School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, & Health Systems

Mattan Orbach

School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, & Health Systems

Biomedical Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sriram Balasubramanian Biomedical Engineering

Estimation of Normative Lung Volumes from Two-Dimensional Lung Measures in Pediatric Subjects

Lung volume is assessed using pulmonary function tests (PFTs) such as spirometry. Because of the challenges of collecting pediatric PFTs, computed tomography (CT)-based estimates of lung volume have been used. Although these CT-based methods provide reliable estimates, they involve extensive radiation exposure. While clinical radiographs are routinely used for evaluating lung pathologies, they do not provide a direct estimate of lung volume. So, the objective of this study was to estimate lung volume from 2D radiographs in normative male and female pediatric subjects. Retrospective chest CT scans from 69 normative male and female subjects ages 1-19 years were obtained from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the right and left lung volumes were calculated from digital reconstructions using medical image processing software (MIMICS, Materialise Inc., Belgium). Polynomial regression equations, using age as the independent variable, were used to estimate 3D lung volume for both sexes from 2D lung measures collected from projected X-rays of the same subjects derived from the CTs. Such data can aid in the surgical treatment of pediatric subjects with complex thoracic deformities and inhibited lung growth.