Digital Commons Network^™

Incorporating Cardiac Substructures Into Radiation Therapy For Improved Cardiac Sparing, Eric Daniel Morris

Wayne State University Dissertations

Growing evidence suggests that radiation therapy (RT) doses to the heart and cardiac substructures (CS) are strongly linked to cardiac toxicities, though only the heart is considered clinically. This work aimed to utilize the superior soft-tissue contrast of magnetic resonance (MR) to segment CS, quantify uncertainties in their position, assess their effect on treatment planning and an MR-guided environment.

Automatic substructure segmentation of 12 CS was completed using a novel hybrid MR/computed tomography (CT) atlas method and was improved upon using a 3-dimensional neural network (U-Net) from deep learning. Intra-fraction motion due to respiration was then quantified. The inter-fraction setup …

Mechanical Interventions In Soft Tissue Repair, Elizabeth Marie Meier

Wayne State University Dissertations

This body of work sets to investigate some of these mechanical interventions that are designed to promote wound healing, repair, or even replace an injured tissue. By investigating three separate tissues and three separate mechanical interventions, we can draw conclusions about the implications of including mechanical interventions in biomedical research and clinical treatments. The use of sutures to close wounds is highly common, however the effects of sutures on the tensile mechanics of human skin are largely unknown. To evaluate how sutures may affect uniaxial tensile mechanics, human skin samples were sutured and loaded in tension in multiple orientations. The …