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Purpose The aim of this paper is to describe a technique for the visualization and mapping of focal, local cartilage thickness changes over time in magnetic resonance images of osteoarthritic knee. Methods Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 25 fresh frozen pig knee joints and 15 knees of patients with borderline to mild osteoarthritis (51.2 ± 6.3 years). Cartilage and corresponding bone structures were extracted by semi-automatic segmentation. Each point in the bone surface which was part of the bone–cartilage interface was assigned a cartilage thickness value. Cartilage thicknesses were computed for each point in the bone–cartilage interfaces and transferred to the bone surfaces. Moreover, we developed a three dimensional registration method for the identification of anatomically corresponding points of the bone surface to quantify local cartilage thickness changes. One of the main advantages of our method compared to other studies in the field of registration is a global optimization algorithm that does not require any initialization. Results and conclusion The registration accuracy was 0.93 ± 0.05 mm (less than a voxel of magnetic resonance data). Local cartilage thickness changes were seen as having follow-up clinical study for detecting local changes in cartilage thickness. Experiment results suggest that our method was sufficiently accurate and effective for monitoring knee joint diseases.

The complement systems of fish are well developed and play an important role in the innate immune response. C9 is the ninth member of complement components, involved in creating the membrane attack complex (MAC). In the present study, a truncated C9 cDNA sequence encoding 461 amino acids was cloned and characterized in the miiuy croaker (Miichthys miiuy). Typical fish C9 molecules have five characteristic modular domains, i.e. TSP1, LDLRA, MACPF, EGF, and a second TSP domain which is absent in mammalian counterparts. While in miiuy croaker, this truncated C9 presents only TSP1, LDLRA and MACPF domains. It is the first time of finding a truncated C9 in teleost components. RT-PCR analysis detected these C9 transcripts among all tissues examined, demonstrating its constitutive expression pattern in healthy fish. The highest levels of transcripts were detected in liver of both healthy and pathogen-infected miiuy croaker. Its constitutive and inducible expression pattern of this truncated C9 in liver is similar to most complement components which belong to the type of acute-phase proteins and are in general of hepatic origin. We cannot exclude the possibility that miiuy croaker presents the typical C9 although it has not yet been found. The molecular evolutionary analysis showed that this truncated C9 of miiuy croaker had a significantly higher omega value comparing with other fish and the positive selection pressure had happened on it after its divergence with other fish.

Chemokines are a large family of chemotactic cytokines playing crucial roles in the innate immune response. In the present study, we report the cloning of a CXC chemokine gene resembling the closely related CXCL9/CXCL10/CXCL11 from the miiuy croaker Miichthys miiuy (MimiCXC). Both 5′-RACE and 3′-RACE were carried out in order to obtain the complete cDNA, which consists of a 73 bp 5′-UTR, a 369 bp open reading frame encoding 122 amino acids and a 715 bp 3′-UTR. The deduced MimiCXC contains a 19-aa signal peptide and a 103-aa mature polypeptide, which possesses the typical arrangement of four cysteines as found in other known CXC chemokines. It shares 4.8%–65.6% sequence identities to mammalian CXC chemokines and the highest sequence identity of 65.6% is between MimiCXC and CXCL10 chemokine. Three exons and two introns were identified in MimiCXC gene. The MimiCXC gene was constitutively expressed in all tissues tested, although at different levels. Upon induction with Vibrio anguillarum, MimiCXC gene expression was up-regulated in kidney and spleen, however, down-regulated in liver. These results indicate that MimiCXC may be involved in immune responses as well as homeostatic processes in miiuy croaker.

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has a central role in the adaptive immune system by presenting foreign peptide to the T-cell receptor. In order to study the molecular function and genomic characteristic of class II genes in teleost, the full lengths of MHC class IIA and IIB cDNA and genomic sequence were cloned from miiuy croaker (Miichthys miiuy). As in other teleost, four exons and three introns were identified in miiuy croaker class IIA gene; but the difference is that six exons and five introns were identified in the miiuy croaker class IIB gene. The deduced amino acid sequence of class IIA and class IIB had 26.3–85.7% and 11.0–88.8% identity with those of mammal and teleost, respectively. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that the MHC class IIA and IIB were ubiquitously expressed in ten normal tissues; expression levels of MHC genes were found first upregulated and then downregulated, and finally by a recovery to normal level throughout the pathogenic bacteria infection process. In addition, we report on the underlying mechanism that maintains sequences diversity among many fish species. A series of site-model tests implemented in the CODEML program revealed that positive Darwinian selection is likely the cause of the molecular evolution in the fish MHC class II genes.

