ABSTRACT
Objective: To compare and analyze functional brain response characteristics by applying acupuncture or moxibustion to Zusanli (ST 36) in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) and investigate the differences of central action mechanism resulting from acupuncture or moxibustion. Methods: A total of eligible 24 FD cases were divided into two blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) sequences for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. The amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) analyses were conducted on the data of location phase, structure phase, resting state before acupuncture/moxibustion, working state during acupuncture/moxibustion and resting state after acupuncture/moxibustion using Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI (DPARSF) software. Results: Acupuncture and moxibustion produced significant differences in functional brain response. The working state during acupuncture/moxibustion mainly decreased ALFF values in the right supramarginal gyrus, right superior parietal lobule, right frontal gyrus, upper right occipital lobe, right precuneus and right cingulate gyrus. At the same time, it increased ALFF values in the left cerebellum, right caudate nucleus, right cerebellum and left inferior gyrus. The differences during the resting state after acupuncture/moxibustion were significantly smaller than the working state in intensity and size. It mainly resulted in decrease in ALFF values in the right postcentral gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus and increase in ALFF values in the left precuneus, orbital part of inferior frontal gyrus and right cerebellar peduncles. Conclusion: Needling and moxibustion at Zusanli (ST 36) can produce significant differences in immediate functional brain response.
ABSTRACT
In view of the evaluation of fundus image segmentation, a new evaluation method was proposed to make up insufficiency of the traditional evaluation method which only considers the overlap of pixels and neglects topology structure of the retinal vessel. Mathematical morphology and thinning algorithm were used to obtain the retinal vascular topology structure. Then three features of retinal vessel, including mutual information, correlation coefficient and ratio of nodes, were calculated. The features of the thinned images taken as topology structure of blood vessel were used to evaluate retinal image segmentation. The manually-labeled images and their eroded ones of STARE database were used in the experiment. The result showed that these features, including mutual information, correlation coefficient and ratio of nodes, could be used to evaluate the segmentation quality of retinal vessel on fundus image through topology structure, and the algorithm was simple. The method is of significance to the supplement of traditional segmentation evaluation of retinal vessel on fundus image.
Subject(s)
Humans , Algorithms , Databases, Factual , Diagnostic Imaging , Methods , Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological , Fundus Oculi , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted , Retina , Retinal VesselsABSTRACT
It is very difficult to measure the human eye properties directly, such as the accommodation mechanism, intraocular pressure distribution, the dynamics of aqueous humor flow and the bio-heat transfer in human eyes. Modeling and simulation may, therefore, play an increasingly important role in the ophthalmologic investigation. The major computer modeling methods, including geometric modeling, physical modeling and mathematical modeling, are introduced in this paper. Modeling and simulation anatomy properties and physiological properties of eye tissues, such as the cornea, aqueous humor and crystalline lens, vitreous, optic nerve head, sclera, are analyzed in the order from global to local, from front to back, from outside to inside. Finally, the problems of computer modeling in ophthalmologic investigation are discussed, and the development trends of the future are pointed out.