Automatic Detection of Tram Tracks on HRCT Images

On high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images, dilated airways appear as two parallel lines that resemble tram tracks, when they lie in the plane of scan. Tram tracks, when visible, are characteristic of bronchiectasis, a disease caused by the irreversible dilatation of the bronchial tree. Detection of such patterns provides valuable diagnostic information. In this work, semi-supervised learning together with image analysis techniques have been used to detect tram tracks on HRCT images. The approach was tested on 1091 HRCT images belonging to 54 patients, and the results visually validated by radiologists. Sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 91% respectively were achieved.