Lung Disease Diagnosis With Ultrasound Precision

Researchers have developed a set of criteria that can be measured quantitatively using ultrasonography to assess different physical aspects of the lung. In an animal model, the researchers demonstrated that these metrics could be used to accurately identify and assess the severity of lung disorders (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Lung quantitative ultrasound to stage and monitor interstitial lung diseases

Go to source). Lungs can be affected by diseases in a variety of ways, explains Marie Muller, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University and co-senior author of a publication on the research.This paper, is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

"They can alter the lungs' microstructure, lung tissue's flexibility, the kind and volume of fluid inside the lungs, and more. Ultrasound technology can be used to measure each of these changes. Establishing precise values for these lung characteristics and identifying the combination of attributes linked to various lung disorders was our aim in doing this work.

Ultrasound Parameters used in Pulmonary Diagnosis

“To be clear, we’re talking about numeric measurements for each parameter,” says Muller, who is also on faculty in the Joint Biomedical Engineering Department at NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “So, if there are three parameters associated with a disease, we’d have three numbers – one for each parameter. We can then use a mathematical formula that combines those three numbers to create a biomarker score. That score not only tells us whether a specific health problem is present, but how severe the problem is.”

The researchers began by generating parameters for measuring a wide variety of lung characteristics, such as the density of alveoli or the amount of fluid in the lungs. The researchers also adapted existing ultrasound parameters used in other organs for use on lung tissue. Altogether, this resulted in a total of 60 parameters.

The researchers then measured all 60 parameters in the lungs of rats that were healthy or had various stages of fibrosis or edema. Fibrosis is scarring of the lung tissue. Edema refers to fluid build-up in the lung.

“We then used statistical methods to identify which combinations of parameters were both associated with a given health condition and sensitive enough to measure the severity of a health problem,” Muller says.

Advertisement

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.

Challenges with Diagnostic Tools

“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 rarely 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.

Advertisement

“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 was 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 establish 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.”

Reference:

1. Lung quantitative ultrasound to stage and monitor interstitial lung diseases - (https:www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-66390-6)

Source-Eurekalert