Virtual Bronchoscopy Using OsiriX

Although the utility of virtual bronchoscopy has been reported, the software for virtual bronchoscopy has not been popular because of the high cost. OsiriX is a reasonably priced software that is available to reconstruct virtual endoscopic images. Herein, we present the ability of OsiriX to enable virtual bronchoscopy.

Computed tomography of the chest was performed using a 16-row multidetector. Data in 2 mm slices from one lung were obtained from 10 patients with a lung nodule. Virtual bronchoscopic images were established by OsiriX version 5.5 (32-bit). To examine the ability to visualize small bronchi, we tried to visualize the distal bronchus if possible. We selected B and B for the right lung and B and B for the left lung. In addition, to predict whether a pathologic diagnosis can successfully be made by transbronchial lung biopsy, we reconstructed virtual bronchoscopic images toward the lung nodule.

Bronchoscopic images were successfully reconstructed for all patients. The third to the seventh bronchi were visualized except in one patient whose right B was occluded by a tumor. In all patients, the virtual bronchoscopic path reached the lung nodule, and 5 lung nodules were successfully diagnosed by transbronchial biopsy.

OsiriX is practicable for virtual bronchoscopy at a low cost.