M. D. Renna, F. Conversano, P. Pisani, E. Casciaro, L. Quarta, D. Costanza, M. Muratore, S. Casciaro
Currently, osteoporosis is mainly diagnosed through dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). However, DXA cannot be used for early diagnoses through population mass screenings because of issues related to ionizing radiation employment. This paper describes the diagnostic accuracy of a novel ultrasound (US)-based method to perform spinal densitometry without employing X-rays. The proposed innovative methodology is based on a combined analysis of both echographic images and “raw” radiofrequency US signals. The diagnostic output is represented by the same parameters of DXA (bone mineral density...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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M. Muratore, F. Conversano, M. D. Renna, V. Villani, S. Casciaro
Osteoporosis affects about 200 million subjects in the world and is responsible for 8.9 million fractures each year. The combined annual cost of all osteoporotic fractures in Europe has been estimated to be 30 billion Euros. The frequency of osteoporotic fractures is rising in many countries, in particular because of the increased longevity of the population. In Italy, around 4 million of women and more than 800,000 men are exposed to a high fracture risk. The National Healthcare System spends about 500 million Euros for hospitalization and chirurgical treatment of hip fractures and costs...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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R. Franchini, F. Conversano, E. Casciaro, E. Quarta, A. Grimaldi, M. Muratore, S. Casciaro
Vertebral morphometry is a common clinically-used method for vertebral fracture detection and classification, based on height measurements of vertebral bodies in radiographic images. This method is quantitative and does not require specific operator skills, but its actual accuracy is affected by errors made during the time-consuming manual or semi-automatic measurements. In this paper, we propose an innovative fully automatic approach to vertebral morphometry. A novel algorithm, based on a local phase symmetry measure and an “Active Shape Model”, was implemented and tested on lateral X-ray...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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L. Passaquindici, F. Cursano, A. Greco, G. Soloperto, F. Conversano, A. Lay-Ekuakille, S. Casciaro
Developing and testing novel ultrasound (US) investigation methods can be made difficult by commercial US echographs. Typically, most devices can export only the echographic images, providing either beamformed RF or demodulated echo-signal for acquisition by an external PC. Powerful but portable high-level commercial integrated circuits would be required in order to obtain access to the raw RF signal. First examples of such systems for ultrasound research are available (i.e. FEMMINA, ULA OP), although they are still far from size minimization. In this work we present a compact platform,...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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M. Aventaggiato, F. Conversano, E. Casciaro, R. Franchini, A. Lay-Ekuakille, M. Muratore, S. Casciaro
Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) methods for osteoporosis diagnosis potentially provide information about the bone quality and its elastic properties. In this context, a novel ultrasound-based method for spinal and femoral densitometry was developed by our research group. In order to maximize its accuracy, it is very important to properly detect the bone interfaces that will be analyzed as regions of interest (ROIs). A fully automatic segmentation algorithm was developed to select lumbar vertebral interfaces in echographic images and its actual accuracy was assessed in the present work by means...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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V. Villani, F. Conversano, M. Aventaggiato, F. Chiriacò, M. Muratore, S. Casciaro
Osteoporosis is considered as a major public health problem, second only to cardiovascular diseases. The gold standard for its diagnosis is currently represented by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), which, however, suffers from some important drawbacks. In order to overcome such limitations, the use of ultrasound (US) techniques has been proposed. In this paper, a novel approach to the diagnosis of osteoporosis through US scans on lumbar spine and proximal femur is described. The approach relies on the estimation of diagnostic parameters by measuring the degree of similarity between...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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S. Casciaro, M. D. Renna, P. Pisani, A. Greco, F. Conversano, M. Muratore
Osteoporosis is the most common disorder of bone metabolism, with a high rate of diffusion, especially in the elderly population. The main consequence of osteoporosis is bone fragility, with the consequently increased risk of fracture. Vertebral and hip fractures represent one of the most important causes of morbidity and disability and cause also high economic costs for the National Healthcare Systems. The currently accepted "gold standard" method for osteoporosis diagnosis is represented by the evaluation of bone mineral density (BMD) through dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). However, DXA...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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Lars Arendt-Nielsen
This paper deals with new technologies today used to assess pain in patients with chronic pain. The author describes the state of art concerning the current scenario of pain assessment issue. Attention is focused on Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) technology used to stimulate pain in order to evaluate the patient sensation and score the perceived pain level. In detail, QST can provide an understanding of the mechanisms involved in pain transduction, transmission, and perception under normal and pathophysiological conditions and provide mechanism-based diagnosis, prevention, and management...
New Frontiers in Biomedical Measurements
· TC13
· 2014
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Giuseppe Caliano, Luca De Vito, Francesco Paolo Di Candia, Gianluca Mazzilli, Francesco Picariello
This paper describes the architecture of a monitoring system developed for a Wireless Active Guardrail System (WAGS). A WAGS is a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) embedded on guardrails along the road infrastructure. The proposed WAGS architecture consists of four levels: Road, Concentrator, Storage and Monitoring. In this paper, an architecture overview of the proposedWAGS is carried out. Furthermore, a wide description of the last three levels is reported. At the road level, the measurements are performed by sensor nodes. Instead, at the Concentrator level, the Concentrator configures each...
TC4 Symposium 2014
· TC4
· 2014
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Luigi Battaglini, Pietro Burrascano, Alessio De Angelis, Antonio Moschitta, Marco Ricci
In the present work the performance of a low-cost ultrasonic rangefinder system exploiting linear chirp excitation signal and the Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave technique is analyzed, evaluated in terms of resolution and computational cost , and compared with the results achievable by means of the standard technique based on the matched-filter theory. The system, based on a Voltage Controlled Oscillator and an analog mixer, shifts some of the processing required by the FMCW protocol in the analog domain, strongly relaxing the requirements on the signal sampling rate without reducing the...
TC4 Symposium 2014
· TC4
· 2014
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