Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Apr 28, 2017; 9(4): 191-198
Published online Apr 28, 2017. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v9.i4.191
Segmentations of the cartilaginous skeletons of chondrichthyan fishes by the use of state-of-the-art computed tomography
Andrew D McQuiston, Callie Crawford, U Joseph Schoepf, Akos Varga-Szemes, Christian Canstein, Matthias Renker, Carlo N De Cecco, Stefan Baumann, Gavin J P Naylor
Andrew D McQuiston, U Joseph Schoepf, Akos Varga-Szemes, Matthias Renker, Carlo N De Cecco, Stefan Baumann, Division of Cardiovascular Imaging, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, United States
Callie Crawford, Christian Canstein, Gavin J P Naylor, Hollings Marine Laboratory, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29425, United States
Matthias Renker, Department of Internal Medicine I, Cardiology/Angiology, Giessen University, 430011 Giessen, Germany
Carlo N De Cecco, Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Pathology, University of Rome “Sapienza”-Polo Pontino, 04100 Latina, Italy
Stefan Baumann, First Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Mannheim, University Medical Centre Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, 68305 Mannheim, Germany
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to the manuscript.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study used preserved museum specimens and was exempt from IACUC approval.
Institutional review board statement: Not applicable.
Conflict-of-interest statement: U Joseph Schoepf, MD is a consultant for and/or receives research support from Astellas, Bayer, Bracco GE Healthcare, Guerbet, Medrad, and Siemens Healthineers. Drs. Akos Varga-Szemes and Carlo N. De Cecco were consultants for and/or received research support from Guerbet and Siemens. Christian Canstein, MSc is an employee of Siemens. The other authors declare that they have no conflicts-of-interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: U Joseph Schoepf, MD, Professor of Radiology, Medicine and Pediatrics, Director, Division of Cardiovascular Imaging, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Ashley River Tower, 25 Courtenay Drive, Charleston, SC 29425, United States. schoepf@musc.edu
Telephone: +1-843-7922633 Fax: +1-843-7920409
Received: August 7, 2016
Peer-review started: August 8, 2016
First decision: September 28, 2016
Revised: October 25, 2016
Accepted: December 13, 2016
Article in press: December 14, 2016
Published online: April 28, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: Computed tomography is a helpful noninvasive imaging tool for comparative biology. The skeletal variations observed through our data will increase our understanding of how the anatomy of these organisms has changed over the course of evolution. The data collected allows for a more comprehensive understanding regarding the evolutionary history of the group.