Abstract
Background Infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death worldwide. In order to better understand and treat them, an accurate evaluation using multi-modal imaging techniques for anatomical and functional characterizations is needed. For non-invasive imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET), there have been many engineering improvements that have significantly enhanced the resolution and contrast of the images, but there are still insufficient computational algorithms available for researchers to use when accurately quantifying imaging data from anatomical structures and functional biological processes. Since the development of such tools may potentially translate basic research into the clinic, this study focuses on the development of a quantitative and qualitative image analysis platform that provides a computational radiology perspective for pulmonary infections in small animal models. Specifically, we designed (a) a fast and robust automated and semi-automated image analysis platform and a quantification tool that can facilitate accurate diagnostic measurements of pulmonary lesions as well as volumetric measurements of anatomical structures, and incorporated (b) an image registration pipeline to our proposed framework for volumetric comparison of serial scans. This is an important investigational tool for small animal infectious disease models that can help advance researchers’ understanding of infectious diseases.
Highlights
Infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death worldwide
We explored the feasibility of using positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) imaging modalities in three distinct small animal models for two diverse pulmonary infections
We concluded from the clinical findings, derived from the proposed computational pipeline, that PET-CT imaging is an invaluable hybrid modality for tracking pulmonary infections longitudinally in small animals and has great potential to become routinely used in clinics
Summary
Infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death worldwide. In order to better understand and treat them, an accurate evaluation using multi-modal imaging techniques for anatomical and functional characterizations is needed. We designed (a) a fast and robust automated and semi-automated image analysis platform and a quantification tool that can facilitate accurate diagnostic measurements of pulmonary lesions as well as volumetric measurements of anatomical structures, and incorporated (b) an image registration pipeline to our proposed framework for volumetric comparison of serial scans This is an important investigational tool for small animal infectious disease models that can help advance researchers’ understanding of infectious diseases. Much of the small animal model literature has relied on manual or semi-automated methods for image analysis with qualitative and/or semi-quantitative measurements [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] In these (mostly manual) approaches, investigators need to visually select and manually draw regions of interest in the images from which they extract quantifiable information. All of these approaches are highly time-consuming, and reduce the efficiency of the research, in addition to lowering reproducibility and findings
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