An automated 3D emphysema extraction method using lung CT

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease in which the airways and tiny air sacs (alveoli) inside the lung are partially obstructed or destroyed. Emphysema is what occurs as more and more of the walls between air sacs get destroyed. Computed tomography (CT) image has been a useful modality for assessing diffuse lung diseases, particularly, emphysema. At present, diagnosis of emphysema is done by using spirometry, X-rays, spiral chest CT-scan, bronchoscopy, blood tests and pulse oximetry. Our goal in this study is to automatically extract the locations of emphysematous lung tissuess in the lung CT and then visualize the extracted emphysematous lung tissues in 3D.