Dr. Jerome Z. Liang

Jerome Z. Liang, Ph.D. Professor of Radiology and Computer Science

Liang, Stony Brook team develop virtual colonoscopy option

SPIE Member and longtime Medical Imaging author Jerome Zhengrong Liang is part of a team at Stony Brook University who have developed a software program that offers a virtual option to colonoscopy with the potential to save lives by encouraging more patients to receive recommended cancer screenings.

Liang, a radiology professor at Stony Brook, has particiapted in the SPIE Medical Imaging symposium for several years and has published nearly 50 papers with SPIE. He is an author of several papers scheduled for presentation at the 2009 Medical Imaging symposium to be held 7-12 February near Orlando, FL.

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This uniformity is important, says Jerome Zhengrong Liang, a radiology professor at Stony Brook's medical school and a member of the team that developed the technique. The software separates the colon from everything else, based on the difference between its density and that of stool and fluid; these differences are indicated by variations in image intensity on the CT scan. Big variations in the stool's consistency might cause the software to mistake fecal matter for part of the colon wall.

Reliably setting the boundary of the colon wall, says Liang, was the team's greatest technical challenge. The software had to screen out artifacts introduced by the CT scan, in particular one known as the partial volume effect. This effect renders extra layers at the places where, say, air and stool meet. "The scanner generates values at these points, which might suggest that there's tissue there," says Liang. "That might make you think, because of the shape [a lump where the rest of the colon wall is smooth], that you're looking at a polyp when you're not."

But the new software does an even better job of seeing past the artifacts than technology Liang and his colleagues previously patented, reducing the number of false positives by 50 percent.
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TAGS: virtual colonoscopy // Jerome Liang // colon cleansing // Zhengrong Liang // colonoscopy // colorectal cancer // cancer // colon

This uniformity is important, says Jerome Zhengrong Liang, a radiology professor at Stony Brook's medical school and a member of the team that developed the technique.The software separates the colon from everything else, based on the difference between its density and that of stool and fluid; these differences are indicated by variations in image intensity on the CT scan.Big variations in the stool's consistency might cause the software to mistake fecal matter for part of the colon wall.

Reliably setting the boundary of the colon wall, says Liang, was the team's greatest technical challenge.The software had to screen out artifacts introduced by the CT scan, in particular one known as the partial volume effect.This effect renders extra layers at the places where, say, air and stool meet."The scanner generates values at these points, which might suggest that there's tissue there," says Liang."That might make you think, because of the shape [a lump where the rest of the colon wall is smooth], that you're looking at a polyp when you're not."

But the new software does an even better job of seeing past the artifacts than technology Liang and his colleagues previously patented, reducing the number of false positives by 50 percent.

This uniformity is important, says Jerome Zhengrong Liang, a radiology professor at Stony Brook's medical school and a member of the team that developed the technique. The software separates the colon from everything else, based on the difference between its density and that of stool and fluid; these differences are indicated by variations in image intensity on the CT scan. Big variations in the stool's consistency might cause the software to mistake fecal matter for part of the colon wall.

Reliably setting the boundary of the colon wall, says Liang, was the team's greatest technical challenge. The software had to screen out artifacts introduced by the CT scan, in particular one known as the partial volume effect. This effect renders extra layers at the places where, say, air and stool meet. "The scanner generates values at these points, which might suggest that there's tissue there," says Liang. "That might make you think, because of the shape [a lump where the rest of the colon wall is smooth], that you're looking at a polyp when you're not."

But the new software does an even better job of seeing past the artifacts than technology Liang and his colleagues previously patented, reducing the number of false positives by 50 percent.
...
TAGS: cancer // Jerome Liang // colonoscopy // virtual colonoscopy // colon // colorectal cancer // Zhengrong Liang // colon cleansing

Jerome Liang, State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York, USA

Jerome Z. Liang, Ph.D.

Professor of Radiology and Computer Science

Jerome Zhengrong Liang

State University of New York at Stony Brook

This uniformity is important, says Jerome Zhengrong Liang, a radiology professor at Stony Brook's medical school and a member of the team that developed the technique. The software separates the colon from everything else, based on the difference between its density and that of stool and fluid; these differences are indicated by variations in image intensity on the CT scan. Big variations in the stool's consistency might cause the software to mistake fecal matter for part of the colon wall.

Reliably setting the boundary of the colon wall, says Liang, was the team's greatest technical challenge. The software had to screen out artifacts introduced by the CT scan, in particular one known as the partial volume effect. This effect renders extra layers at the places where, say, air and stool meet. “The scanner generates values at these points, which might suggest that there's tissue there,†says Liang. “That might make you think, because of the shape [a lump where the rest of the colon wall is smooth], that you're looking at a polyp when you're not.â€

But the new software does an even better job of seeing past the artifacts than technology Liang and his colleagues previously patented, reducing the number of false positives by 50 percent.

Jerome Z. Liang, Ph.D.Vice President, Advanced Technologies

Dr. Liang is a Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Computer Science at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook.He is also a Co-Director of the Program in Biomedical Engineering.Dr. Liang has been working on medical imagining research since the mid 1980s and is serving on the Editorial Board of Journal of IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.He leads a research group developing medical imaging technologies in a variety of areas including image reconstruction, segmentation and visualization.He started research on Virtual Endosocopy/Colonoscopy at SUNY-SB in 1993.Dr. Liang received his B.S. in Modern Physics from Lanzhou University of China in 1982 and Ph.D. in Physics from the City University of New York in 1987.