Medical Imaging

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Vanderbilt researchers have developed a novel brain age estimation framework that leverages diffusion MRI to capture microstructural changes associated with aging. This innovative approach outperforms conventional T1-weighted MRI methods by focusing specifically on subtle brain changes, providing a powerful tool for early detection of neurodegenerative diseases and enabling earlier clinical intervention.

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a novel MRI-based method for fast, robust, and accurate imaging of biological tissue by selecting a specific cell size range (such as tumors) without the need for a contrast agent. One exciting application of this method is imaging brain metastases (BM) that are difficult to differentiate from other brain abnormalities such as radionecrosis when using existing approaches.

A team of Vanderbilt researchers has developed a novel system and method for non-destructive characterization of compound lenses. The approach uses optical coherence tomography and reflectance confocal microscopy to fully characterize lens geometry and glass materials, enabling accurate modeling of compound lenses.

There is currently no radiotherapy phantom capable of quantitatively assessing all components of an online adaptive radiotherapy (online ART) system in a comprehensive end-to-end test.Represented here is a novel, rigid phantom that can simultaneously evaluate an online ART system's image acquisition, deformable image registration, contour propagation, plan re-optimization, dose calculation, and beam delivery in a single process that is robust, quantitative, and convenient.