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D. Aykac, E. A. Hoffman, G. McLennan, and J. M. Reinhardt. Segmentation and analysis of the human airway tree from three-dimensional X-Ray CT images. IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging, vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 940-950, 2003.

Abstract: The lungs exchange air with the external environment via the pulmonary airways. CT scanning can be used to obtain detailed images of the pulmonary anatomy, including the airways. These images have been used to measure airway geometry, study airway reactivity, and guide surgical interventions. Prior to these applications, airway segmentation can be used to identify the airway lumen in the CT images. Airway tree segmentation can be performed manually by an image analyst, but the complexity of the tree makes manual segmentation tedious and extremely time-consuming. We describe a fully automatic technique for segmenting the airway tree in 3D CT images of the thorax. We use gray-scale morphological reconstruction to identify candidate airways on CT slices, and then reconstruct a connected 3D airway tree. After segmentation, we estimate airway branchpoints based on connectivity changes in the reconstructed tree. Compared to manual analysis on 3 mm thick EBCT images, the automatic approach has an overall airway branch detection sensitivity of approximately 73%.

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Keywords: airways segmentation

Other publications by: D. Aykac, E. A. Hoffman, G. McLennan, J. M. Reinhardt

Related journal papers:

J. M. Reinhardt, N. D. D'Souza, and E. A. Hoffman. Accurate Measurement of Intra-Thoracic Airways. IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 820-827, 1997. (details)
J. M. Reinhardt and W. E. Higgins. Paradigm for Shape-Based Image Analysis. Optical Engineering, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 570-581, 1998. (details)
J. M. Reinhardt, A. J. Wang, T. P. Weldon, and W. E. Higgins. Cue-Based Segmentation of 4D Cardiac Image Sequences. Comp. Vision and Image Understanding, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 251-262, 2000. (details)
S. Hu, E. A. Hoffman, and J. M. Reinhardt. Automatic lung segmentation for accurate quantitation of volumetric X-ray CT images. IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 490-498, 2001. (details)
C. P. Rooney, M. Suter, G. McLennan, M. Donnelley, J. M. Reinhardt, A. Delsing, E. A. Hoffman, and J. Zabner. Laser Fluorescence Bronchoscopy for Detection of Fluorescent Reporter Genes in Airway Epithelia. Gene Therapy, vol. 9, no. 23, pp. 1639-1644, 2002. (details)

Related conference papers:

R. A. Chiplunkar, J. M. Reinhardt, and E. A. Hoffman. Segmentation and Quantification of the Primary Human Airway Tree from 3-D X-ray CT. In E. A. Hoffman, ed., Proc. SPIE Conf. Medical Imaging, vol. 3033, pp. 403-414, Newport Beach, CA, 1997. (details)
J. Thiesse, J. M. Reinhardt, J. de Ryk, J. Leinen, W. Recheis, E. A. Hoffman, and G. McLennan. Three-dimensional visual truth of the normal airway tree for use as a quantitative comparison to micro-CT reconstructions. In A. Amini and A. Manduca, eds., Proc. SPIE Conf. Medical Imaging, vol. 5746, pp. 369-383, San Diego, CA, 2005. (details)
L. Shi, J. Thiesse, G. McLennan, E. A. Hoffman, and J. M. Reinhardt. Three-Dimensional Murine Airway Segmentation in Micro-CT Images. In J. P. Pluim and J. M. Reinhardt, eds., Proc. SPIE Conf. Medical Imaging, vol. 6512, San Diego, CA, 2007. (details)
J. Tschirren, K. Palagyi, J. M. Reinhardt, E. A. Hoffman, and M. Sonka. Segmentation, skeletonization, and branchpoint matching: A fully automated quantitative evaluation of human intrathoracic airway trees. In Medical Imaging Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, vol. 2489 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 12-19, Tokyo, 2002. (details)
W. E. Higgins, W. L. Sharp, M. W. Hansen, and J. M. Reinhardt. A graphical user interface system for 3D medical image analysis. In Y. Kim, ed., Proc. SPIE Conf. Medical Imaging, vol. 2164, Newport Beach, CA, 1994. (details)

Related theses:

D. Aykac. Segmentation and analysis of the human airway tree from 3D X-ray CT images. MS thesis, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2000. (details)
D. Gopalakrishnan. Color analysis of the human airway wall. MS thesis, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2003. (details)
O. Saba. Accurate estimation of airway geometry with tilt angle estimation from 2D HRCT slices. MS thesis, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2000. (details)
S. Ukil. Anatomy-guided lung lobe segmentation and fissure analysis in X-ray CT images. PhD thesis, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2006. (details)
L. Zhang. Atlas-driven lung lobe segmentation in volumetric X-ray CT images. PhD thesis, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2002. (details)