VIRTUAL BRONCHOSCOPY - 08/09/11
Résumé |
During the 1990s, helical CT scanning revolutionized diagnostic imaging. Patients are imaged much faster, with a consequent decrease in radiation dosage and motion artifact.18 In addition, because helical scanning acquires continuous images of a patient's body, it provides imaging data between the actual slices displayed. This complete data of a patient's body can be retrieved easily and reprocessed into additional images. Image reconstruction is routinely used to search for anatomic structures that are smaller than the CT scan slice, to better delineate an anatomic structure without obtaining additional images of the patient, and to create three-dimensional (3-D) imaging. 9, 19
Three-dimensional reconstruction of helical CT images has become a popular and useful imaging tool, especially for neuroradiologic and vascular imaging. 1, 6, 15 Because of the continuous data available from a single scan of a patient's body, the CT data can be reprocessed from a two-dimensional radiographic image into a 3-D image. Various programs have been created to rapidly perform 3-D reconstruction. Many of these programs are readily available on any commercial helical CT scanner.
Commercially available programs have been designed to automatically create a 3-D tracheobronchial tree model from CT scan images of the thorax. 2, 7, 8, 13 These programs also enable the viewer to navigate through the inside of the tracheobronchial tree as if in a simulated or virtual bronchoscopy (VB). This technology has the potential to revolutionize the diagnostic imaging of diseases of the airways and adjacent to the airways (e.g., mediastinal masses). This article discusses how VB images are generated, the feasibility of VB in the clinical setting today, and what future directions radiology and medicine can take with this new, noninvasive imaging tool.
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| Address reprint requests to: Suzanne L. Aquino, MD, Department of Radiology, FND 202, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114–2698 This work was supported by a grant from the Radiological Society of North America. |
Vol 20 - N° 4
P. 725-730 - décembre 1999 Retour au numéro
Article précédent
- POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY IMAGING IN THE THORAX
- Jeremy J. Erasmus, Edward F. Patz
- SPIRAL COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF PULMONARY EMBOLISM
- Randolph J. Lipchik, Lawrence R. Goodman
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