RESUMEN
RADPLANET is a functioning LAN (Local Area Network) designed to integrate the many and varied facilities of a university medical center radiology department (Department of Radiation Sciences) into an efficient unified resource providing state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities and delivering precision radiotherapy. RADPLANET links diagnostic work stations, radiation-therapy planning work stations, and therapy machine stations into an integrated whole. The RADPLANET project exploits technology currently evolving in the PACS (Picture Archiving and Communicating Systems) community but also addresses digital image networking requirements peculiar to radiation therapy. RADPLANET is designed as a modular, expandable, piecemeal updatable system in order to incorporate new, more cost-effective technology as it becomes available and to provide new resources to meet the needs of a growing department and an increasingly sophisticated medical profession. The paper discusses design criteria and rationale, current status of the network, and plans for continuing expansion and enhancement.
Asunto(s)
Departamentos de Hospitales/organización & administración , Sistemas de Información en Hospital/organización & administración , Servicio de Radiología en Hospital/organización & administración , Sistemas de Información Radiológica/organización & administración , Intensificación de Imagen RadiográficaRESUMEN
A direct data link between a CT scanner and a radiation treatment planning system has been developed. The link transmits the data serially over a coaxial cable using the pseudo-paper-tape punch and reader (serial PIO) interfaces. The data transmission rate with error-check is approximately 25,000 8-bit bytes/s. This translates to about 7 s for transferring a CT scan with a 320-pixel diameter.
Asunto(s)
Computadores , Sistemas de Comunicación en Hospital , Neoplasias/radioterapia , Planificación de Atención al Paciente/métodos , Tomografía Computarizada por Rayos X/instrumentación , Humanos , Neoplasias/diagnóstico por imagenRESUMEN
It has been suggested that recovery of motor and sensory function in the site distal to a peripheral nerve lesion should be improved if the nerve bundles (fasciculi) are matched and individually sutured. Three parameters are proposed to provide quantitative data: the count of the nerve fibers that regenerate, the number of functional regenerated nerve fibers, and a measurement of end organ reinnervation. A thin cross section of a transected and repaired sciatic nerve of a mongrel cat is fixed, stained, photographed, and digitized through a microscope 6 months following nerve repair. The data arrays are then subjected to four basic processing routines: edge enhancing, thresholding, template matching, and peak detection. Finally, the peaks are counted and provide an estimate of the number of nerve fibers in the nerve under study. Comparing counts of nerve fibers proximal and distal to the transection site of the nerve provide data on the proportion of regeneration present at various times. The content of this paper is, to a large extent, describing the implementation of the needed image-processing algorithms for automated counting on the Multi-MiniComputer System (MMCS). Optimal use of the AP-120B array processor and the pipeline processing provided by using the Eclipse 200s and the Nova 3 make a marked improvement in overall throughput.