Abstract
Segmentation of airways in Computed Tomography (CT) scans is a must for accurate support of diagnosis and intervention of many pulmonary disorders. In particular, lung cancer diagnosis would benefit from segmentations reaching most distal airways. We present a method that combines descriptors of bronchi local appearance and graph global structural analysis to fine-tune thresholds on the descriptors adapted for each bronchial level. We have compared our method to the top performers of the EXACT09 challenge and to a commercial software for biopsy planning evaluated in an own-collected data-base of high resolution CT scans acquired under different breathing conditions. Results on EXACT09 data show that our method provides a high leakage reduction with minimum loss in airway detection. Results on our data-base show the reliability across varying breathing conditions and a competitive performance for biopsy planning compared to a commercial solution.
Highlights
Bronchoscopy examinations are the diagnostic cornerstone for lung cancer since they allow biopsy of nodules with minimum risk for the patient
The baseline segmentation PICASSOB is shown in green, PICASSOL leakage is shown in red and PICASSO with leakage removal is shown in blue
We note that PICASSO graph structural analysis is able to remove large amounts of leakage while keeping the majority of distal branches
Summary
Bronchoscopy examinations are the diagnostic cornerstone for lung cancer since they allow biopsy of nodules with minimum risk for the patient. Virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN) systems [3] are used to reconstruct computed tomography (CT) data into three-dimensional representations of the tracheobronchial tree. VBN systems allow for coupling virtual and real-time bronchoscopy, which is useful for guiding ultrathin bronchoscopes and other devices in diagnostic interventions [4]. In a recent communication [6], segmentations not reaching the peripheral pulmonary lesions were observed in 44% of cases and in such cases, only 35% of them were diagnosed. This diagnostic rate is comparable to that achieved without a navigation
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