Automatic Radiotherapy Planning for Glioblastoma Radiotherapy With Sparing of the Hippocampus and nTMS-Defined Motor Cortex

BackgroundNavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) of the motor cortex has been successfully implemented into radiotherapy planning by a number of studies. Furthermore, the hippocampus has been identified as a radiation-sensitive structure meriting particular sparing in radiotherapy. This study assesses the joint protection of these two eloquent brain regions for the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM), with particular emphasis on the use of automatic planning.Patients and MethodsPatients with motor-eloquent brain glioblastoma who underwent surgical resection after nTMS mapping of the motor cortex and adjuvant radiotherapy were retrospectively evaluated. The radiotherapy treatment plans were retrieved, and the nTMS-defined motor cortex and hippocampus contours were added. Four additional treatment plans were created for each patient: two manual plans aimed to reduce the dose to the motor cortex and hippocampus by manual inverse planning. The second pair of re-optimized plans was created by the Auto-Planning algorithm. The optimized plans were compared with the “Original” plan regarding plan quality, planning target volume (PTV) coverage, and sparing of organs at risk (OAR).ResultsA total of 50 plans were analyzed. All plans were clinically acceptable with no differences in the PTV coverage and plan quality metrics. The OARs were preserved in all plans; however, overall the sparing was significantly improved by Auto-Planning. Motor cortex protection was feasible and significant, amounting to a reduction in the mean dose by >6 Gy. The dose to the motor cortex outside the PTV was reduced by >12 Gy (mean dose) and >5 Gy (maximum dose). The hippocampi were significantly improved (reduction in mean dose: ipsilateral >6 Gy, contralateral >4.6 Gy; reduction in maximum dose: ipsilateral >5 Gy, contralateral >5 Gy). While the dose reduction using Auto-Planning was generally better than by manual optimization, the radiated total monitor units were significantly increased.ConclusionConsiderable dose sparing of the nTMS-motor cortex and hippocampus could be achieved with no disadvantages in plan quality. Auto-Planning could further contribute to better protection of OAR. Whether the improved dosimetric protection of functional areas can translate into improved quality of life and motor or cognitive performance of the patients can only be decided by future studies.

TBS-BAO: fully automated beam angle optimization for IMRT guided by a total-beam-space reference plan

Properly selected beam angles contribute to the quality of radiotherapy treatment plans. However, the Beam Angle Optimization (BAO) problem is difficult to solve to optimality due to its non-convex discrete nature with many local minima. In this study, we propose TBS-BAO, a novel approach for solving the BAO problem, and test it for non-coplanar robotic CyberKnife radiotherapy for prostate cancer. First, an ideal Pareto-optimal reference dose distribution is automatically generated using a priori multi-criterial fluence map optimization (FMO) to generate a plan that includes all candidate beams (total-beam-space, TBS). Then, this ideal dose distribution is reproduced as closely as possible in a subsequent segmentation/beam angle optimization step (SEG/BAO), while limiting the number of allowed beams to a user-selectable preset value. SEG/BAO aims at a close reproduction of the ideal dose distribution. For each of 33 prostate SBRT patients, 18 treatment plans with different pre-set numbers of allowed beams were automatically generated with the proposed TBS-BAO. For each patient, the TBS-BAO plans were then compared to a plan that was automatically generated with an alternative BAO method (Erasmus-iCycle) and to a high-quality manually generated plan. TBS-BAO was able to automatically generate plans with clinically feasible numbers of beams (∽25), with a quality highly similar to corresponding 91-beam ideal reference plans. Compared to the alternative Erasmus-iCycle BAO approach, similar plan quality was obtained for 25-beam segmented plans, while computation times were reduced from 10.7 hours to 4.8/1.5 hours, depending on the applied pencil-beam resolution in TBS-BAO. 25-beam TBS-BAO plans had similar quality as manually generated plans with on average 48 beams, while delivery times reduced from 22.3 to 18.4/18.1 min. TBS reference plans could effectively steer the discrete non-convex BAO.

