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- Inter-speaker speech variability assessment using statistical deformable models from 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imagesPublication . Vasconcelos, Maria J. M.; Ventura, Sandra Moreira Rua; Freitas, Diamantino R. S.; Tavares, João Manuel R. S.The morphological and dynamic characterisation of the vocal tract during speech production has been gaining greater attention due to the motivation of the latest improvements in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging; namely, with the use of higher magnetic fields, such as 3.0 Tesla. In this work, the automatic study of the vocal tract from 3.0 Tesla MR images was assessed through the application of statistical deformable models. Therefore, the primary goal focused on the analysis of the shape of the vocal tract during the articulation of European Portuguese sounds, followed by the evaluation of the results concerning the automatic segmentation, i.e. identification of the vocal tract in new MR images. In what concerns speech production, this is the first attempt to automatically characterise and reconstruct the vocal tract shape of 3.0 Tesla MR images by using deformable models; particularly, by using active and appearance shape models. The achieved results clearly evidence the adequacy and advantage of the automatic analysis of the 3.0 Tesla MR images of these deformable models in order to extract the vocal tract shape and assess the involved articulatory movements. These achievements are mostly required, for example, for a better knowledge of speech production, mainly of patients suffering from articulatory disorders, and to build enhanced speech synthesizer models.
- Predicting Xerostomia induced by IMRT treatments: A logistic regression approachPublication . Soares, Inês; Dias, Joana; Rocha, Humberto; Lopes, Maria do Carmo; Costa Ferreira, BrigidaRadiotherapy is one of the main treatments used against cancer. Radiotherapy uses radiation to destroy cancerous cells trying, at the same time, to minimize the damages in healthy tissues. The planning of a radiotherapy treatment is patient dependent, resulting in a lengthy trial and error procedure until a treatment complying as most as possible with the medical prescription is found. Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is one technique of radiation treatment that allows the achievement of a high degree of conformity between the area to be treated and the dose absorbed by healthy tissues. Nevertheless, it is still not possible to eliminate completely the potential treatments’ side-effects. In this retrospective study we use the clinical data from patients with head-and-neck cancer treated at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Coimbra and explore the possibility of classifying new and untreated patients according to the probability of xerostomia 12 months after the beginning of IMRT treatments by using a logistic regression approach. The results obtained show that the classifier presents a high discriminative ability in predicting the binary response “at risk for xerostomia at 12 months”
- Morfometria do trato vocal por ressonância magnética: simulação de padrões patológicos articulatóriosPublication . Ventura, Sandra Moreira Rua; Freitas, Diamantino Rui S.; Ramos, Isabel Maria A.; Tavares, João Manuel R. S.Introdução – A análise da forma ou morfometria de estruturas anatómicas, como o trato vocal, pode ser efetuada a partir de imagens bidimensionais (2D) como de aquisições volumétricas (3D) de ressonância magnética (RM). Esta técnica de imagem tem vindo a ter uma utilização crescente no estudo da produção da fala. Objetivos – Demonstrar como pode ser efetuada a morfometria do trato vocal a partir da imagem por ressonância magnética e ainda apresentar padrões anatómicos normais durante a produção das vogais [i a u] e dois padrões articulatórios patológicos em contexto simulado. Métodos – As imagens consideradas foram recolhidas a partir de aquisições 2D (Turbo Spin-eco) e 3D (Flash Gradiente-Eco) de RM em quatro sujeitos durante a produção das vogais em estudo; adicionalmente procedeu-se à avaliação de duas perturbações articulatórias usando o mesmo protocolo de RM. A morfometria do trato vocal foi extraída com recurso a técnicas manuais (para extração de cinco medidas articulatórias) e automáticas (para determinação de volumes) de processamento e análise de imagem. Resultados – Foi possível analisar todo o trato vocal, incluindo a posição e a forma dos articuladores, tendo por base cinco medidas descritivas do posicionamento destes órgãos durante a produção das vogais. A determinação destas medições permitiu identificar quais as estratégias mais comummente adotadas na produção de cada som, nomeadamente a postura articulatória e a variação de cada medida para cada um dos sujeitos em estudo. No contexto de voz falada intersujeitos, foi notória a variabilidade nos volumes estimados do trato vocal para cada som e, em especial, o aumento do volume do trato vocal na perturbação articulatória de sigmatismo. Conclusão – A imagem por RM é, sem dúvida, uma técnica promissora no estudo da fala, inócua, não-invasiva e que fornece informação fiável da morfometria do trato vocal.
