Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. To decrease mortality and morbidity in cardiovascular disease, the development of accurate, non-invasive methods for early diagnosis of atherosclerotic cardiac and vascular engagement is of considerable clinical interest. Cardiovascular ultrasound imaging is today the cornerstone in the routine evaluation of cardiovascular function and recent development has resulted in two new techniques, tissue velocity imaging (TVI) and speckle tracking, which allow objective quantification of cardiovascular function. TVI and speckle tracking are the basis for three new approaches to cardiac and vascular monitoring presented in this thesis: wave intensity wall analysis (WIWA), two-dimensional strain imaging in the common carotid artery, and the state diagram of the heart.   WIWA uses longitudinal and radial strain rate as input for calculations of wave intensity in the arterial wall. In this thesis, WIWA was validated against a commercially available wave intensity system, showing that speckle tracking-derived strain variables can be useful in wave intensity analysis. WIWA was further tested in patients with end stage renal disease and documented high mortality in cardiovascular disease. The latter study evaluated the effects of a single session of hemodialysis using WIWA and TVI variables and showed improved systolic function after hemodialysis. The results also indicated that preload-adjusted early systolic wave intensity obtained by the WIWA system may contribute in the assessment of left ventricular contractility in this patient category. Two-dimensional strain imaging in the common carotid artery is a new approach showing great potential to detect age-dependent differences in mechanical properties of the common carotid artery. Among the measured strain variables, global circumferential strain had the best discriminating performance and appeared to be superior to conventional measures of arterial stiffness such as elastic modulus and β stiffness index. The state diagram is a visualisation tool that provides a quantitative overview of the temporal interrelationship of mechanical events in the left and right ventricles. Case examples and a small clinical study showed that state diagrams clearly visualize cardiac function and can be useful in the detection of non ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI).   Even though WIWA, two-dimensional strain imaging in the common carotid artery and the state diagram show potential to be useful in the evaluation of cardiovascular function, there still remains a considerable amount of work to be done before they can be used in the daily clinical practice. / QC 20100705

The sensitivity for observing physiological processes makes nuclear imaging an important tool in medical diagnostics. Different types of nuclear imaging modalities, with emphasis on the software components and image reconstructions, are presented in this thesis:  the Cardiotom for myocardial heart studies at the Karolinska University Hospital, the small animal Positron Emission Tomograph (PET) scanners for research and the SPECT, PET, spiral CT and Cardiotom demonstrators for the Royal Institute of Technology medical imaging laboratory. A modular and unified software platform has been developed for data representation, acquisition, visualization, reconstruction and presentation of the programs of the imaging devices mentioned above. The high performance 3D ML-EM and OS-EM iterative image reconstruction methods are implemented both on Cardiotom and miniPET scanners. As a result, the in-slice resolution of the first two prototypes of the Cardiotom today is the same as the formerly used filtered back-projection, however the in-depth resolution is considerably increased. Another improvement due to the new software is the shorter time that is required for data acquisition and image reconstruction. The new electronics with the newly developed software ensure images for medical diagnosis within 10 minutes from the start ofthe examination. The first system from the standardized production of the Cardiotom cameras is in the test phase. The performance parameters (sensitivity, spatial and energy resolution, coincidence time resolution) of the full ring mini PET camera are comparable to other small animal PETsystems. / QC20100721