Traditional & narrative practices of treatment for depression and depressive symptoms in older adults

An analysis and evaluation of the literature regarding traditional treatment methods for depression among older adults compared the effectiveness of the results to the benefits of a treatment plan that integrates the narrative practices of storytelling and reflexive writing. Priority was given to peer-reviewed journal articles from 2008 forward, though some earlier information was used for clarification and foundation building. The formation and implementation of individual patient treatment plans for depression and depressive symptoms are impacted by many variables such as: Confusion surrounding provider treatment guidelines, social organizational context, organizational climate and the differing definitions of depression that exist among providers and patients. Patients often struggle to self-identify or put words to depressive symptoms and the process of reflexive writing is transformative and increases narrative competency, which strengthens a patient’s ability to give an account of oneself, aiding in self-discovery and personal symptom awareness. An imbalance of power exists in the clinical encounter and the practices and principles of the discipline of Narrative Medicine can have a positive impact on strengthening the therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes. Older adults with depression and depressive symptoms have a lower quality of life and often feel less productive in their communities. Traditional pharmacologically based depression treatment plans are one-dimensional and often fail to address personal patient context and preference. Older adults living with diagnosed depression and depressive symptoms can be better served with treatment plans that include narrative techniques that increase alliance, affiliation, self-awareness and self-discovery.

One Size Doesn't Fit All: A Pilot Study Toward Performance-Specific Speech Intervention in Children With a Cleft (Lip and) Palate

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists usually apply a “one size fits all” approach to eliminate compensatory cleft speech characteristics (CSCs). It is necessary to investigate what intervention works best for a particular patient. This pilot study compared the effectiveness of two therapy approaches (a motor-phonetic approach and a linguistic-phonological approach) on different subtypes of compensatory CSCs in Dutch-speaking children with a cleft (lip and) palate (CP ± L). Method: Fourteen children with a CP ± L ( M age = 7.71 years) were divided into two groups using block randomization stratified by age, gender, and type of compensatory CSC. Six children received intervention to eliminate anterior oral CSCs ( n = 3 motor-phonetic intervention, n = 3 linguistic-phonological intervention). Eight children received intervention to eliminate non-oral CSCs ( n = 4 motor-phonetic intervention, n = 4 linguistic-phonological intervention). Each child received 10 hr of speech intervention divided over 2 weeks. Perceptual and psychosocial outcome measures were used to determine intervention effects. Results: Children who received linguistic-phonological intervention to eliminate anterior oral CSCs had significantly higher correctly produced consonant scores and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores compared to children who received motor-phonetic intervention to eliminate anterior oral CSCs. In the group of children who received intervention to eliminate non-oral CSCs, no significant differences were found in the correctly produced consonant scores nor in the HRQoL scores between the two intervention approaches. Conclusions: Linguistic-phonological intervention seems to be more appropriate to eliminate anterior oral CSCs. The beneficial effects of linguistic-phonological intervention were less pronounced in children with non-oral CSCs. Perhaps, children with non-oral CSCs benefit more from a hybrid phonetic-phonological approach. This study is a step forward in the provision of performance-specific intervention in children with a CP ± L. Replication in larger samples is needed and will aid to tailor treatment plans to the needs of our patients.

Clinical Validation and Treatment Plan Evaluation Based on Auto-Delineation of the Clinical Target Volume for Prostate Cancer Radiotherapy

