Geometric Validation of Continuous, Finely Sampled 3-D Reconstructions From aOCT and CT in Upper Airway Models

Identification and treatment of obstructive air-ence tomography (aOCT) is a promising high-speed and minimally invasive endoscopic imaging modality for providing micrometer-resolution scans of the upper airway. Resistance to airflow in OADs is directly caused by the reduction in luminal cross-sectionalarea (CSA). It is hypothesized that aOCT can produce airway CSA measurementsas accurate as that from computed tomography (CT). Scans of machine hollowed cylindrical tubes were used to develop methods for segmentation and measurement of airway lumen in CT and aOCT. Simulated scans of virtual cones were used to validate 3-D resampling and reconstruction methods in aOCT. Then, measurements of two segments of a 3-D printed pediatric airway phantom from aOCT and CT independently were compared to ground truth CSA. In continuous unobstructed regions, the mean CSA difference for each phantom segment was 2.2 +/- 3.5 and 1.5 +/- 5.3 mm(2) for aOCT, and -3.4 +/- 4.3 and -1.9 +/- 1.2 mm(2) for CT. Because of the similar magnitude of these differences, these results support the hypotheses and underscore the potential for aOCT as a viable alternative to CT in airway imaging, while offering greater potential to capture respiratory dynamics.