Computerized Analysis of Mesothelioma on CT Scans

拟议研究的广泛、长期目标是开发一种完全自动化、计算机化的 将协助放射科医生对螺旋CT胸膜疾病进行定量评估的系统 计算机断层扫描(CT)。这样的系统将产生的客观疾病量化是 有望提供有关疾病进展或疾病反应的宝贵信息 治疗。这些信息将被用来指导患者的治疗或评估治疗的效果 临床试验期间的药物。这项特别的研究将集中在一种特殊的以胸膜为基础的疾病--恶性 胸膜间皮瘤。 放射科医生必须检查肺部和胸壁或纵隔之间的解剖区域。 CT扫描评估间皮瘤的范围，表现为胸膜增厚。目前， 对间皮瘤严重程度的评估是基于手动测量胸膜厚度 几个图像位置；这种方法代表了一个粗糙、乏味的过程，受到主观性的影响 以及进行测量的观察者之间的可变性。自动化和半自动化的发展 自动方法，在CT扫描的每个半胸腔中，勾画出肺边界，勾画出胸部 壁和纵隔，并量化这些解剖结构之间的差异，作为衡量 胸膜厚度，有望促进对胸膜厚度的有效、客观的评估 间皮瘤的评价。这些一致的方法的实用性被它们的应用所强调。 到时间顺序扫描，其中比较肿瘤大小随时间的变化以确定比率 疾病进展或疾病对特定治疗方案的反应。 这项研究的假设是，可以开发计算机化技术来帮助放射科医生和 临床医生以可靠、一致和可重复性量化间皮瘤为目标 初始分期和后续治疗反应的参数。

The broad, long term objective of the proposed research is to develop a fully automated, computerized system that will assist radiologists in the quantitative assessment of pleural-based diseases in helical computed tomography (CT) scans. The objective disease quantification that such a system would produce is expected to provide valuable information regarding disease progression or the response of disease to treatment. This information would be used to guide patient treatment or gauge the efficacy of therapeutic agents during clinical trials. This specific study will focus on one particular pleural-based disease, malignant pleural mesothelioma. Radiologists must inspect the anatomic region between the lungs and the chest wall or the mediastinum on CT scans to evaluate the extent of mesothelioma, which presents as a thickening of the pleura. Currently, assessment of mesothelioma severity is based on manual measurements of the pleural thickness made at several image locations; this approach represents a coarse, tedious process that suffers from subjectivity and variability among observers who make the measurements. The development of automated and semi- automated methods that, in each hemithorax of a CT scan, delineate the lung border, delineate the chest wall and mediastinum, and quantify the differences between these anatomical structures as a measure of pleural thickness, is expected to facilitate the efficient, objective assessment of pleural thickness for the evaluation of mesothelioma tumor. The utility of such consistent methods is accentuated by their application to temporally sequential scans, in which a comparison of tumor size over time is made to determine the rate of disease progression or the response of disease to a specific treatment regimen. The hypothesis of this study is that computerized techniques can be developed to assist radiologists and clinicians in the reliable, consistent, and reproducible quantification of mesothelioma tumor as an objective parameter for initial staging and subsequent treatment response.