Diagnosing lung disease with quantitative ultrasound parameters

Diagnosing lung disease with quantitative ultrasound parameters unknown

Through this process, the researchers found that only five of the parameters were necessary for assessing fibrosis and edema: three for fibrosis and two for edema. “One of the challenges with many diagnostic tools is that there is often a trade-off between sensitivity and specificity,” Muller says. “A highly sensitive test may virtually guarantee that you detect a problem, but it also usually means that there can be a lot of false positives. On the other hand, a highly specific test will almost never give you a false positive, but it may also miss quite a few health problems it is supposed to detect, or not be able to assess the severity of a specific disease. We’re excited about this new diagnostic tool because it is both highly sensitive and highly specific,” Muller says. “And we’re able to have that combination of specificity and sensitivity because we are measuring multiple parameters.” 

One way they were able to assess the sensitivity of the new tool is by making use of fibrosis treatments. As rats who had fibrosis received treatment, the new diagnostic tool was able to measure improvements in the rats’ lung tissue. 

The researchers have developed data processing software that can be used in conjunction with existing ultrasound hardware to determine the numbers for each parameter measurement, as well as establishing the biomarker scores for edema and fibrosis. “We’ve established that this works well in a rat model,” Muller says. “Next steps involve computational simulations, in vitro testing, and animal model testing to establish that this technique can work in cases where the ultrasound has to penetrate a much thicker chest wall. If that goes well, we’ll pursue clinical trials. Also, because we have established 60 parameters – which is a lot – we’re optimistic that this technique can be used in the future to identify diagnostic biomarkers for a range of other lung conditions.” 

Source: NC State University