Ever since the validation of the tissue velocity echocardiography (TVE) technique more than a decade ago the modality has been used rather successfully in various clinical situations, at rest as well as during stress echocardiography. Hitherto, dobutamine stress echocardiography has been the hallmark of all forms of stress procedures, now with TVE, quantification of the longitudinal motions of the left ventricle shows far superiority, with improved sensitivity and specificity in the functional diagnosis of coronary artery disease. Morever there has been continued interest in this technique for even assessing subclinical myocardial systolic and diastolic function in clinical scenarios like diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease. The aim of the present study was to evaluate left ventricular myocardial functions by applying TVE in human subjects having type 2 diabetes with or without co-morbidities and during changing loading conditions. The effects of changing loading conditions were analyzed during hemodialysis and following oral administration of an AT1 receptor blocker. The studied subjects included individuals with diabetes as well as those with associated hypertension, coronary artery disease, microalbuminuria and end-stage renal disease. All patients with type 2 diabetes and co-morbidities underwent TVE enhanced dobutamine stress echocardiography while load dependant left ventricular functions were analyzed at rest. There were 270 subjects in the study of type 2 diabetes and associated cardiovascular diseases and 101 subjects in the study of changing loading conditions. Patients with type 2 diabetes revealed subclinical left ventricular dysfunction characterized by reduced functional reserve. This influence becomes quantitatively more pronounced in the presence of coexistent coronary artery disease and hypertension. The coexistence of type 2 diabetes and hypertension appears to have additive negative effect on both systolic and diastolic left ventricular function, even in the absence of coronary artery disease. The presence of microalbuminuria in type 2 diabetes patients does not worsen diminished myocardial functional reserve. A single session of hemodialysis improves left ventricular function in patients with end-stage renal disease only in the absence of type 2 diabetes and co-morbidities, while a single dose of an AT1 receptor blocker valsartan results in reduction of afterload and, subsequently, in improvement of left ventricular function. TVE appears to be a sensitive tool for objective assessment of left ventricular function and can be successfully applied for the clinical evaluation of the effect of type 2 diabetes and co-morbidities on myocardial performance. / QC 20100709

No description available.

A global mapping of early stage medical technology companies has been implemented. The companies have emerging products within neurology and have undergone an evaluation by clinicians concerning the ability to provide clinical value for Swedish health care. The evaluation process has been executed by discussion with neurologists and neurosurgeons in combination with a literature survey. To limit the evaluation process, areas of stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy were chosen. Some companies turn up to develop more requested products than others. Medfield Diagnostics AB, with their microwave screening product could in the future address the need for fast, accurate and accessible diagnosis of stroke and head trauma. The NBS system from Nexstim Ltd. has potential to provide clinical value by the ability of the products TMS technology to navigate in the brain. Elminda Ltd. product built of an evidence based rehabilitation platform could enhance recovery of patients with neurological disorders on an individual basis. BrainsGate Ltd. product to deliver drugs over the blood brain barrier provides totally new treatment options and NeuroSonix Ltd. ultrasound based product could assist the surgeon and decrease damageable embolic debris. Neurolife non-invasive solutions innovative device, which non-invasively measured the intracranial pressure, would be a totally new way to monitor patients. A symposium was organized and three top ranked companies with stroke care products were invited to present their technology for Swedish clinicians in Stockholm. Participating companies were Nexstim Ltd., Elminda Ltd. and Medfield Diagnostics AB, who were all well received and considered to have interesting technologies with ability to provide clinical value.

No description available.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2009. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2009. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

There are binding regulations requiring safety and efficacy aspects of medical devices. The requirements ask for documentation that the devices are safe and effective for their intended use, i.e. if a device has a measuring function it must be correct. In addition to this there are demands for quality systems describing development, manufacturing, labelling, and manufacturing of a device. The requirements are established to guarantee that non-defective medical devices are used in the routine clinical practice. The fast rates in which the imaging modalities have evolved during the last decades have resulted in numerous new diagnostic tools, such as velocity and deformation imaging in ultrasound imaging. However, it seems as if the development of evaluation methods and test routines has not been able to keep up the same pace. Two of the studies in this thesis, Study I and IV, showed that computed tomography-based and ultrasound based volume measurements can yield very disparate measurements, and that tissue Doppler imaging-based ultrasound measurements can be unreliable. Furthermore, the new ultrasound modalities impose higher demands on the ultrasound transducers. Transducers are known to be fragile, but defective transducers were less of a problem earlier when the ultrasound systems to a lesser extent were used for measurements. The two other studies, Study II and III, showed that serious transducer errors are very common, and that annual testing of the transducers is not sufficient to guarantee an error free function. The studies in the thesis indicate that the system with Notified Bodies, in accordance with the EU’s Medical Device Directive, checking the function and manufacturing of medical devices does not work entirely satisfactory. They also show that the evaluation of new methods have led to the undesirable situation, where new measuring tools, such as volume rendering from imaging systems, and tissue Doppler-based velocity and deformation imaging in echocardiography are available for clinicians without proven knowledge about their accuracy. / QC 20110527

Lic.-avh. Ronneby : Blekinge tekniska högskola, 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.