VISUALIZATION OF LUNG USING 4D MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

Respiratory parameters are important in numerous clinical applications. These applications include diagnosing and monitoring patients suffering from sleep apnea, and rehabilitation training for spinal cord injury patients with breathing difficulties. These parameters are commonly measured using spirometer. This method tends to be uncomfortable for patients being monitored for prolong period and can also be a source of infection. This paper presents the use of advanced imaging technique in a project to develop lung model that can be used in conjunction with a respiratory monitoring device to estimate respiratory parameters in a non invasive and contactless manner. The paper describes work involving the acquisition of 4D (3D + time) lung dataset using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the development of image processing techniques to extract the lung structure using MR images. This is the first and necessary step to creating a lung model using medical images. MRI is used because it is able to produce high resolution images with excellent soft tissue contrast without the use of ionizing radiation, as compared to CT (computed tomography) which is more commonly used for lung imaging. Consequently, the use of MRI will enable the technique developed to be applicable to a wider group of patients, including young children. MRI allows the lung to be visualized in 3D and the changes in the lung volume to be studied over time. Preliminary results show that it is possible to acquire 4D thoracic MR images, to segment the images to reconstruct the lung into 3D models, and to calculate the changes in lung volume over time.