Zehor Belkhatir

Dr. Zehor Belkhatir


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

13Years (2014-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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26 September 2024 in Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
MBMohamed A. Bahloul
Mohamed A. Bahloul
SJSaima Jabeen
Saima Jabeen
SBSara Benoumhani
Sara Benoumhani
HAHabib Abdulmohsen Alsaleh
Habib Abdulmohsen Alsaleh
Zehor BelkhatirZehor Belkhatir
Zehor Belkhatir
AAAreej Al-Wabil
Areej Al-Wabil
Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Computed tomography (CT) are crucial imaging techniques in both diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy. MRI provides excellent soft tissue contrast but lacks the direct electron density data needed to calculate dosage. CT, on the other hand, remains the gold standard due to its accurate electron density information in radiation therapy planning (RTP) but it exposes patients to ionizing radiation. Synthetic CT (sCT) generation from MRI has been a focused study field in the last few years due to cost effectiveness as well as for the objective of minimizing side‐effects of using more than one imaging modality for treatment simulation. It offers significant time and cost efficiencies, bypassing the complexities of co‐registration, and potentially improving treatment accuracy by minimizing registration‐related errors. In an effort to navigate the quickly developing field of precision medicine, this paper investigates recent advancements in sCT generation techniques, particularly those using machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL). The review highlights the potential of these techniques to improve the efficiency and accuracy of sCT generation for use in RTP by improving patient care and reducing healthcare costs. The intricate web of sCT generation techniques is scrutinized critically, with clinical implications and technical underpinnings for enhanced patient care revealed.Purpose: This review aims to provide an overview of the most recent advancements in sCT generation from MRI with a particular focus of its use within RTP, emphasizing on techniques, performance evaluation, clinical applications, future research trends and open challenges in the field.Methods: A thorough search strategy was employed to conduct a systematic literature review across major scientific databases. Focusing on the past decade's advancements, this review critically examines emerging approaches introduced from 2013 to 2023 for generating sCT from MRI, providing a comprehensive analysis of their methodologies, ultimately fostering further advancement in the field. This study highlighted significant contributions, identified challenges, and provided an overview of successes within RTP. Classifying the identified approaches, contrasting their advantages and disadvantages, and identifying broad trends were all part of the review's synthesis process.Results: The review identifies various sCT generation approaches, consisting atlas‐based, segmentation‐based, multi‐modal fusion, hybrid approaches, ML and DL‐based techniques. These approaches are evaluated for image quality, dosimetric accuracy, and clinical acceptability. They are used for MRI‐only radiation treatment, adaptive radiotherapy, and MR/PET attenuation correction. The review also highlights the diversity of methodologies for sCT generation, each with its own advantages and limitations. Emerging trends incorporate the integration of advanced imaging modalities including various MRI sequences like Dixon sequences, T1‐weighted (T1W), T2‐weighted (T2W), as well as hybrid approaches for enhanced accuracy.Conclusions: The study examines MRI‐based sCT generation, to minimize negative effects of acquiring both modalities. The study reviews 2013‐2023 studies on MRI to sCT generation methods, aiming to revolutionize RTP by reducing use of ionizing radiation and improving patient outcomes. The review provides insights for researchers and practitioners, emphasizing the need for standardized validation procedures and collaborative efforts to refine methods and address limitations. It anticipates the continued evolution of techniques to improve the precision of sCT in RTP.


1 May 2018 in Systems & Control Letters
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
Zehor BelkhatirZehor Belkhatir
Zehor Belkhatir
TLTaous Meriem Laleg-Kirati
Taous Meriem Laleg-Kirati
This paper proposes a two steps algorithm for the joint estimation of parameters and fractional differentiation orders of a linear continuous-time fractional system with non-commensurate orders. The proposed algorithm combines the modulating functions and the first-order Newton methods. Sufficient conditions ensuring the convergence of the method are provided. Moreover, the method is extended to the joint estimation of smooth unknown input and fractional differentiation orders. A potential application of the proposed algorithm consists in estimating the fractional differentiation orders of a fractional neurovascular model along with the neural activity considered as an input for this model. To assess the performance of the proposed method, different numerical tests are conducted.

