Section: Application Domains

Imaging biomarkers and characterization for chronic lung diseases

Participants: Guillaume Chassagnon, Maria Vakalopoulou (in collaboration with Evangelia Zacharaki and Nikos Paragios: University of Patras; Therapanacea)

Diagnosis and staging of chronic lung diseases is a major challenge for both patient care and approval of new treatments. Among imaging techniques, computed tomography (CT) is the gold standard for in vivo morphological assessment of lung parenchyma currently offering the highest spatial resolution in chronic lung diseases. Although CT is widely used its optimal use in clinical practice and as an endpoint in clinical trials remains controversial. Our goal is to develop quantitative imaging biomarkers that allow (i)severity assessment (based on the correlation to functional and clinical data) and (ii) monitoring the disease progression. In the current analysis we focus on scleroderma and cystic fibrosis as models for restrictive and obstructive lung disease, respectively. Two different approaches are investigated: disease assessment by deep convolutional neural networks and assessment of the regional lung elasticity through deformable registration. This work is in collaboration with the Department of Radiology, Cochin Hospital, Paris.