Automatic matching of computed tomography and stereolithography data

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most frequently used medical imaging methods. An important application area of CT is dental implants, which require precise inspection and analysis of oral structures. Since CT provides a precise 3D model of the teeth, bones and nerves, it can be used as a surgical guide for dental implants. Along with CT, optical 3D images called stereolithography (STL) have also been widely used. STL images obtained from optical 3D images can be used to show the 3D surfaces of oral structures. Since CT data and STL data deploy different technologies to obtain dental information, we can obtain more accurate dental implants by combining the two datasets. Since the two datasets are acquired by using different sensors, the datasets need to be registered.

METHODS

An automatic matching algorithm is proposed for CT and STL image registration, which is based on depth maps and maximum intensity projection. Then, fine tuning was performed based on volume matching.

RESULTS

When applied to real-world databases, the proposed method provided an average matching error of 2.7 mm for the upper jaw and 2.3 mm for the lower jaw with an average processing time of about 19 s.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed method performs accurate registration of CT and STL.

Comparison of cardiotropic drug effects on haemodynamic and myocardial energetics in patients with heart failure: a computer simulation

The purpose of our study is to compare haemodynamic responses and the ischaemic potential of commonly used inotropes (dopamine, dobutamine and milrinone) using a computer model of the cardiovascular system. Cardiotropic drugs interact with the model by changing ventricular elastance and resistance of the individual circulation. All three drugs increase cardiac index in a dose-dependent manner. Dopamine at medium and high infusion rates increases heart rate, systemic vascular resistance and arterial blood pressure. The associated increase in coronary blood flow, however, is not sufficient to account for increased oxygen demand. Both dobutamine and milrinone decrease vascular resistance and increase coronary blood flow. The more pronounced increase in heart rate associated with dobutamine, however, results in a higher ischaemic potential for this drug. Our simulation demonstrates that although all the drugs studied improve cardiac function in simulated patients with heart failure, milrinone accomplishes this at a lower energy cost. The computer simulation developed can be used to assess the complex effect of cardiotropic drugs and possibly suggest optimal drug therapy in specific clinical situations.

In vitro assay for trans-phosphorylation of rhodopsin by rhodopsin kinase

Trans-phosphorylation of rhodopsin refers to a reaction in which a rhodopsin kinase molecule that has been activated by a light-activated rhodopsin molecule collides with and phosphorylates a second molecule of rhodopsin that has not been activated by light. It has been invoked as a mechanism for high-gain phosphorylation, a phenomenon that is observed at low bleaching levels where up to several hundred moles of phosphate are added to the rhodopsin pool per mole of photolyzed rhodopsin. Trans-phosphorylation is an appealing mechanism to propose for high-gain phosphorylation, but it has not been tested directly because of the difficulty inherent in unambiguous identification of light-activated and dark forms of rhodopsin present in the same reaction mixture. We report here a direct assay for trans-phosphorylation of rhodopsin. The assay is based on the use of a split receptor mutant of rhodopsin, SR(1-4/5-7), in which the fully functional protein is assembled from two separately expressed fragments. Because of different electrophoretic mobilities, SR(1-4/5-7) and wild-type rhodopsin can be monitored independently for phosphorylation while in the same reaction mixture. Thus, if wild-type rhodopsin is exposed to light and then incubated in the dark with SR(1-4/5-7), ATP, and rhodopsin kinase, phosphorylation of SR(1-4/5-7) would be a clear demonstration that trans-phosphorylation has occurred. Despite numerous attempts using several different experimental configurations, we have been unable to detect trans-phosphorylation of dark rhodopsin with this system.

Constitutive activation of opsin: interaction of mutants with rhodopsin kinase and arrestin

Mutation of Gly90, Glu113, Ala292, and Lys296 in the visual pigment rhodopsin constitutively activates the protein for activation of the G protein transducin. Three of these mutations have been shown to cause two different human diseases. Mutation of Gly90 and Ala292 results in complete night blindness, and mutation of Lys296 results in the degenerative disease retinitis pigmentosa. We show here that the mutants not only constitutively activate transducin but are also constitutively activated for phosphorylation by rhodopsin kinase. In addition, the phosphorylated mutants are shown to bind tightly to the inhibitory protein arrestin in a reaction that quenches the activity toward transducin. Thus the same mutations that result in constitutive activation of transducin also result in constitutive phosphorylation by rhodopsin kinase and binding of arrestin to inhibit the activity. This implies that the same conformational change may be responsible for activation of transducin and rhodopsin kinase. It also suggests that degeneration of photoreceptor cells in retinitis pigmentosa results indirectly from the activated state of the receptor, perhaps as a consequence of phosphorylation and persistent binding of arrestin.

Molecular determinants of human red/green color discrimination

The human red and green color vision pigments are identical at all but 15 of their 364 amino acids, and yet their absorption maxima differ by 31 nm. In an extensive mutagenesis study, including a set of 28 chimeric proteins modeled after pigments in the color-deficient human population and an additional 30 single and multiple point mutants, the spectral difference between these 2 pigments is shown to be determined by 7 and only 7 amino acid residues. In going from the red pigment to the green pigment, the 7 residues are Ser116-->Tyr, Ser180-->Ala, Ile230-->Thr, Ala233-->Ser, Tyr277-->Phe, Thr285-->Ala, and Tyr309-->Phe.