A CC chemokine gene was isolated from miiuy croaker (Miichthys miiuy) by expressed sequence tag analysis. The Mimi-CC cDNA contains an open reading frame of 429 nucleotides encoding 142 amino acid residues. The deduced Mimi-CC possesses the typical arrangement of four cysteines as found in other known CC chemokines (C31, C32, C56, and C70). It shares 15.3%–37.4% identity to CC chemokines of mammal and teleost. Phylogenetic analysis showed that miiuy croaker was most closely related to Atlantic cod. Genomic analysis revealed that Mimi-CC gene consists of four exons and three introns, which is not typical of CC chemokines but resembles that of CXC chemokines. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that Mimi-CC is constitutively expressed in most tissues including lymphoid organs, and the highest expression of Mimi-CC transcripts in normal tissues was observed in muscle. Challenge of miiuy croaker with Vibrio anguillarum resulted in significant changes in the expression of CC chemokine transcripts in four tissues, especially in kidney and spleen.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the spiny head croaker Collichthys lucida was determined in the present study. The mitochondrial DNA was 16,442 base pairs in length, and contained 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs, and one major non-coding control region, with the content and order of genes being similar to those in typical teleosts. Most of the genes of C. lucida were encoded on the H-strand, while the ND6 and eight tRNA (Gln, Ala, Asn, Cys, Tyr, Ser (UCN), Glu and Pro) genes were encoded on the L-strand. The reading frames of two pairs of genes overlapped: ATPase 8 and 6 and ND4L and ND4 by ten and seven nucleotides, respectively. The control region was unusually short at only 768bp, and absence of typical conserved blocks (CSB-D, CSB-E, and CSB-F). Phylogenetic analyses indicated that C. lucida was located in the cluster of fish species from the family Sciaenidae, supporting the traditional taxonomic classification of fish, and in the cluster of Serranidae, the divergence time in Plectropomus leopardus is longer than that among its coordinal species. On the other hand, phylogenetic analyses do not support the monophyletic of family Centracanthidae and genera Larimichthys and Collichthys, which is against the morphological results.

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has a central role in the adaptive immune system by presenting foreign peptide to the T-cell receptor. MHC gene family contains two main subgroups of immunologically active molecules. In order to study the molecular function and genomic characteristic of class I gene in teleost, the full lengths of MHC class Iα cDNA and genomic sequence were cloned from miiuy croaker (Miichthys miiuy). Seven exons and six introns were identified in miiuy croaker class Iα gene. This genomic structural feature of miiuy croaker is similar to that present in some fishes such as Japanese flounder and Atlantic salmon, but different from that present in some other fishes such as half-smooth tongue sole and channel catfish. The deduced amino acid sequence of class Iα gene had 25.9–54.1% identity with those of mammal and teleost. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that the MHC class Iα gene was ubiquitously expressed in 10 normal tissues; expression levels of MHC Iα gene were found first upregulated and then downregulated throughout the pathogenic bacteria infection process in spleen and kidney.

The complete sequence of the 16,493 nucleotide mitochondrial genome from the single species of the family Sciaenidae, the miiuy croaker, Miichthys miiuy, was determined. The nucleotide sequences of M. miiuy mitochondrial DNA have been compared with those of three other Sciaenidae fishes. The contents of the M. miiuy mitochondrial genome are 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and 22 transfer RNA genes, and two non-coding regions (L-strand replication origin and control region), the gene order of which is identical to that observed in most vertebrates. The L-strand replication origin of M. miiuy is not pyrimidine-rich compared to those of most bony fishes. Within the control region, we identified the extended termination associated sequence domain, the central conserved sequence block domain and the conserved sequence block domain, while the typical central conserved blocks CSB-D, -E and -F could not be detected in the three other Sciaenidae species. In the ML phylogenetic analyses, the monophyly of Pseudosciaeniae was not supported, which is against with the morphological results. Collichthys niveatus is most closely related to Larimichthys polyactis, and Collichthys and Larimichthys may be merged into one genus, based on the current datasets.

Image segmentation for detection of vessel walls is necessary for quantitative assessment of vessel diseases by intravascular ultrasound. A new segmentation method based on gradient vector flow (GVF) snake model is proposed in this paper. The main characteristics of the proposed method include two aspects: one is that nonlinear filtering is performed on GVF field to reduce the critical points, change the morphological structure of the parallel curves and extend the capture range; the other is that balloon snake is combined with the model. Thus, the improved GVF and balloon snake can be automatically initialized and overcome the problem caused by local energy minima. Results of 20 in vivo cases validated the accuracy and stability of the segmentation method for intravascular ultrasound images.

In the hip joint, the femoral and acetabular cartilages are in proximity to each other, a conventional measurement technique based on the edge detection, can introduce large underestimation errors in measurement of cartilage thickness. In this study, we develop a model-based approach for accurate thickness measurement. We model the imaging process of two adjacent sheet structures, which simulate two articular cartilages in the hip joint. This model can be used to predict the shape of the intensity profile along the sheet normal orientation. Using an optimization technique, the model parameters are adjusted to minimize the difference between the predicted intensity profile and the actual intensity profiles observed in the MR data. The set of model parameters that minimize the difference between the model and the MR data yield the thickness estimation. Using three cadaveric human hip joints, we present results showing that the new model-based approach is more accurate than the edge detection method at estimating the hip cartilage thickness.

