Computed tomography values calculation and volume histogram analysis for various computed tomographic patterns of diffuse lung diseases

• Published in: Journal of computer assisted tomography Vol. 33; no. 5; p. 731
• Main Authors: Sumikawa, Hiromitsu, Johkoh, Takeshi, Yamamoto, Shuji, Yanagawa, Masahiro, Inoue, Atsuo, Honda, Osamu, Yoshida, Shigeyuki, Tomiyama, Noriyuki, Nakamura, Hironobu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.09.2009
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Female; Humans; Lung - diagnostic imaging; Lung - pathology; Lung Diseases - diagnostic imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Biological; Observer Variation; Pattern Recognition, Automated; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1532-3145
• DOI: 10.1097/rct.0b013e31818da65c

The aim of this study was to determine the computed tomography (CT) values of various pulmonary abnormalities in cubic region of interest (ROI) and square ROI and evaluate the CT findings by histogram analysis in the ROI. The study included 89 patients with the following 8 pulmonary CT patterns: normal lung, ground-glass attenuation, fine reticular opacity, coarse reticular opacity, honeycombing, airspace consolidation, nodular opacity, and emphysema. Cubic and square ROIs were selected in each CT pattern, and 5 values (contrast, variance, entropy, skewness, and kurtosis) were calculated. In the histogram of ground-glass attenuation, fine reticular opacity, and coarse reticular opacity, peaks had moved to the right compared with the normal lung. Only emphysema had higher contrast and lower entropy than the normal lung (P < 0.001). The other abnormalities had lower contrast and higher entropy than the normal lung. In conclusion, the shapes of histograms were characteristic of various abnormalities of the lung, and the values reflected the histogram quantitatively.