Virtual bronchoscopy for quantitative airway analysis

Abstract

We propose a new quantitative method for detailed analysis of the major airways. Using a 3D MDCT chest image as input, the method involves three major steps: (1) segmentation of the airway tree, (2) extraction of the central-axis structure of the major airways, and (3) a novel improvement on the standard full-width half-maximum approach for airway-wall delineation. The method produces measurements for all defined tree branches. These measurements include various airway diameters and cross-sectional area values. To facilitate the examination of these measurements, we also demonstrate an integrated virtual-bronchoscopic analysis system that enables flexible interrogation of the airways. Of particular note are techniques for unraveling and viewing the topography of selected airways. A large series of phantom and human tests confirm the efficacy of our methods.