Researchers at the University of Missouri developed a new software that can rapidly analyze a series of CT, MR, ultrasound images as well as video images.

The software — called Tracking Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium shifts in Data, or TREND — helps radiologists track any changes among the images. When used to analyze a movie of a beating heart, TREND can quickly spot any irregularities or potential health problems.

"I hope that clinicians and radiologists doing translational research will entertain TREND as a new and available tool for revealing and dissecting trends in imaging and investigate its potential usefulness to gain further diagnostic insight from imaging data," Steven Van Doren, professor at the university and co-developer of the software, told HCB News.
TREND can also reconstruct videos to focus only on the individual processes such as the heartbeat without changes effected by breathing. It will also identify biological, chemical and geographical changes.

It usually takes weeks to analyze a single group of images, but TREND can do that in a matter of minutes, more accurately than if a human performed the work.

Van Doren thinks that initially, many physicians will not be interested in the software because it hasn't been used for any clinical applications to date. But he hopes that they will see it as a promising software to investigate.

"Some could help us tailor TREND for them, by offering us feedback," he said. "It's important for some to think longer-term and try and develop tools, and not only plan for the next surgery."

TREND is currently free for academic use, and commercial licensing and a demo version are available. More information can be found at http://biochem.missouri.edu/trend/.

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