Medical image segmentation plays a critical role in accurate diagnosis and treatment planning, enabling precise analysis across a wide range of clinical tasks. This review begins by offering a comprehensive overview of traditional segmentation techniques, including thresholding, edge-based methods, region-based approaches, clustering, and graph-based segmentation. While these methods are computationally efficient and interpretable, they often face significant challenges when applied to complex, noisy, or variable medical images. The central focus of this review is the transformative impact of deep learning on medical image segmentation. We delve into prominent deep learning architectures such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Fully Convolutional Networks (FCNs), U-Net, Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), Adversarial Networks (GANs), and Autoencoders (AEs). Each architecture is analyzed in terms of its structural foundation and specific application to medical image segmentation, illustrating how these models have enhanced segmentation accuracy across various clinical contexts. Finally, the review examines the integration of deep learning with traditional segmentation methods, addressing the limitations of both approaches. These hybrid strategies offer improved segmentation performance, particularly in challenging scenarios involving weak edges, noise, or inconsistent intensities. By synthesizing recent advancements, this review provides a detailed resource for researchers and practitioners, offering valuable insights into the current landscape and future directions of medical image segmentation.
27 December 2017 in Macromolecular Materials and Engineering
Electroactive biomaterials are fascinating for tissue engineering applications because of their ability to deliver electrical stimulation directly to cells, tissue, and organs. One particularly attractive conductive filler for electroactive biomaterials is silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) because of their high conductivity, antibacterial activity, and ability to promote bone healing. However, production of AgNPs involves a toxic reducing agent which would inhibit biological scaffold performance. This work explores facile and green synthesis of AgNPs using extract of Cilembu sweet potato and studies the effect of baking and precursor concentrations (1, 10 and 100 mM) on AgNPs’ properties. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) results revealed that the smallest particle size of AgNPs (9.95 ± 3.69 nm) with nodular morphology was obtained by utilization of baked extract and ten mM AgNO3. Polycaprolactone (PCL)/AgNPs scaffolds exhibited several enhancements compared to PCL scaffolds. Compressive strength was six times greater (3.88 ± 0.42 MPa), more hydrophilic (contact angle of 76.8 ± 1.7°), conductive (2.3 ± 0.5 × 10−3 S/cm) and exhibited anti-bacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC3658 (99.5% reduction of surviving bacteria). Despite the promising results, further investigation on biological assessment is required to obtain comprehensive study of this scaffold. This green synthesis approach together with the use of 3D printing opens a new route to manufacture AgNPs-based electroactive with improved anti-bacterial properties without utilization of any toxic organic solvents.
29 May 2018 in Macromolecular Materials and Engineering