Office: 459-B Nicholson
Telephone: 2740-Office
E-mail:
Diplomate, 2001 - American Board of Radiology
(Medical Nuclear Physics)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My general field of interest is Medical Physics. In particular, I am interested in the physics of medical imaging -- the application of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation to visualize in vivo anatomy and physiology. Secondary interests include the application of imaging techniques to basic research in other fields (e.g., biology, veterinary science, engineering, etc).
My research principally deals with detector systems for radioisotope imaging - - that is, using the gamma-ray emissions of internally-distributed radiopharmaceuticals to visualize in vivo physiology, pathophysiology and metabolic processes. Because of our program's extensive involvement with radiation therapy physics, I'm also involved with radioisotope imaging techniques applied to radiation therapy.
Current projects include:
- CZT radiation detectors
- portable hand-held detectors for locating radiation sources in the environment (radiation protection) or inside the body (intraoperative localization)
- development of gamma cameras based on CZT detectors
- Depth-of-interaction detectors for PET imaging
- scintillating fibers added to conventional gamma camera designs
- layered-scintillator detector designs
- PET/CT applications to radiation therapy
- ROC analysis of diagnostic performance
- consolidated QA methods and phantoms
- Synchrotron X-ray microtomography imaging
- comparative morphology of cornified tissues (claws, beaks, hooves)
- imaging of iodinated DNS-targeted compounds for Auger electron therapy
WHAT IS MEDICAL PHYSICS?
If you want the circular definition, "medical physics" is the field of physics as applied to medicine. But that isn't very informative.
A better definition can be found in the AAPM brochure The Medical Physicist:
"Medical physics is primarily an applied branch of physics. It is concerned with the applications of the concepts and methods of physics to the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. It is allied with medical electronics (the development of medical instruments), bioengineering (the application of engineering principles to biology and medicine), and health physics (the assessment and control of radiation hazards).
"Several distinct professional areas have emerged for the medical physicist. These include, for example, the application of ionizing radiation to medical diagnosis and therapy (radiological physics); bioelectrical investigations of the brain and heart (electroencephalography and electrocardiography); and the medical uses of infrared radiation (thermography), ultrasound (sonography), nuclear magnetic resonance (magnetic resonance imaging), heat (hyperthermia for cancer treatment), and lasers (for laser surgery).
"Medical physics thus is a broad, multidisciplinary field. The branch of medical physics with which most people are familiar is diagnostic imaging physics -- almost everyone has gotten x-rays during medical or dental checkups. Each year, many people receive CT and MRI scans, PET and SPECT scans, and ultrasound exams. All of these imaging modalities are the result of many years of research and development by medical physicists."
BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
I received a B.A. degree (majoring in Chemistry and Physics) from Austin College (Sherman, TX) in 1990. In 1997, I received a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from The University of Chicago (Chicago, IL). From early 1997 through July 2001, I worked as clinical and research physicist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. I received my clinical certification in medical nuclear physics from the American Board of Radiology in June 2001.
I joined the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at LSU in August 2001. My role is to provide medical imaging expertise, teaching, and research to our existing medical physics graduate program.
ACADEMIC/ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
- Instructor, MEDP 4111, Introduction to Medical Imaging
- Instructor, MEDP 7111, Advanced Medical Imaging Physics
- Associate Member, the Graduate School, Louisiana State University, 2001-present
- Interim Graduate Advisor for Medical Physics, 2003-2004
- Secretary, LSU System Radiation Safety Committee, 2003-present
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
I am a member of these professional societies:
I serve as a reviewer for the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine, and the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (particularly the Medical Imaging Conference Conferences Issues and NMIS Transactions papers.) I also serve as a referree/associate editor (guest) for Medical Physics.
RECENT GRANTS
- Co-Investigator: Graduate Fellows in Physics and Astronomy and Medical Physics program. Louisiana State Board of Regents Support Fund (R. McNeil, PI), 2004-2007.
- Principal Investigator: Instrumentation and Techniques for efficient volume verification of IMRT treatment plans. Louisiana State Unviersity Council on Research Faculty Research Grant Program, 2004-2005.
- Principal Investigator: An electronically collimated radiation detector for hand-held and area-search applications. Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency N66001-C-05-6024, 2005-2006.
- Co-Investigator: Graduate Fellows in Physics and Astronomy and Medical Physics program. Louisiana State Board of Regents Support Fund (R. McNeil, PI), 2005-2008.
- Co-Investigator: Enhancement of research in material science and physics through the acquisition of non-destructive investigation equipment. Louisiana State Board of Regents Support Fund (E. Woldesenbet, PI), 2007.
- Co-Investigator: In-vivo intravascular autoradiography with storage phosphor detector. National Institutes of Health, NIBIB (P. Shikhaliev, PI), 2007-2009.
