Growth characterisation of intra-thoracic organs of children on CT scans

Abstract

This paper analyses the geometry of intra-thoracic organs from computed tomography (CT) scans performed on 20 children aged from 4 months to 16 years. The aim is to find the most reliable measurements to characterise the growth of heart and lungs from CT data. Standard measurements available on chest radiographies are compared with original measurements only available on CT scans. These measurements should characterise the growth of organs as well as the changes in their position relative to the thorax. Measurements were considered as functions of age. Quadratic regression models were fitted to the data. Goodness of fit of the models was then evaluated. Positions of organs relative to the thorax have a high variability compared with their changes with age. The length and volume of the heart and lungs as well as the diameter of the thorax fit well to the models of growth. It could be interesting to study these measurements with a larger sample size in order to define growth standards.

Keywords:

• 3D reconstruction
• intra-thoracic organs
• child
• growth standards
• lung
• heart

Acknowledgements

This study was partly funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the framework of the ‘SECUR_ENFANT’ project. This project was also supported and partly funded by the ‘French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks’ (IFSTTAR) and by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur French region. The authors would like to thank Dr Chaumoitre of the Department of Radiology at the North Hospital of Marseille (France) as well as Dr Breaud of the University Hospital Centre of Nice (France) for their assistance.