Medical Physics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Medical Physics, including details on medicine, radiotherapy, biomechanics, medical imaging.

Virtual bronchoscopy: clinical applications and limitations.

Bauer TL, Steiner KV

Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, Christiana Care, 4701 Ogletown-Stanton Rd., Newark, DE 19713, USA. tbauer@christianacare.org

Virtual bronchoscopy (VB) is a term that describes a variety of software-based three-dimensional visualizations created from noninvasive medical imaging methods such as CT or MRI scans, with the goal of creating results similar to minimally invasive bronchoscopy procedures of the trachea and upper airways. This technique offers a detailed, noninvasive view of the airways, with reduced risk of infection or perforation, and facilitates preoperative planning for airway interventions that would otherwise not be possible. It is unlikely that VB will replace fiberoptic bronchoscopy; however, as VB techniques become more sophisticated and as sufficient computing and imaging power become more readily available, noninvasive visualization of the airways will play an important and useful role in the evaluation of airway diseases in well defined clinical situations.

Published 11 June 2007 in Surg Oncol Clin N Am, 16(2): 323-8.
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