Lead lines, radiographic

Measuring the child s blood lead level will be very useful in assessing the possibility of lead poisoning. There is evidence that at blood lead levels of about 10 Jig/dL, children are at risk for developmental impairment. Other tests that may be useful include examination for microcytic anemia and erythrocyte stippling and radiographic examination of the long bones for lead lines. 

Moffett JW (1990) Microbially mediated cerium oxidation in seawater. Nature 345 421-423 Molleson Tl, Wilhams CT, Cressey G, Din VK (1998) Radiographically opaque bones from lead-lined coffins at Christ Church, Spitalfields, London—An extreme example of diagenesis. Bull Soc Geol France 169 425-432... 

How do such algorithms work Let us look in some detail to one example stellate tumor detection (Karssemeijer 1995). As hreast tissue consists of tubular structures from the milk-glands to the nipple, tumor extensions may preferably follow these tubular pathways. In a projection radiograph this leads to a spiculated or star-shaped pattern. The computer will inspect the contextual environment of each pixel (say 50 X 50 pixels) on the presence of lines with an orientation pointing towards the relevant pixel. In this way a total of 2500 votes are collected for each pixel. The pixels with a voting probability exceeding some threshold are possible candidates for further inspection. 

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