Virtual bronchoscopy

Virtual bronchoscopy is rapidly providing a software solution for visualization and measurement of the human airway tree with data derived from multirow detector X-ray CT scans as the most common data source. Increasingly, other imaging data sources to create three-dimensional image renderings of the bronchial tree are being used including magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, and the digital color image taken by the bronchoscope itself. Software solutions now exist for providing simple renderings of the bronchial tree through which a fly-through of the airway lumen by the center line of the airway can be added (the fly-through mimics the view that a real flexible bronchoscope affords the operator). The images so produced are visually accurate (i.e., they appear very realistic) and with good software now available are also analytically correct (i.e., measurements taken from these images are accurate). More advanced virtual bronchoscopic applications, including image-based pathfinding to mediastinal and peripheral lung structures, are also in development. Synergistic datasets composed of image data from multiple image sources are also being developed.