CT Airway Imaging for Adults and Children

Digital tomosynthesis volumetric imaging has multiple clinical applications for adults that include airway imaging. Pediatric imaging presents a unique set of challenges for digital tomosynthesis volumetric acquisition, in particular, mid-exposure patient motion remains a resilient obstacle facing pediatric tomosynthesis imaging of the thoracic region. This is mainly due to the long time-spans (greater than ten seconds) typically used by thoracic protocol exposures to complete their imaging sweep.

INNOVATION:

• A chest CT/Tomosynthesis anthropomorphic phantom that can mimic the breathing motion was designed and validated
• Digital tomosynthesis exposes the patient to significantly less radiation than some other available imaging tools and is therefore preferred in some patient populations, but particularly with the pediatric patient
• Computational modeling studies have shown that digital tomosynthesis may add substantial sensitivity and specificity for the detection of low density aspirated foreign bodies

APPLICATIONS:

• Develop and optimize protocols that can mimic the breathing motion in infants and small children who are prone to ingesting objects in their airways
• The model is easily scalable to other patient populations, including, for example, the adult, obese adult and infirm patient for use in optimization of different protocols such as the imaging of endo-bronchial tumors or lesions