Purpose: To test the accuracy of the most widely used technique based on edge detection for thickness measurement of the hip joint cartilage in MR images, and to improve the measurement accuracy by developing a new measurement method based on a model of the MRI process. Materials and Methods: MRI was performed in 3 normal cadaver hips, 25 hips of normal volunteers, and 25 hips of patients with osteoarthritis. In general, thickness was defined as the distance between the two sides of the hip cartilage along the normal directions of the cartilage surfaces. In this article this is referred to as the “edge detection method.” A theoretical simulation analysis revealed that the edge detection method considerably underestimated the cartilage thickness of the hip joint. A new measurement method based on a model of the MR imaging process was accordingly proposed for correcting the measurement errors. Results: In the experiment using the cadaver hips, anatomical measurement of cartilage thickness was used as reference standard. For measurements at 35 sites, the proposed model-based method gave results similar to those presented from anatomic section, while the edge detection method gave underestimation compared with the anatomic thickness. The underestimation biases for the edge detection method were consistent with the biases predicted by theoretical simulation. In the experiment using the hips of volunteers and patients, the edge detection result was an underestimation compared with the result generated by using the model-based method. Conclusion: The edge detection method underestimated the hip cartilage thickness in MR images. The proposed model-based method was more accurate than the edge detection method for thickness measurement of the hip cartilage. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2011;. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The purpose of this study is to develop a new method for the registration of 3D cartilage plates in the MR data set. This technique traces local cartilage thickness changes over time. In a first rough registration step, the principal axes transformation (PAX) and landmark methods are used. In the second step, an improved iterative closest point (ICP) method is used. The point sets from segmentation of MRI sequences are registratered in these processes. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method for the registration of the MRI of knee cartilage over time based on the cartilage and bone interfaces.

Accurate measurement of the distance separating two adjacent sheet structures, such as femoral cartilage and acetabular cartilage in the hip joint is important in evaluation of osteoarthritis. A new method, insensitive to the influence of adjacent sheet structures, was developed to improve the accuracy of hip cartilage thickness measurement. A theoretical simulation for investigating the influence of adjacent sheet structures on the accuracy of cartilage thickness measurement in MR images was performed. The thickness is defined as the distance between zero-crossings of the second directional derivatives along the sheet surface normal direction. The simulation measurement showed considerable underestimation in thickness measurement occurred due to the influence of the adjacent sheet. A new method based on a model of the MR imaging process to eliminate the influence of adjacent sheet structure was developed and tested using phantoms and two cadaveric human hip joint MR scans. The new method reduced the influence of the adjacent sheet structure was more accurate than the conventional method for measuring hip cartilage thickness.

Vessel centerline detection is very important in many medical applications. In the noise and low-contrast regions, most existing methods may only produce an incomplete and disconnected extraction of the vessel centerline if no user guidance is provided. A robust and automatic method is described for extraction of the vessel centerline. First, we perform small vessel enhancement by processing with a set of line detection filters, corresponding to the 13 orientations; for each voxel, the highest filter response is kept and added to the image. Second, we extract vessel centerline segment candidates by a thinning algorithm. Finally, a global optimization algorithm is employed for grouping and selecting vessel centerline segments. We validate the proposed method quantitatively on a number of synthetic data sets, the liver artery and lung vessel. Comparisons are made with two state-of-the-art vessel centerline extraction methods and manual extraction. The experiments show that our method is more accurate and robust that these state-of-the-art methods and is, therefore, more suited for automatic vessel centerline extraction.

The purpose of this study is to develop a three-dimensional registration method for monitoring knee joint disease from magnetic resonance (MR) image data sets. A global optimization technique was used for identifying anatomically corresponding points of knee femur surfaces (bone cartilage interfaces). In a first pre-registration step, we used the principal axes transformation to correct for different knee joint positions and orientations in the MR scanner. In a second step, we presented a global search algorithm based on Lipschitz optimization theory. This technique can simultaneously determine the translation and rotation parameters through searching a six-dimensional space of Euclidean motion metrics (translation and rotation) after calculating the point correspondences. The point correspondences were calculated by using the Hungarian algorithm. The accuracy of registration was evaluated using 20 porcine knees. There were 300 corresponding landmark points over the 20 pig knees. We evaluated the registration accuracy by measuring the root-mean-square distance (RMSD) error of corresponding landmark points between two femur surfaces (two time-points). The results show that the average RMSD was 1.22 ± 0.10 mm (SD) by the iterative closest point (ICP) method, 1.17 ± 0.10 mm the by expectation-maximization-ICP method, 1.02 ± 0.06 mm by the genetic method, and 0.93 ± 0.04 mm by the proposed method. Compared with the other three registration approaches, the proposed method achieved the highest registration accuracy.