”
Jessica McKay, PhD

ABSTRACT: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is a quantitative MRI method that measures the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of water molecules, which reflects cell density and serves as an indication of malignancy. Unfortunately, however, the clinical value of DWI is severely limited by the undesirable features in images that common clinical methods produce, including large geometric distortions, ghosting and chemical shift artifacts, and insufficient spatial resolution. Thus, in order to exploit information encoded in diffusion characteristics and fully assess the clinical value of ADC measurements, it is first imperative to achieve technical advancements of DWI.

In this talk, I will largely focus on the background of breast DWI, providing the clinical motivation for this work and explaining the current standard in breast DWI and alternatives proposed throughout the literature. I will also present my PhD dissertation work in which a novel strategy for high resolution breast DWI was developed. The purpose of this work is to improve DWI methods for breast imaging at 3 Tesla to robustly provide diffusion-weighted images and ADC maps with anatomical quality and resolution. This project has two major parts: Nyquist ghost correction and the use of simultaneous multislice imaging (SMS) to achieve high resolution. Exploratory work was completed to characterize the Nyquist ghost in breast DWI, showing that, although the ghost is mostly linear, the three-line navigator is unreliable, especially in the presence of fat. A novel referenceless ghost correction, Ghost/Object minimization was developed that reduced the ghost in standard SE-EPI and advanced SMS. An advanced SMS method with axial reformatting (AR) is presented for high resolution breast DWI. In a reader study, AR-SMS was preferred by three breast radiologists compared to the standard SE-EPI and readout-segmented-EPI.

“Machine-learning Approach to Differentiation of Benign and Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors: A Multicenter Study”
Michael Zhang, MD

ABSTRACT: Clinicoradiologic differentiation between benign and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNSTs) is a diagnostic challenge with important management implications. We sought to develop a radiomics classifier based on 900 features extracted from gadolinium-enhanced, T1-weighted MRI, using the Quantitative Imaging Feature Pipeline and the PyRadiomics package. Additional patient-specific clinical variables were recorded. A radiomic signature was derived from least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, followed by gradient boost machine learning. A training and test set were selected randomly in a 70:30 ratio. We further evaluated the performance of radiomics-based classifier models against human readers of varying medical-training backgrounds. Following image pre-processing, 95 malignant and 171 benign PNSTs were available. The final classifier included 21 features and achieved a sensitivity 0.676, specificity 0.882, and area under the curve (AUC) 0.845. Collectively, human readers achieved sensitivity 0.684, specificity 0.742, and AUC 0.704. We concluded that radiomics using routine gadolinium enhanced, T1-weighted MRI sequences and clinical features can aid in the evaluation of PNSTs, particularly by increasing specificity for diagnosing malignancy. Further improvement may be achieved with incorporation of additional imaging sequences.

Ge Wang, PhD
Clark & Crossan Endowed Chair Professor
Director of the Biomedical Imaging Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York

Abstract:
AI-based tomography is an important application and a new frontier of machine learning. AI, especially deep learning, has been widely used in computer vision and image analysis, which deal with existing images, improve them, and produce features. Since 2016, deep learning techniques are actively researched for tomography in the context of medicine. Tomographic reconstruction produces images of multi-dimensional structures from externally measured “encoded” data in the form of various transforms (integrals, harmonics, and so on). In this presentation, we provide a general background, highlight representative results, and discuss key issues that need to be addressed in this emerging field.

About:
AI-based X-ray Imaging System (AXIS) lab is led by Dr. Ge Wang, affiliated with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Biomedical Imaging Center. AXIS lab focuses on innovation and translation of x-ray computed tomography, optical molecular tomography, multi-scale and multi-modality imaging, and AI/machine learning for image reconstruction and analysis, and has been continuously well funded by federal agencies and leading companies. AXIS group collaborates with Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, MSK, UTSW, Yale, GE, Hologic, and others, to develop theories, methods, software, systems, applications, and workflows.

Mixed Reality for Surgical Guidance will take place on Thursday, April 1st from 9:00 – 10:30 am PDT.

The event will start with a one-hour panel discussion featuring Dr. Bruce Daniel of Stanford Radiology and the Stanford IMMERS Lab; Christoffer Hamilton of Brainlab, a surgical software and hardware leader in Germany; and Dr. Thomas Grégory of Orthopedic Surgery at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord.

This panel will be moderated by Dr. Christoph Leuze of Stanford University and the Stanford Medical Mixed Reality (SMMR) program.

Immediately following the panel discussion, you are also invited to a 30-minute interactive session with the panelists where questions and ideas can be explored in real time.

Register here: https://stanford.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqf-GrqToiHNKL4D-5haRLowQylIwMEAve

Date: April 10, 2021 (8 AM-6PM)

• • 8 AM-8:20 AM opening remarks Zainub and Pete
  • 8:20 AM-9:20 AM Talk 1 “I fought the law and no one won”
• 10 minute Break
• 9:30 AM-10:30 AM talk 2 students and doctors with disabilities panel

• 20 minute break

• • 10:50 AM-11:50 AM Breakout
  • One hour lunch  (TBD)
  • 12:50 PM-1:50 PM Talk 3 the frontiers of disability research 
• Lisa Meeks is moderating
• Bonnie Swenor invited
  • 10 minute break
  • 2:00 PM-3:00 PM breakout 2
• 10 minute break
• 3:10 PM-4:10 PM talk 4 do-it-yourself disability advocacy (Poullos/Tolchin with students)

• 4:10 PM-4:30 PM closing remarks

• 4:30 PM-6 PM virtual happy hour

Targeted violence continues against Black Americans, Asian Americans, and all people of color. The department of radiology diversity committee is running a racial equity challenge to raise awareness of systemic racism, implicit bias and related issues. Participants will be provided a list of resources on these topics such as articles, podcasts, videos, etc., from which they can choose, with the “challenge” of engaging with one to three media sources prior to our session (some videos are as short as a few minutes). Participants will meet in small-group breakout sessions to discuss what they’ve learned and share ideas.

Please reach out to Marta Flory, flory@stanford.edu with questions. For details about the session, including recommended resources and the Zoom link, please reach out to Meke Faaoso at mfaaoso@stanford.edu.

Join us for a panel on Behavioral XR on Thursday, June 3rd from 9:00 – 10:30 am PDT.  The event will start with a one-hour panel discussion featuring Dr. Elizabeth McMahon, a psychologist with a private practice in California; Sarah Hill of Healium, a company developing XR apps for mental fitness based in Missouri; Christian Angern of Sympatient, a company developing VR for anxiety therapy based in Germany; and Marguerite Manteau-Rao of Penumbra, a medical device company based in California.  This panel will be moderated by Dr. Walter Greenleaf of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) and Dr. Christoph Leuze of the Stanford Medical Mixed Reality (SMMR) program.  Immediately following the panel discussion, you are also invited to a 30-minute interactive session with the panelists where questions and ideas can be explored in real time.

Register here to save your place now!  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please visit this page to subscribe to our events mailing list.

Sponsored by Stanford Medical Mixed Reality (SMMR)

Alone in the Ring (a research-based theatre production about inclusive healthcare workplaces) is coming to campus during the Annual Stanford School of Medicine Diversity Week and National Disability Employment Awareness Month, SMAC and Stanford Medicine and the Muse hope to continue the discussion on how to spark and sustain change towards inclusive workspaces. Alone in the Ring is followed by a discussion between the team and audience members. During the presentation, audience members are encouraged to reflect: How inclusive is your workspace? How could you make it more accessible?

Register for this event