MATCHING PULMONARY STRUCTURE AND PERFUSION VIA COMBINED DYNAMIC MULTISLICE CT AND THIN-SLICE HIGH-RESOLUTION CT

Taking advantage of two scan modes of an electron beam CT scanner (Ima tron), we have developed a method utilizing x-ray CT for relating pulm onary perfusion to global and regional anatomy. A high temporal resolu tion mode, used to follow bolus contrast agent, is combined with a hig h spatial resolution mode to obtain the structure-function fusion. A s oftware module has been developed for our image analysis package (VIDA )(R) to automatically calculate physiologic parameters of flow and int egrate these color coded functional measurements into a corresponding high spatial resolution data set. We present the scanning methodology details and give examples from our physiologic based research to demon strate strengths of combining dynamic and high resolution CT to unique ly characterize pulmonary normal and pathophysiology.