The caBIG® Life Science Business Architecture Model.

MOTIVATION: Business Architecture Models (BAMs) describe what a business does, who performs the activities, where and when activities are performed, how activities are accomplished and which data are present. The purpose of a BAM is to provide a common resource for understanding business functions and requirements and to guide software development. The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG®) Life Science BAM (LS BAM) provides a shared understanding of the vocabulary, goals and processes that are common in the business of LS research. RESULTS: LS BAM 1.1 includes 90 goals and 61 people and groups within Use Case and Activity Unified Modeling Language (UML) Diagrams. Here we report on the model's current release, LS BAM 1.1, its utility and usage, and plans for future use and continuing development for future releases. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The LS BAM is freely available as UML, PDF and HTML (https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/x/OFNyAQ).

Ultrasound-based elastography: a novel approach to assess radio frequency ablation of liver masses performed with expandable ablation probes: a feasibility study.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the technical feasibility of ultrasound-based elastography as a tool for assessing the size and shape of the coagulation necrosis caused by radio frequency ablation (RFA) probes using expandable electrodes ex vivo as well as in a patient with a liver metastasis. METHODS: A commercially available expandable RFA probe was used to create a 3-cm ablation in a piece of bovine liver. The ablation probe was used in situ to induce tissue deformation for elastography before and after ablation. Ultrasonic radio frequency data were processed to generate elasticity strain images. The appearance of the ablation zone was compared with magnetic resonance imaging and a gross section specimen. One patient with malignant metastatic disease to the liver and a clinical indication for RFA was investigated for the feasibility of percutaneous elastography of RFA using the same technique. Sonographic strain images were compared with the appearance of the nonenhancing ablation zone on contrast-enhanced computed tomography. RESULTS: Ex vivo, the ablation zone on ultrasound-based elastography was represented by an area of increased stiffness and was well demarcated from the nonablated surrounding tissue. The size and shape of the ablated zone on the strain image correlated well with the gross specimen and the magnetic resonance imaging appearance. Strain images obtained from the patient showed results similar to those of the ex vivo experiment and correlated well with the nonenhancing area of ablation on contrast-enhanced computed tomography. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound-based elastography may be a promising tool for displaying the ablation zone created by expandable RFA probes.

Synthetic elevation beamforming and image acquisition capabilities using an 8 x 128 1.75D array.

Ultrasound imaging can be improved with higher order arrays through elevation dynamic focusing in future, higher channel count systems. However, modifications to current system hardware could yield increased imaging depth-of-field with 1.75D arrays (arrays with individually addressable elements, several rows in elevation) through the use of synthetic elevation imaging. We describe synthetic elevation beamforming methods and its implementation with our 8 x 128, 1.75D array (Tetrad Co., Englewood, CO). This array has been successfully interfaced with a Siemens Elegra scanner for summed RF and single channel RF data acquisition. Individual rows of the 8 x 128 array can be controlled, allowing for different aperture configurations on transmit and receive beamforming. Advantages of using this array include finer elevation sampling, a larger array footprint for aberration measurements, and elevation focusing. We discuss system tradeoffs that occur in implementing synthetic receive and synthetic transmit/receive elevation focusing and show significant image quality improvements in simulation and phantom data results.