title: Ventilation-based segmentation of the lungs using hyperpolarized (3)He MRI.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop an automated segmentation method to differentiate the ventilated lung volume on (3) He magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Computational processing (CP) for each subject consisted of the following three essential steps: 1) inhomogeneity bias correction, 2) whole lung segmentation, and 3) subdivision of the lung segmentation into regions of similar ventilation. Evaluation consisted of two comparative analyses: i) comparison of the number of defects scored by two human readers in 43 subjects, and ii) simultaneous truth and performance level estimation (STAPLE) in 18 subjects in which the ventilation defects were manually segmented by four human readers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was excellent correlation between the number of ventilation defects tabulated by CP and reader #1 (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.86), CP and reader #2 (ICC = 0.85), and between the two readers (ICC = 0.97). The STAPLE results from the second analysis yielded the following sensitivity/specificity numbers: CP (0.898/0.905), radiologist #1 (0.743/0.897), radiologist #2 (0.501/0.985), radiologist #3 (0.898/0.848), and the first author (0.600/0.984).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We developed and evaluated an automated method for quantifying the ventilated lung volume on (3) He MRI. The findings strongly indicate that our proposed algorithmic processing may be a reliable, automatic method for quantitating ventilation defects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. ntustison@virginia.edu
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Tustison
authors.forename: Brian B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Avants
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Flors
authors.forename: Talissa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Altes
authors.forename: Eduard E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: de Lange
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mugler
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gee
mesh_terms: D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001331:Automation; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006371:Helium; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange / Q000502:physiology; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D006371:Helium