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Development of digital phantoms based on a finite element model to simulate low-attenuation areas in CT imaging for pulmonary emphysema quantification

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Abstract

Purpose

To develop an innovative finite element (FE) model of lung parenchyma which simulates pulmonary emphysema on CT imaging. The model is aimed to generate a set of digital phantoms of low-attenuation areas (LAA) images with different grades of emphysema severity.

Methods

Four individual parameter configurations simulating different grades of emphysema severity were utilized to generate 40 FE models using ten randomizations for each setting. We compared two measures of emphysema severity (relative area (RA) and the exponent D of the cumulative distribution function of LAA clusters size) between the simulated LAA images and those computed directly on the models output (considered as reference).

Results

The LAA images obtained from our model output can simulate CT-LAA images in subjects with different grades of emphysema severity. Both RA and D computed on simulated LAA images were underestimated as compared to those calculated on the models output, suggesting that measurements in CT imaging may not be accurate in the assessment of real emphysema extent.

Conclusions

Our model is able to mimic the cluster size distribution of LAA on CT imaging of subjects with pulmonary emphysema. The model could be useful to generate standard test images and to design physical phantoms of LAA images for the assessment of the accuracy of indexes for the radiologic quantitation of emphysema.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health, by Tuscany Region (Italy) (RF-2010-2321362) and by Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (2013.0464).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi”, University of Bologna, Via Venezia 52, 47521, Cesena, Italy

    Stefano Diciotti

  2. Department of Clinical and Experimental Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Alessandro Nobis, Stefano Ciulli, Nicholas Landini & Mario Mascalchi

  3. School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Stefano Ciulli

  4. Medical Physics Section, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

    Stefano Ciulli

  5. Section of Radiology, Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

    Nicola Sverzellati

  6. BEAMS Department, École polytechnique de Bruxelles, ULB - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Bernardo Innocenti

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  1. Stefano Diciotti
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  2. Alessandro Nobis
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Correspondence to Stefano Diciotti.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants (ITALUNG study) were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the ITALUNG study.

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Diciotti, S., Nobis, A., Ciulli, S. et al. Development of digital phantoms based on a finite element model to simulate low-attenuation areas in CT imaging for pulmonary emphysema quantification. Int J CARS 12, 1561–1570 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-016-1500-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-016-1500-6

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