BronchoX: bronchoscopy exploration software for biopsy intervention planning

[摘要] Virtual bronchoscopy (VB) is a non-invasive exploration tool for intervention planning and navigation of possible pulmonary lesions (PLs). A VB software involves the location of a PL and the calculation of a route, starting from the trachea, to reach it. The selection of a VB software might be a complex process, and there is no consensus in the community of medical software developers in which is the best-suited system to use or framework to choose. The authors present Bronchoscopy Exploration (BronchoX), a VB software to plan biopsy interventions that generate physician-readable instructions to reach the PLs. The authors’ solution is open source, multiplatform, and extensible for future functionalities, designed by their multidisciplinary research and development group. BronchoX is a compound of different algorithms for segmentation, visualisation, and navigation of the respiratory tract. Performed results are a focus on the test the effectiveness of their proposal as an exploration software, also to measure its accuracy as a guiding system to reach PLs. Then, 40 different virtual planning paths were created to guide physicians until distal bronchioles. These results provide a functional software for BronchoX and demonstrate how following simple instructions is possible to reach distal lesions from the trachea.

[学科分类] 肠胃与肝脏病学

[关键词] medical image processing;computerised tomography;pneumodynamics;medical computing;lung;path planning;image segmentation;BronchoX;navigation;PLs;biopsy intervention planning;virtual bronchoscopy;noninvasive exploration tool;VB software;medical software developers;pulmonary lesions;bronchoscopy exploration software;virtual paths planning;trachea;physician readable instructions;segmentation;visualisation;respiratory tract;bronchioles