Regional lung function and mechanics using image registration

The main function of the respiratory system is gas exchange. Since many disease or injury conditions can cause biomechanical or material property changes that can alter lung function, there is a great interest in measuring regional lung function and mechanics.

In this thesis, we present a technique that uses multiple respiratory-gated CT images of the lung acquired at different levels of inflation with both breath-hold static scans and retrospectively reconstructed 4D dynamic scans, along with non-rigid 3D image registration, to make local estimates of lung tissue function and mechanics. We validate our technique using anatomical landmarks and functional Xe-CT estimated specific ventilation.

The major contributions of this thesis include: 1) developing the registration derived regional expansion estimation approach in breath-hold static scans and dynamic 4DCT scans, 2) developing a method to quantify lobar sliding from image registration derived displacement field, 3) developing a method for measurement of radiation-induced pulmonary function change following a course of radiation therapy, 4) developing and validating different ventilation measures in 4DCT.

The ability of our technique to estimate regional lung mechanics and function as a surrogate of the Xe-CT ventilation imaging for the entire lung from quickly and easily obtained respiratory-gated images, is a significant contribution to functional lung imaging because of the potential increase in resolution, and large reductions in imaging time, radiation, and contrast agent exposure. Our technique may be useful to detect and follow the progression of lung disease such as COPD, may be useful as a planning tool during RT planning, may be useful for tracking the progression of toxicity to nearby normal tissue during RT, and can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment post-therapy.