Quantative image analysis of positron emmisions tomography for inflammation research

肺部疾病是英国死亡的主要原因之一;每年占所有死亡人数的20%。弥漫性肺实质疾病（DPLD）描述了一系列不同的疾病;其特征是广泛的炎症和纤维化，它们代表了医疗保健部门的重大负担。由于缺乏敏感的生物标志物，有效治疗方法的发展受到抑制。成像生物标志物在肺部疾病领域中的作用引起了相当大的兴趣，这部分是由于现有方法评估肺功能的缺点。特别是分子影像学，可能能够阐明肺部疾病的基本分子基础，并促进转化为有效的治疗方法。18F-FDG PET已经在研究界被确立为一种可以在体内测量肺部炎症的技术。然而，在肺部炎症的背景下，18F-FDG PET受到了批评，这与肺部成像的技术挑战有关。目前还没有公认的18F-FDG PET扫描定量方法来评估肺部炎症;事实上，为成像技术提供适当验证的困难导致了缺乏标准化。总之，这限制了其作为生物标志物的潜在用途。该项目的目标是开发一个图像分析管道来评估肺部炎症，比较竞争分析技术并验证所使用的模型。这将通过两项研究来实现：一项是结节病患者和健康志愿者的前瞻性研究;另一项是慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）患者的回顾性研究。

Lung diseases are one of the leading causes of death in the UK; responsible for 20% of all deaths each year. Diffuse Parenchymal Lung Diseases (DPLDs) describe a spectrum of different diseases; characterised by widespread inflammation and fibrosis, they represent a significant burden to the healthcare sector. Development of effective therapeutic treatments has been stifled by a lack of sensitive biomarkers. There is considerable interest in the role of imaging biomarkers in the field of pulmonary diseases, this is in part due to the shortcomings of existing methods to evaluate lung function. Molecular imaging, in particular, may be able to elucidate the fundamental molecular basis of lung diseases and promote the translation into effective therapies. 18F-FDG PET has been established within the research community as a technique that may allow the in-vivo measurement of lung inflammation. However, there has been criticisms of 18F-FDG PET in the context of pulmonary inflammation which are compounded by the technical challenges of imaging the lungs. There is currently no accepted method of quantification of 18F-FDG PET scans to assess lung inflammation; indeed, the difficulty of providing appropriate validation for the imaging techniques has contributed to the lack of standardisation. Taken together this limits its potential use as a biomarker. The objective of this project is to develop an image analysis pipeline to assess lung inflammation, compare competing analysis techniques and validate the models used. This will be achieved through two studies: a prospective study of sarcoidosis patients and healthy volunteers; and a retrospective study of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients.