Medical Imaging

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A Vanderbilt researcher has developed an elastography framework for determining elastic properties of tissue using existing imaging technologies. Elastography is the direct imaging of tissue elasticity parameters, and can be quite helpful for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes.

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a medical simulator that realistically emulates the surgical environment found during laparoscopic abdominal interventions such as liver resection. The device recreates several important conditions that can each deform the organ of interest, thereby causing preoperative imaging to be misaligned from what the surgeon sees intraoperatively. Additionally, the technology includes realistic ligamenture that can be dissected, which also deforms the liver in a realistic fashion. By recreating these features in the simulator, the surgeon experiences a more realistic and life-like simulation of abdominal procedures that aids in the training process.

Researchers at Vanderbilt have created a new approach to produce uniform radio frequency (RF) fields in the body during high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Existing high field MRI machines create non-uniform RF fields that lead to non-uniform sensitivity in the generated images, also referred to as "hot" and "cold" spots. These local variations interfere with the tissue contrast of the images that radiologists depend upon to make accurate diagnoses. By generating uniform RF fields in the body, this technology provides the benefits of high field MRI without the non-uniform RF fields.

Researchers at Vanderbilt have developed a system to estimate prognostic metrics such as the length of a hospital stay, recovery status at discharge, and overall health at discharge, using only baseline imaging and clinical information gathered early in the hospital admission process. This system can assist with medical group operations and planning, it can help to educate families and patients regarding prognosis, and can be used to automatically stage patients for clinical trials.