Ground Penetrating Radar Algorithm to Sense the Depth of Blood Clot in Microwave Head Imaging

Background: Microwave imaging is one of the emerging non-invasive portable imaging techniques, which uses nonionized radiations to take a detailed view of biological tissues in the microwave frequency range. Brain stroke is an emergency caused by the interruption of the blood supply into parts of brain, leading to the loss of millions of brain cells. Imaging plays a major role in stroke diagnosis for prompt treatment. Objective: This work proposes a computationally efficient algorithm called the GPR algorithm to locate the blood clot with a size of 10 mm in microwave images. Methods: The electromagnetic waves are radiated, and backscattered reflections are received by Antipodal Vivaldi antenna with the parasitic patch (48 mm*21 mm). The received signals are converted to a planar 2D image, and the depth of the blood clot is identified from the B-scan image. The novelty of this work lies in applying the GPR algorithm for the accurate positioning of a blood clot in a multilayered head tissue. Results: The proposed system is effectively demonstrated using a 3D EM simulator and simulated results are verified in a Vector network analyzer (E8363B) with an experimental setup. Conclusion: This an alternative safe imaging modality compared to present imaging systems(CT and MRI)

STUDY OF SIGNIFICANCE OF PHASE MASK IMAGE IN ACUTE STROKE PATIENTS

Background: Phase images contains information regarding local susceptibility changes between the tissues, which can help measure the iron and other content which changes the local field. Typically, this information is ignored before looking at console. Susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) is a magnetic resonance (MR) technique detects an early hemorrhagic transformation within the infarct to provide insight into cerebral hemodynamics following the stroke. Objective: Significance of “phase mask imaging in differentiation of hemorrhage and calcifications” in acute stroke patients. Methods: An observational non-interventional study carried out on 100 patients with stroke and headache symptoms. MRI Brain Stroke Profile with FLAIR, DWI, ADC, SWAN, and Phase mask sequences, done on 3T GE MRI scanner. Results: All patients underwent MRI study with SWI sequence. Of 183 cases, 33%(n=60) patients had microbleeds, 5%(n=10) patients had granulomas, 32%(n=58) patients had arterial thrombus with infarct, 11%(n=20) patients had falx calcifications, 11%(n=20) patients had intraparenchymal haemorrhage, and 8%(n=15) patients had infarcts with haemorrhagic transformation. The sensitivity of phase imaging in the detection of calcification was 90%. Conclusion: Phase mask imaging plays an important role to detect intracranial calcifications and chronic microbleeds. Phase mask imaging acts as a supplement tool in acute stroke patients, which guides further management.

A Review on Computer Aided Diagnosis of Acute Brain Stroke

Amongst the most common causes of death globally, stroke is one of top three affecting over 100 million people worldwide annually. There are two classes of stroke, namely ischemic stroke (due to impairment of blood supply, accounting for ~70% of all strokes) and hemorrhagic stroke (due to bleeding), both of which can result, if untreated, in permanently damaged brain tissue. The discovery that the affected brain tissue (i.e., ‘ischemic penumbra’) can be salvaged from permanent damage and the bourgeoning growth in computer aided diagnosis has led to major advances in stroke management. Abiding to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta–Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we have surveyed a total of 177 research papers published between 2010 and 2021 to highlight the current status and challenges faced by computer aided diagnosis (CAD), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) based techniques for CT and MRI as prime modalities for stroke detection and lesion region segmentation. This work concludes by showcasing the current requirement of this domain, the preferred modality, and prospective research areas.

Design of customized VR serious games for the cognitive rehabilitation of retrograde amnesia after brain stroke

The paper presents a software platform to design serious games for the rehabilitation of severe memory loss by means of Virtual Reality (VR). In particular, the focus is on retrograde amnesia, a condition affecting patient's quality of life usually after brain stroke. At present, the standard rehabilitation process includes showing pictures of patient's familiar environments to help recovering the memory. The proposed rehabilitation platform aims at developing patient-specific serious games for memory loss starting from the 3D scanning acquisition of familiar environments. The Occipital Structure Sensor and the Skanect application have been used for the virtualization of the real objects and the environment. A modular procedure has been designed to interface the virtual objects of each acquired environment with the modules of the game-logic developed with Unity. In addition, the developed solution makes available a set of software modules for the patient's monitoring and the data management to automatically generate medical reports, which can be easily connected to each new patient-specific serious game. A specific test has been performed to assess the main features of the VR platform and its usability. A positive feedback has been given by the involved medical personnel, who highlighted the importance of objective data to improve the ecological validity of the cognitive rehabilitation for retrograde amnesia.

Neuroinflammation as a Key Driver of Secondary Neurodegeneration Following Stroke?

Ischaemic stroke involves the rapid onset of focal neurological dysfunction, most commonly due to an arterial blockage in a specific region of the brain. Stroke is a leading cause of death and common cause of disability, with over 17 million people worldwide suffering from a stroke each year. It is now well-documented that neuroinflammation and immune mediators play a key role in acute and long-term neuronal tissue damage and healing, not only in the infarct core but also in distal regions. Importantly, in these distal regions, termed sites of secondary neurodegeneration (SND), spikes in neuroinflammation may be seen sometime after the initial stroke onset, but prior to the presence of the neuronal tissue damage within these regions. However, it is key to acknowledge that, despite the mounting information describing neuroinflammation following ischaemic stroke, the exact mechanisms whereby inflammatory cells and their mediators drive stroke-induced neuroinflammation are still not fully understood. As a result, current anti-inflammatory treatments have failed to show efficacy in clinical trials. In this review we discuss the complexities of post-stroke neuroinflammation, specifically how it affects neuronal tissue and post-stroke outcome acutely, chronically, and in sites of SND. We then discuss current and previously assessed anti-inflammatory therapies, with a particular focus on how failed anti-inflammatories may be repurposed to target SND-associated neuroinflammation.