Purpose Clinical target volumes (CTV) and organs at risk (OAR) could be auto-contoured to save workload. The goal of this study was to assess a convolutional neural network (CNN) for totally automatic and accurate CTV and OAR in prostate cancer, while also comparing anticipated treatment plans based on auto-contouring CTV to clinical plans. Methods From January 2013 to January 2019, 217 computed tomography (CT) scans of patients with locally advanced prostate cancer treated at our hospital were collected and analyzed. CTV and OAR were delineated with a deep learning based method, which named CUNet. The performance of this strategy was evaluated using the mean Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), 95th percentile Hausdorff distance (95HD), and subjective evaluation. Treatment plans were graded using predetermined evaluation criteria, and % errors for clinical doses to the planned target volume (PTV) and organs at risk(OARs) were calculated. Results The defined CTVs had mean DSC and 95HD values of 0.84 and 5.04 mm, respectively. For one patient's CT scans, the average delineation time was less than 15 seconds. When CTV outlines from CUNetwere blindly chosen and compared to GT, the overall positive rate in clinicians A and B was 53.15% vs 46.85%, and 54.05% vs 45.95%, respectively (P>0.05), demonstrating that our deep machine learning model performed as good as or better than human demarcation Furthermore, 8 testing patients were chosen at random to design the predicted plan based on the auto-courtoring CTV and OAR, demonstrating acceptable agreement with the clinical plan: average absolute dose differences of D2, D50, D98, Dmean for PTV are within 0.74%, and average absolute volume differences of V45, V50 for OARs are within 3.4%. Without statistical significance (p>0.05), the projected findings are comparable to clinical truth. Conclusion The experimental results show that the CTV and OARs defined by CUNet for prostate cancer were quite close to the ground reality.CUNet has the potential to cut radiation oncologists' contouring time in half. When compared to clinical plans, the differences between estimated doses to CTV and OAR based on auto-courtoring were small, with no statistical significance, indicating that treatment planning for prostate cancer based on auto-courtoring has potential.

Lung stereotactic body radiation therapy: personalized PTV margins according to tumor location and number of four-dimensional CT scans

Objectives To characterise the motion of pulmonary tumours during stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and to evaluate different margins when creating the planning target volume (PTV) on a single 4D CT scan (4DCT). Methods We conducted a retrospective single-site analysis on 30 patients undergoing lung SBRT. Two 4DCTs (4DCT1 and 4DCT2) were performed on all patients. First, motion was recorded for each 4DCT in anterior–posterior (AP), superior-inferior (SI) and rightleft (RL) directions. Then, we used 3 different margins (3,4 and 5 mm) to create the PTV, from the internal target volume (ITV) of 4DCT1 only (PTV D1 + 3, PTV D1 + 4, PTV D1 + 5). We compared, using the Dice coefficient, the volumes of these 3 PTVs, to the PTV actually used for the treatment (PTVttt). Finally, new treatment plans were calculated using only these 3 PTVs. We studied the ratio of the D2%, D50% and D98% between each new plan and the plan actually used for the treatment (D2% PTVttt, D50% PTVttt, D50% ITVttt D98% PTVttt). Results 30 lesions were studied. The greatest motion was observed in the SI axis (8.8 ± 6.6 [0.4–25.8] mm). The Dice index was higher when comparing PTVttt to PTV D1 + 4 mm (0.89 ± 0.04 [0.82–0.98]). Large differences were observed when comparing plans relative to PTVttt and PTV D1 + 3 for D98% PTVttt (0.85 ± 0.24 [0.19–1.00]). and also for D98% ITVttt (0.93 ± 0.12 [0.4–1.0]).D98% PTVttt (0.85 ± 0.24 [0.19–1.00], p value = 0.003) was statistically different when comparing plans relative to PTVttt and PTV D1 + 3. No stastistically differences were observed when comparing plans relative to PTVttt and PTV D1 + 4. A difference greater than 10% relative to D98% PTVttt was found for only in one UL lesion, located under the carina. Conclusion A single 4DCT appears feasible for upper lobe lesions located above the carina, using a 4-mm margin to generate the PTV. Advance in knowledge Propostion of a personalized SBRT treatment (number of 4DCT, margins) according to tumor location (above or under the carina).

Intervention usage for the management of low back pain in a chiropractic teaching clinic

