Evaluation of Lobar Biomechanics during Respiration Using Image Registration

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-04268-3_91
• Publication Date: 2009-10-01T11:42:56Z
• Authors: Kai Ding; Youbing Yin; Kunlin Cao; Gary E. Christensen; Ching-Long Lin; Eric A. Hoffman; Joseph M. Reinhardt
• Keywords: Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Pattern Recognition, Automated; Radiographic Image Enhancement; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Subtraction Technique; Respiratory Mechanics; Elasticity Imaging Techniques; Humans; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Lung; Algorithms

The human lungs are divided into five independent compartments called lobes. The lobar fissures separate the lung lobes. It is hypothesized that the lobar surfaces slide against each other during respiration. We propose a method to evaluate the sliding motion of the lobar surfaces during respiration using lobe-by-lobe mass-preserving non-rigid image registration. We measure lobar sliding by evaluating the relative displacement on both sides of the fissure. The results show a superior-inferior gradient in the magnitude of lobar sliding. We compare whole-lung-based registration accuracy to lobe-by-lobe registration accuracy using vessel bifurcation landmarks.