3 June 2022 in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
MPMaryam Pouryahya
Maryam Pouryahya
Jung Hun OhJung Hun Oh
Jung Hun Oh
PJPedram Javanmard
Pedram Javanmard
JMJames C. Mathews
James C. Mathews
Zehor BelkhatirZehor Belkhatir
Zehor Belkhatir
ATAllen Tannenbaum
Allen Tannenbaum
The remarkable growth of multi-platform genomic profiles has led to the challenge of multiomics data integration. In this study, we present a novel network-based multiomics clustering founded on the Wasserstein distance from optimal mass transport. This distance has many important geometric properties making it a suitable choice for application in machine learning and clustering. Our proposed method of aggregating multiomics and Wasserstein distance clustering (aWCluster) is applied to breast carcinoma as well as bladder carcinoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma, renal carcinoma, lung non-small cell adenocarcinoma, and endometrial carcinoma from The Cancer Genome Atlas project. Subtypes were characterized by the concordant effect of mRNA expression, DNA copy number alteration, and DNA methylation of genes and their neighbors in the interaction network. aWCluster successfully clusters all cancer types into classes with significantly different survival rates. Also, a gene ontology enrichment analysis of significant genes in the low survival subgroup of breast cancer leads to the well-known phenomenon of tumor hypoxia and the transcription factor ETS1 whose expression is induced by hypoxia. We believe aWCluster has the potential to discover novel subtypes and biomarkers by accentuating the genes that have concordant multiomics measurements in their interaction network, which are challenging to find without the network inference or with single omics analysis.

Verified
Journal Article
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MPMaryam Pouryahya
Maryam Pouryahya
Jung Hun OhJung Hun Oh
Jung Hun Oh
JMJames C. Mathews
James C. Mathews
Zehor BelkhatirZehor Belkhatir
Zehor Belkhatir
CMCaroline Moosmueller
Caroline Moosmueller
ATAllen Tannenbaum
Allen Tannenbaum
The development of reliable predictive models for individual cancer cell lines to identify an optimal cancer drug is a crucial step to accelerate personalized medicine, but vast differences in cancer cell lines and drug characteristics make it quite challenging to develop predictive models that result in high predictive power and explain the similarity of cell lines or drugs. Our study proposes a novel network-based methodology that breaks the problem into smaller, more interpretable problems to improve the predictive power of anti-cancer drug responses in cell lines. For the drug-sensitivity study, we used the GDSC database for 915 cell lines and 200 drugs. The theory of optimal mass transport was first used to separately cluster cell lines and drugs, using gene-expression profiles and extensive cheminformatic drug features, represented in a form of data networks. To predict cell-line specific drug responses, random forest regression modeling was separately performed for each cell-line drug cluster pair. Post-modeling biological analysis was further performed to identify potential biological correlates associated with drug responses. The network-based clustering method resulted in 30 distinct cell-line drug cluster pairs. Predictive modeling on each cell-line-drug cluster outperformed alternative computational methods in predicting drug responses. We found that among the four drugs top-ranked with respect to prediction performance, three targeted the PI3K/mTOR signaling pathway. Predictive modeling on clustered subsets of cell lines and drugs improved the prediction accuracy of cell-line specific drug responses. Post-modeling analysis identified plausible biological processes associated with drug responses.

10 November 2025 in npj Digital Medicine
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Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
XLXiaofan Liu
Xiaofan Liu
ZCZhe Chen
Zhe Chen
ZTZhiyong Tang
Zhiyong Tang
XYXun Yang
Xun Yang
YJYan Jiang
Yan Jiang
Yihua WangYihua Wang
Yihua Wang
Radiolucent foreign body aspiration (FBA) remains diagnostically challenging due to its subtle imaging signatures on chest CT scans, often leading to delayed or missed diagnoses. We present a deep learning model integrating MedpSeg, a high-precision airway segmentation method, with a convolutional classifier to detect radiolucent FBA. The model was trained and validated across three independent cohorts, demonstrating consistent performance with accuracies above 90% and balanced recall–precision metrics. In a blinded independent evaluation cohort, the model outperformed expert radiologists in both recall (71.4% vs . 35.7%) and F1 score (74.1% vs . 52.6%), highlighting its potential to reduce missed cases (false negatives) and support clinical decision-making. This study illustrates the translational potential of artificial intelligence for addressing diagnostically complex and high-risk conditions, offering an effective tool to support radiologists in the assessment of suspected radiolucent foreign body aspiration. Code is available at https://github.com/ZheChen1999/FBA_DL .