Fractal analysis of virtual endoscopy reconstructions

Virtual endoscopy reconstructions of the body noninvasively provide morphologic information of gross structural abnormalities such as stenoses in airways or blood vessels and polyps in the colonic wall. Surface irregularity or roughness is another indication of abnormality potentially detectible on virtual endoscopy. In this paper, we show how fractal dimension can be used to quantify surface roughness and how these methods may be applied to virtual angioscopy to distinguish the thoracic aorta in a normal volunteer from that of a patient predisposed to atherosclerosis. Finally, we discuss some problems we encountered applying fractal analysis to small, noisy datasets.