- Noncoplanar beam angle optimization in IMRT treatment planning using pattern search methodsPublication . Rocha, Humberto; Dias, Joana M; Costa Ferreira, Brigida; Lopes, Maria CRadiation therapy is used to treat localized cancers, aiming to deliver a dose of radiation to the tumor volume to sterilize all cancer cells while minimizing the collateral effects on the surrounding healthy organs and tissues. The planning of radiation therapy treatments requires decisions regarding the angles used for radiation incidence, the fluence intensities and, if multileaf collimators are used, the definition of the leaf sequencing. The beam angle optimization problem consists in finding the optimal number and incidence directions of the irradiation beams. The selection of appropriate radiation incidence directions is important for the quality of the treatment. However, the possibility of improving the quality of treatment plans by an optimized selection of the beam incidences is seldom done in the clinical practice. Adding the possibility for noncoplanar incidences is even more rarely used. Nevertheless, the advantage of noncoplanar beams is well known. The optimization of noncoplanar beam incidences may further allow the reduction of the number of beams needed to reach a clinically acceptable plan. In this paper we present the benefits of using pattern search methods for the optimization of the highly non-convex noncoplanar beam angle optimization problem.
- A derivative-free multistart framework for an automated noncoplanar beam angle optimization in IMRTPublication . Rocha, Humberto; Dias, Joana; Ventura, Tiago; BC Ferreira; Lopes, Maria do CarmoThe inverse planning of an intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment requires decisions regarding the angles used for radiation incidence, even when arcs are used. The possibility of improving the quality of treatment plans by an optimized selection of the beam angle incidences-beam angle optimization (BAO)-is seldom done in clinical practice. The inclusion of noncoplanar beam incidences in an automated optimization routine is even more unusual. However, for some tumor sites, the advantage of considering noncoplanar beam incidences is well known. This paper presents the benefits of using a derivative-free multistart framework for the optimization of the noncoplanar BAO problem.
- SPIDERplan: A tool to support decision-making in radiation therapy treatment plan assessmentPublication . Ventura, Tiago; Lopes, Maria do Carmo; Costa Ferreira, Brigida; Khouri, LeilaAim In this work, a graphical method for radiotherapy treatment plan assessment and comparison, named SPIDERplan, is proposed. It aims to support plan approval allowing independent and consistent comparisons of different treatment techniques, algorithms or treatment planning systems. Background Optimized plans from modern radiotherapy are not easy to evaluate and compare because of their inherent multicriterial nature. The clinical decision on the best treatment plan is mostly based on subjective options. Materials and methods SPIDERplan combines a graphical analysis with a scoring index. Customized radar plots based on the categorization of structures into groups and on the determination of individual structures scores are generated. To each group and structure, an angular amplitude is assigned expressing the clinical importance defined by the radiation oncologist. Completing the graphical evaluation, a global plan score, based on the structures score and their clinical weights, is determined. After a necessary clinical validation of the group weights, SPIDERplan efficacy, to compare and rank different plans, was tested through a planning exercise where plans had been generated for a nasal cavity case using different treatment planning systems. Results SPIDERplan method was applied to the dose metrics achieved by the nasal cavity test plans. The generated diagrams and scores successfully ranked the plans according to the prescribed dose objectives and constraints and the radiation oncologist priorities, after a necessary clinical validation process. Conclusions SPIDERplan enables a fast and consistent evaluation of plan quality considering all targets and organs at risk.
- Compliance to radiation therapy of head and neck cancer patients and impact on treatment outcomePublication . Costa Ferreira, Brigida; Sá-Couto, P.; Lopes, M. C.; Khouri, L.The aims of the study were to evaluate head and neck cancer (HNC) patient's compliance to the planned radiation therapy (RT) using the department policy established in 2005 at IPOCFG and to estimate the impact on treatment outcome due to failure in receiving RT as prescribed.
- Automated fluence map optimization based on fuzzy inference systemsPublication . Dias, Joana; Rocha, Humberto; Ventura, Tiago; BC Ferreira; Lopes, Maria do CarmoThe planning of an intensity modulated radiation therapy treatment requires the optimization of the fluence intensities. The fluence map optimization (FMO) is many times based on a nonlinear continuous programming problem, being necessary for the planner to define a priori weights and/or lower bounds that are iteratively changed within a trial-and-error procedure until an acceptable plan is reached. In this work, the authors describe an alternative approach for FMO that releases the human planner from trial-and-error procedures, contributing for the automation of the planning process.
- Treatment failure prediction for head-and-neck cancer radiation therapyPublication . Rocha, H.; Khouri, L.; Lopes, M.C.; Dias, J.; Ferreira, BrigidaTreatment outcome prediction is an important emerging topic in oncologic care. To support radiation oncologists on their decisions, with individualized, tailored treatment regimens increasingly becoming the standard of care, accurate tools to predict tumour response to treatment are needed. The goal of this work is to identify the most determinant factor(s) for treatment response aiming to develop prediction models that robustly estimate tumour response to radiation therapy in patients with head- and-neck cancer.
- Biological dose-escalated definitive radiation therapy in head and neck cancerPublication . Costa Ferreira, Brigida; Sá-Couto, Pedro; Khouri, Leila; Lopes, Maria do CarmoTo compare treatment outcome of patients with head and neck (HN) tumours treated with definitive radiation therapy that, mainly owing to differences in the fractionation scheme used with simultaneous integrated boost techniques, resulted in a different biological dose.
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