Design of a walk-in lab test for lung morphometry characterization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022354366-A1
Application number	US-202017769333-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 13, 2020
Priority date	Oct 15, 2019
Publication date	Nov 10, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for estimating lung morphometry based on aerosol deposition characteristics using an imaging means such as a gamma camera to scan the lungs. An adaptive image threshold technique is used to determine the ratio of deposition in central to peripheral region of the lung (C/P ratio). The morphometric parameters such as length and diameter of distal lung airways (P 8 and P 9 respectively) and mean alveolar diameter (d alv ) are determined from aerosol retention data and clearance data.

First claim

1 . A method for estimating lung morphometry comprising of:
delivering radio-aerosol in a subject; generating a plurality of images of the lung using an imaging means; determining ratio of aerosol deposition in the Central to Peripheral region of the lung (C/P ratio) by drawing Region of Interest (ROI) using adaptive image threshold technique; and determining the morphometric parameters through an optimization procedure comprising minimizing an error function.

2 . The method for estimating lung morphometry according to claim 1 , wherein said radio-aerosol is delivered to the lungs using any oral or nasal compliance.

3 . The method for estimating lung morphometry according to claim 1 , wherein the imaging means is a camera selected from a gamma imaging camera, CT scan and SPECT or PET scan.

4 . The method for estimating lung morphometry according to claim 1 , wherein the aerosol deposition characteristics include retention data and clearance data of aerosol in lungs.

5 . The method for estimating lung morphometry according to claim 4 , wherein the retention data and clearance data of aerosol in lungs include time, volume, or percentage of aerosol in lungs.

6 . The method for estimating lung morphometry according to claim 1 , wherein the adaptive image threshold technique is used to draw Region of Interest (ROI) to calculate C/P ratio, and to identify the lung boundary.

7 . The method for estimating lung morphometry according to claim 1 , wherein the morphometric parameters include length and diameter of the distal lung airways as well as associated parameter (P 8 and P 9 respectively), and mean alveolar diameter (d alv ).

8 . The method for estimating lung morphometry according to claim 1 , wherein the method for drawing ROI using adaptive threshold technique comprises of:
i) converting the initial image obtained from imaging at t=0 hours and after upto twenty four hours post-inhalation of the aerosol, to a gray scale image; ii) cropping the image to make the right lung as the only focus and cropping dimensions which are to be the same for all individuals; iii) calculating the lung boundary of the static image by extracting the boundaries of the connected areas at a given threshold; iv) increasing the image threshold value to obtain the maximum image boundary; v) obtaining the total right lung area by superimposing said lung boundary over the first image obtained immediately after the aerosol inhalation; vi) calculating the C/P ratio from the ratios of the area between the central and peripheral regions; and vii) shrinking said total right lung area to create an area ratio obtained in step (vi) using an iterative procedure.

Assignees

• Indian Institute Of Tech Madras
• Sri Venkateswara Inst Of Medical Sciences Svims

Inventors

• Panchagnula Mahesh V
• G Karthiga Devi S
• Alladi Mohan

Classifications

• G06T7/136

  involving thresholding · CPC title

• G06T2207/30061

  Lung · CPC title

• A61B5/004 Primary

  adapted for image acquisition of a particular organ or body part (A61B5/0082 takes precedence; arrangements for optical scanning A61B5/0062) · CPC title

• G16H30/40

  for processing medical images, e.g. editing · CPC title

• G06T7/12 Primary

  Edge-based segmentation · CPC title