Automatic segmentation of the airway tree from thoracic CT scans using a multi-threshold approach

A method for automatic extraction of the airway tree from thoracic CT scans is presented that uses adaptive thresholds while growing the airways. The method is evaluated on 20 volumetric chest CT scans provided by the Extraction of Airways from CT 2009 (EXACT09) challenge. The scans were acquired at different sites, using several different scanners, scanning protocols, and reconstruction parameters. There are scans of clinical dose, low dose, and ultra-low dose data, in inspiration and expiration, from both relatively healthy and severely ill patients. The results show that the method is able to detect a large number of airway branches at the cost of relatively high leakage volume.