VCARINA

vcarina - carina detection based on airway region

vcarina ic=<ifile> [sp=<x,y,z>] [or=<organ>] [zr=<>] [of=<ofile>] [-w] [-v] [-d] [-f]

vcarina performs carina detection using the segmented airway region. It takes in a binary map that contains the labeled airway region. The label can be the general airway or trachea/bronchus. Based on the input map the carina location is detected. If no seed point is specified, the program searches for the seed point from top of the scan by finding the second connected region larger than the minimum size (50 voxels). The center of mass of this region is the detected seed point. If a seed point is specified (sp=), the program uses the specified seed point.

After finding the seed point, the program searches in each slice after the seed point for connected component. The search is terminated if there are more than one connected components. Before termination, for each slice it is also checked that the size is larger than the minimum size (50 voxels) and larger than one third of the initial size. The center of mass of the connected component before the carina slice is chosen as the carina location. If the -f flag is specified, carina location has to be at least 70mm away from the top of the scan.

After detection of carina, the airway region above carina is labeled as trachea. A check is performed in the trachea region slice by slice. In each slice the width of the trachea is measured. An average width of the slices above the current slice is also measured. If the width of the current slice is larger than twice the average width, trachea is terminated before that slice.

If the output (of=) is specified, the output file is a binary image with labeled trachea. If either the output (of=) or the -f flag is specified, the program also needs z resolution as an input. If the -w flag is specified, carina location is printed in wish format.

ic= must be a byte image. zr= must be specified if either of= or -f is used.

J. Lee