Radiology, Vol 208, 331-337, Copyright © 1998 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Polypoid lesions of airways: early experience with computer-assisted detection by using virtual bronchoscopy and surface curvature

RM Summers, WS Selbie, JD Malley, LM Pusanik, AJ Dwyer, NA Courcoutsakis, DJ Shaw, DE Kleiner, MC Sneller, CA Langford, SM Holland and JH Shelhamer
Diagnostic Radiology Department, Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.

PURPOSE: To test the application of a technique developed by the authors for the computer-assisted diagnosis of polypoid airway lesions from surface rendered virtual bronchoscopic reconstructions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A computer algorithm was developed to detect polypoid airway lesions by means of segmentation of the bronchial surface with curvature classification. This method was tested with a bronchial phantom, five cadaveric lung specimens, and virtual bronchoscopic studies in 16 patients. RESULTS: For the patient studies, the sensitivity and specificity of the method were 47%-88% and 58%-89%, respectively, depending on the value of an adjustable parameter (the mean curvature threshold). The sensitivity increased (by 20% to 34%) when only lesions larger than 5 mm in diameter were considered. CONCLUSION: With this method, polypoid airway lesions can be detected automatically, although false-positive diagnoses present an important limitation.

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