Computerized Analysis of Mesothelioma on CT Scans

拟议研究的广泛，长期目标是开发一个完全自动化，计算机化的 系统，将协助放射科医生在定量评估胸膜疾病的螺旋 计算机断层扫描（CT）。这种系统将产生的客观疾病量化是 预期提供关于疾病进展或疾病对 治疗这些信息将用于指导患者治疗或衡量治疗药物的疗效。 药物临床试验期间。这项具体的研究将集中在一个特定的胸膜疾病，恶性 胸膜间皮瘤 放射科医生必须检查肺与胸壁或纵隔之间的解剖区域 在CT扫描上评估间皮瘤的程度，间皮瘤表现为胸膜增厚。目前， 间皮瘤严重程度的评估是基于手工测量胸膜厚度， 多个图像位置;这种方法代表了一个粗糙、繁琐的过程， 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 在CT扫描的每个半胸中，描绘肺边界，描绘胸部， 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，预计将有助于有效，客观地评估胸膜厚度， 评价间皮瘤肿瘤。这种一致性方法的效用因其应用而更加突出 涉及时间顺序扫描，其中比较肿瘤大小随时间的变化以确定 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，计算机技术可以发展，以协助放射科医生和 临床医生在可靠的，一致的，可重复的量化间皮瘤肿瘤作为一个目标 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.