Background Despite numerous low back pain (LBP) clinical practice guidelines, published studies suggest guideline nonconcordant care is still offered. However, there is limited literature evaluating the degree to which chiropractors, particularly students, follow clinical practice guidelines when managing LBP. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of use of specific interventions for LBP by students at a chiropractic teaching clinic, mapping recommended, not recommend, and without recommendation interventions based on two clinical practice guidelines. Methods This was a retrospective chart review of patients presenting to the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College teaching clinic with a new complaint of LBP from January to July 2019. Interventions provided under treatment plans for each patient were extracted. Interventions were classified as recommended, not recommended, or without recommendation according to two guidelines, the NICE and OPTIMa LBP guideline. Results 1000 patient files were identified with 377 files meeting the inclusion criteria. The most frequent interventions provided to patients were manipulation/mobilization (99%) and soft tissue therapy (91%). Exercise, localized percussion, and advice and/or education were included in just under half of the treatment plans. Patient files contained similar amounts of recommended (70%) and not recommended (80%) interventions according to the NICE guideline classification, with half the treatment plans including an intervention without recommendation. Under the OPTIMa acute guideline, patient files contained similar amounts of recommended and not recommended care, while more recommended care was provided than not recommended under the OPTIMa chronic guideline. Conclusions Despite chiropractic interns providing guideline concordant care for the majority of LBP patients, interventions classified as not recommended and without recommendation are still frequently offered. This study provides a starting point to understand the treatment interventions provided by chiropractic interns. Further research should be conducted to improve our understanding of the use of LBP guideline recommended care in the chiropractic profession. Trial registration Open Science Framework # g74e8.

Nanomaterials and Pollution Control

With nanoscience, new environmental benefits have emerged to aid pollution control. Nanotechnology is becoming beneficial for air and water pollution control and eradication in the future. Air pollution can be controlled with nano-adsorptive materials, nanocatalysis, and nano filters. For water pollution, nanofiltration and nano sorbents techniques are used. Nanotechnology establishes a framework to manipulate the molecular structure of objects depending on the characteristic to generate new materials. Environmental pollution is being controlled more efficiently and strategically through the application of nanotechnology. The technology deals with numerous contaminants like nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, among other harmful gases. The research narrows down to the argument that nanotechnology has a positive impact on environmental protection and provides an effective way to eliminate pollution by developing reliable treatment plans. In this chapter, the authors have briefly discussed the different nontechniques applied to control the pollution.

Telemedicine-Based Diabetic Care Powered With Artificial Intelligence

Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases which keep increasing at an alarming rate, and the patients need to visit the clinic to routinely check their sugar levels and adjust their treatment plans. Artificial intelligence-enabled telemedicine is found to be a promising approach to monitor the health status of diabetic patients. Some of the promising artificial intelligence technologies for treating diabetic patients are a reactive machine, limited memory, theory of minds, and self-awareness. Each of these techniques is discussed with architecture, characteristics, algorithms, advantages, and applications. Performance analysis is carried out towards the performance metrics like accuracy, medical error rate, speed, and learning rate, and the performance achieved by self-awareness artificial intelligence technique is found to be better in delivering telemedicine-based care for diabetic patients with a very high level of precision and speed of operation.

Vascular and vegetative factors of glaucoma attack

Purpose. To study the involvement of vascular and vegetative factors in the pathogenesis of glaucoma attack. Material and methods. 12 patients (24 eyes) aged 49 to 82 — 5 men and 7 women, including 3 patients with acute glaucoma and 9 patients with subacute glaucoma were subjected to an ophthalmological examination that included visometry, tonometry, automated static perimetry, OCT and OCT angiography. They were also tested for heart rate variability (HRV) using a Polar heart rate monitor, and for plasminogen content and products of fibrin/fibrinogen degradation in the tear. For comparison, the contralateral eyes of these patients were examined. Results. In the eyes with an acute glaucoma attack, the vascular network was noticeably weakened, especially in the area of the deep peripapillary vascular plexus at the lamina cribrosa level, and focal capillary loss was observed. The peripapillary density of the deep vascular plexus in the eyes with an acute attack was 33.0 ± 5.6 % (М ± m), which was significantly (p < 0.01) lower as compared to 50.0 ± 4.7 % in the unaffected eyes. This indicator correlated with the thickness of the ganglion cell complex (GCC) (p < 0.01). In unaffected eyes, no correlations were found between these glaucoma-related parameters. A significant amount of fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products was found in the tear of glaucoma patients, which may point to a violation of blood circulation in the optic nerve vessels. It has been established that glaucoma attack occurs with increased activity of sympathetic regulation of blood flow. Conclusion. When monitoring this contingent of patients, it is essential to determine the sympathetic-parasympathetic status of the patient. Taking into account the vascular component of the condition, it is expedient to introduce the necessary additions into its treatment plans