Volumetric automatic quantification of lung tissue

According to the World Health Organization, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death, and it is increasing and may become the third cause in the next years. Early diagnosis is, in fact, the most effective way of treating and fighting the disease. However, studies show that a large part of the population that is affected does not have a previous diagnosis. The diagnosis of these diseases is often associated with the use of complementary medical imaging tests. Among these modalities, high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) stands out for providing anatomical sectional sections in the region of interest. However, this method is often not used due to the subjectivity of the analysis. In this sense, recent studies aim to implement automatic methods to classify and quantify objectively, through algorithms and tomographic images, the occurrence of lung diseases in the population. (author)