Projects
Intravascular fluorescence life-time imaging of the vulnerable plaque Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Modeling mechanical waves in the heart to study shear wave elastography as a quantitative imaging tool for early assessment of cardiac remodeling Ghent University
Heart disease is one of the most common causes of death in the developed countries. Its progression is typically associated with cardiac remodeling, a term indicating structural and functional changes of the heart due to altered hemodynamic load and/or cardiac injury. Early assessment of cardiac remodeling could prevent progression of heart disease and provide more effective therapeutic strategies. However, current evaluation of cardiac ...
Unraveling the mechanisms of hypertonia in children with cerebral palsy by muscle imaging, and multidimensional signal processing: the means towards individualized tonemanagement. KU Leuven
Cerebral palsy (CP) is characterized by the inability to regulate normal muscle tension (tone). In the frequently diagnosed spastic form of CP, this lack of regulation results in increased muscle tone and an inability to relax the muscle. This can cause pain, lead to bony deformities, and hinders the child’s walking ability. Therefore, much of the treatment for children with spastic CP is targeted at lowering high tone. Muscle tone is ...
In vivo dosimetry in experimental tumor models KU Leuven
Recent advances in radiotherapy have enabled highly conformal dose distributions, allowing efficient healthy tissue sparing. Unfortunately, the situation is complicated for thoracoabdominal tumours, which are subject to respiratory motion. 4D CT and, more recently, respiratory-resolved MRI have been used to quantify and account for this motion by implementing large safety margins, when calculating the treatment plan. As such, underdosage of ...
Delineating the role of different collicular output pathways in mediating visually triggered aversive behaviors. KU Leuven
Freezing is a ubiquitous innate behaviour that animals across the animal kingdom initiate in response to aversive stimuli. In particular, the overhead presence of small slowly moving, or large looming objects are reliable triggers these behaviours. However, it remains unclear how the brain routes this information from the eye to the muscles that activates behaviour remains unknown. One brain area known to be important for mediating both ...
Radiation-free Diagnostic and Assessment Tools for Spine Surgery (Radar-Spine) KU Leuven
The etiology of many musculoskeletal diseases is related to biomechanical factors. The pathological changes occurring in the joint will reflect in the abnormal movement patterns (kinematics). However, the tools to measure the motion patterns of the patients used by clinicians and researchers are often crude and subjective leading to sub-optimal patient analyses and cure. Image-based techniques (CT, MRI, X-ray) are often just “static images”, ...
Proton range verification enabled by acoustic modulation of superheated nanodroplets KU Leuven
Proton therapy has grown exponentially over the past 20 years. The success of proton therapy relies on its ability to inflict maximal tumor damage while minimizing the exposure of organs at risk. However, range uncertainties currently prevent proton therapy to reach its full potential, and hamper its adoption for moving targets in the abdomen, which hosts particularly deadly cancers. Although several techniques for in vivo proton range ...
Assessing three-dimensional myocardial deformation at ultra-high temporal resolution to gain new insights in cardiac mechanics. KU Leuven
Cardiac ultrasound has become an indispensible imaging technique for clinical diagnostics. It is currently the only imaging modality allowing a real-time 3D visualization of the heart. However, the large amount of data makes manual analysis cumbersome and objective interpretation a challenging endeavor. Automatic methods to quantify (regional) cardiac motion and deformation (i.e. strain) have therefore been introduced. These techniques have ...
Vevo 2100 micro-ultrasound machine with anesthesia platform and robotic arms for micromanipulation in small animals. KU Leuven
The Vevo 770 device is a small-scale echography device (mouse, rat, rabbit) that allows imaging with microscopic detail. It will be used to study the developing fetus and cardiac muscle function of fetus and adult animals. Animals can be followed in time, without sacrificing them. Corresponding precision instruments make it possible to perform samplings or injections, making the experiment less invasive. All together, animal welfare can be ...