AnatOnMe: Augmented reality applied to Healthcare
June 21, 2011
Microsoft Research has come up with a virtual tool for physiotherapy. The idea behind it is to motivate people recovering from injuries to do their exercises. AnatOnMe is a device that projects images of the bones muscles and ligaments inside the body onto the patient’s own skin. This is a novel implementation of augmented reality as the augmented world is projected on the patient. An image of the underlying bone structure, muscle tissue, tendons, or nerves is projected onto the skin, giving patients a better understanding of the injury, and of what they need to do to help the healing process.
The device consists of two parts: the first one contains a projector, an ordinary digital camera, and an infrared camera. The second contains a laser pointer and the control buttons. The system is not meant to be very accurate, and the image of the internal injury is not precisely map onto the patient’s exterior, the therapist simply points the projector and lines it up by eye. The images displayed are not actually taken from scans of the patients but come from stock graphical images used to show one of six different types of injury. However, it works pretty well to educate patients and help them better understand their injuries.
Open or Wide Bore MR?
May 25, 2011
That’s the question researchers from Germany try to answer in the CLAUSTRO trial (start Feb 2011). According to the authors: “The goal is to analyze the rate of claustrophobic reactions and clinical utility of an open MR scanner in a randomized comparison with a recently designed short-bore but closed scanner with 97% noise reduction. This trial will be the first to appraise the potential for claustrophobia reduction and clinical relevance of open MR scanners in claustrophobic patients with a clinical indication for MR imaging. Furthermore, this trial will analyze and compare the cost-effectiveness of the two MR scanners, which is important in view of the enormous annual loss of healthcare productivity due to claustrophobia during MR imaging. Also, patient preferences and image quality will be analyzed. Thus, this randomized trial may have the potential to influence both the clinical and economical utilization of MR imaging.”
This is a very interesting trial that will yield a comparison between the two systems from a patient point of view, which is very important. The success of a good MR scan depends a lot on how comfortable the patient feels, given the fact that he/she has to lie still for quite some time.
For more information, please refer to: Reduction of claustrophobia during magnetic resonance imaging: methods and design of the “CLAUSTRO” randomized controlled trial
3T MRI in pediatrics
May 17, 2011
3T MRI is being increasingly performed for clinical purposes. The increased SNR is a significant advantage in pediatrics – improved spatial and temporal resolution assist in overcoming the major anatomic, physiologic and behavioural challenges of imaging children. 3T MRI has the potential to image all the systems in pediatrics. However, optimising the parameters with due consideration to specific pediatric features, such as the increased water content of non myelinated brain, is essential. The neonatal brain and pediatric spine are difficult to image at 3T. Several factors also limit cardiac imaging at present. Further improvements in coil technology and newer sequences may help overcome the challenges that remain. On the other hand, some 3T artefacts inherent to specific anatomic regions, like the dielectric effects encountered in adult abdominal imaging, are less problematic in pediatrics due the smaller size.
For more information, see this white paper
