Development and evaluation of automated image analysis techniques in thoracic CT

Abstract

This work concerns the development and analysis of two automatic image processing techniques in thoracic CT: Nodule detection and Intra-patient non-rigid registration. A method of nodule detection is described and thoroughly evaluated, and the organisation of a public challenge in nodule detection (ANODE09) is described with detailed discussion of the challenge results. Non-rigid registration is applied to a database of COPD patients in order to demonstrate a method of measuring pulmonary function via CT. A method to evaluate non-rigid registration via semi-automatically determined point pairs is described and demonstrated. Finally a public challenge (EMPIRE10) in non-rigid registration of thoracic CT is described and results for 20 algorithms from different institutes are detailed