DIAGNOSTIC EFFICACY OF VIRTURAL BRONCHOSCOPY

工作总结：该项目是对一种新的有效性的测试 对呼吸道进行成像的诊断方法称为虚拟支气管镜检查。 通过获取计算的薄层切片来执行虚拟支气管镜检查 胸部的断层扫描(CT)图像。这些图像用于生成 气管和支气管壁的三维模型 图形工作站。可以对模型进行操作，以允许查看者 要在提供类似于以下内容的视图的气管-支气管树中“飞翔” 在支气管镜检查中获得的。这项技术产生了一个显示 以一种易于理解的格式显示人体支气管系。此外，它还 允许对支气管树狭窄后部分进行研究 这是光纤支气管镜无法触及的。医院里的病人 这个方案有炎症性、感染性或肿瘤性肺 因为临床原因，他可能会做胸部CT检查。超过了 在过去的两年里，我们开发了导航软件技术 内部虚拟支气管镜研究并开发了图像处理 提高这些研究的效率和准确性的技术。我们 也在收集同时拥有两种纤维的患者 光学支气管镜检查与仿真支气管镜检查的比较 方法：研究方法。我们对空洞性肺进行了描述性分析。 损伤。最后，我们开发了自动化技术来帮助 医生在定位和描述支气管腔内病变方面的作用。我们 预期虚拟支气管镜检查在诊断上将是有效的 治疗引起支气管形态改变的疾病 解剖学。

Summary of Work: This project is a test of the efficacy of a new diagnostic method for imaging the airways known as virtual bronchoscopy. Virtual bronchoscopy is performed by acquiring thin-section computed tomography (CT) images of the chest. These images are used to generate a three-dimensional model of the tracheal and bronchial walls on a graphics workstation. The model can be manipulated to allow the viewer to "fly through" the tracheobronchial tree providing views similar to those obtained during bronchoscopy. The technique produces a display of the human bronchial system in a readily understood format. Moreover, it allows investigation of post-stenotic portions of the bronchial tree that are beyond the reach of fiber-optic bronchoscopy. The patients in this protocol have inflammatory, infectious, or neoplastic pulmonary processes and would have had chest CT for clinical reasons. Over the past 2 years, we have developed software techniques for navigating inside virtual bronchoscopy studies and have developed image processing techniques to improve the efficiency and accuracy of these studies. We are also in the process of accruing patients who have had both fiber optic bronchoscopy and virtual bronchoscopy in order to compare the two methods. We have performed a descriptive analysis of cavitary lung lesions. Finally, we have developed automated techniques to assist physicians in locating and characterizing endobronchial lesions. We anticipate that virtual bronchoscopy will be diagnostically efficacious for disorders that produce a morphologic alteration of bronchial anatomy.