Chest
Preliminary ReportVirtual Bronchoscopy: Relationships of Virtual Reality Endobronchial Simulations to Actual Bronchoscopic Findings
Section snippets
METHODS
Virtual bronchoscopy images were derived from helical CT of the chest performed for clinical indications in 20 patients. Helical CT was performed with a CT scanner (GE HiSpeed Advantage CT scanner, GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, Wisc) during a single breath-hold acquisition. Scanning parameters consisted of 3 mm x-ray beam collimation (slice thickness), 6 mm/s table speed, and 1 mm reconstruction intervals. CT images were then transferred from the scanner to a computer workstation (Silicon
RESULTS
Virtual bronchoscopy images were developed in 20 patients. CT data sets from ten patients were suboptimal because of respiratory and cardiac motion which degraded the 3D reconstructions and occasionally due to inappropriately thick CT slices. Although airway simulations could be created in the ten suboptimal cases, these did not accurately reproduce the details of airway anatomy because of “stairstepping” artifacts. The importance of coaching a patient with breathing instructions was
DISCUSSION
“Virtual bronchoscopy” tracheobronchial images can be derived successfully using helical CT images of the chest with remarkable simulation of major endobronchial abnormalities confirmed at fiberoptic bronchoscopy. The predictions of airway patency compared to bronchoscopy in patients with lung cancer have been evaluated previously. Colice et al,6 Naidich and colleagues,7 and others8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 have noted that CT had high positive and negative predictive values for detection
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Presented in part at the 1994 Annual Meetings of the American Thoracic Society, Boston, May 24, 1994, and American College of Chest Physicians, New Orleans, Nov 1, 1994.
Supported by a Developmental Technology Grant from the North Carolina Baptist Hospital
revision accepted August 30.