M.S. THESIS SUPERVISION
- Paul Bruce, The Use of the BANG-3 Polymer Gel to Quantify the Three-Dimensional Dose Distrubution of IMRT (2003).
- Yuri Ishihara, Investigation of Accuracy in Quantitation of 18F-FDG Concentration of PET/CT (2004) [Co-chair: L. Steven Bujenovic, MD].
- Rajesh Manoharan, Validation of PET/CT Dataset for Radiation Treatment Planning (2004) [Co-chair: L. Steven Bujenovic, MD].
- Prashanth Nookala, Modification of CT Quality Assurance Phantom for PET/CT (2005) [Co-chair: Oscar Hidalgo, Ph.D.].
- Ken Bernstein, ROC Comparison of Acquisition Parameters for Two PET/CT Scanners Based on Lesion Detectability in a Torso Phantom (2005).
- Laurie Kelly, Performance Evaluation of Two CZT Gamma Ray Imaging Systems (2005).
- Adam Lackie, Directional Algorithm for an electronically-collimated radiation detector (2007).
- Will Hill, Experimental verification of an electronically-collimated radiation detector (in progress).
- Andrew Morrow, PET and PET/CT lesion detectability with a SUV correction scheme (in progress).
- Christopher Welch, Quantitative in-vivo imaging of high-Z compounds by x-ray microtomography (in progress).
Thesis/dissertation committee member for:
- Manuel Rodriguez, Evaluation of the Profiler as a Tool for IMRT QA (MS, 2003) [Chair: Oscar Hidalgo, Ph.D.].
- Ines Jurkovic, Evaluation of a Desktop Computed Radiography System for IMRT Dosimetry (MS, 2004) [Chair: Oscar Hidalgo, Ph.D.].
- J. Michael Jarrett, Experimental Method Development for Direct Dosimetry of Permanent Interstitial Prostate Brachytherapy Implants (MS, 2005) [Chair: Erno Sajo, Ph.D.].
- John Richert, Improved Abutment Dosimetry in Segmented-Field Electron Conformal Therapy (MS, 2006) [Chair, Ken Hogstrom, PhD].
- Omer Soysal, Computed tomography based lung nodule detection by artificial neural networks utilizing content-based image representation (PhD, in progress) [Chair: J. Chen, PhD].
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
- Richert J.D., Hogstrom K.R., Fields R., Matthews II K.L., and Boyd R. "Improving abutment dosimetry in segmented-field electron conformal therapy using a variable-SCD applicator," Physics in Medicine and Biology 52:2459-2481, 2007.
- Lackie A.W., Matthews II K.L., Smith B.M., Hill W.H., Wang W.-H., and Cherry M.L. "A directional algorithm for an electronically-collimated gamma-ray detector," Conference Record of 2006 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Paper N14-19:264-269, 2006.
- Bernstein K.R., Matthews II K.L., Morrow A.N., Smith B.M., and Bujenovic L.S., "ROC analysis of lesion detectability in a torso phantom for PET images from two PET/CT scanners," Conference Record of 2006 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Paper M11-244:2636-2643, 2006.
- Wang W.-H., Matthews II K.L., and Scott L.M., "Lessons learned in responding to and recovering from a fire incident," Health Physics 91 (supplement 2):S78-82, 2006.
- Matthews II K.L., Smith B.M., Lackie A.W., Hill W.H., Wang W.-H., and Cherry M.L., "An electronically-collimated portable gamma-ray detector for locating environmental radiation sources," Proc. SPIE Vol. 6319, X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Detector Physics and Penetrating Radiation Systems VIII; 6319A-19.
- Ham K.G., Barnett H.A., Ogunbakin T., Homberger D.G., Bragulla H.H., Castille A.R., Matthews II K.L., Willson C.S., and Butler L.G.,"Imaging tissue structures: assessment of absorption and phase contrast x-ray tomography imaging at 2nd and 3rd generation synchrotrons," Proc. SPIE Vol. 6318, Developments in X-ray Tomography V; 6318-81.
- Matthews II K.L., Aarsvold J.N., Mintzer R.A., Chen C.-T., and Lee R.C., "Tc-99m pyrophosphate imaging of poloxamer-treated electroporated skeletal muscle in an in vivo rat model," Burns 32: 755-764, 2006; doi:10.1016/j.burns.2006.01.011
- Wang W.-H. and Matthews II K.L., "An effective means to simulate the gaseous iodine-131 distribution in a silver zeolite cartridge using sodium iodide solution," Health Physics 90 (supplement 2):S73-79, 2006.
- Wang W.-H., McGlothlin J.D., Smith D.J., and Matthews II K.L., "Evaluation of a radiation survey training video developed from a real-time video radiation detection system," Health Physics 90 (supplement 1):S33-39, 2006.
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