2000 Volume 56 Issue 12 Pages 1476-1484
With the spread of helical CT, three-dimensional CT (3DCT) has been employed in routine clinical settings for examination of the respiratory system. Virtual bronchoscopy (VB) is used in the simulation of bronchoscopy to observe protruded lesions. It is also utilized for the purpose of obtaining informed consent from patients. However, the currently used single detector CT (SDCT) creates a limited-range three-dimensional model of the airways owing to difficulty in breath holding. For this reason, VB that derives from insufficient volume data is sometimes incapable of demonstrating the airways. However, the advent of multi-detector CT (MDCT) has made it possible to visualize a wider extent of the airway by using thin slices. This study was thus undertaken to assess the ability of VB to visualize the tracheobronchial tree under an imaging condition that allowed a single breath-holding period (within 30 seconds) in SDCT and MDCT.
