Virtual Nodule Scanner
Objective
This open-source software is designed to simulate CT scan on a plumonary
nodule to measure its volume. The objective is to study the influence
of scanning parameters (slice interval, thickness, field-of-view) over
the volume measurement of a lung nodule.
Simulating a CT scan
In order to isolate the factors, we simulate an ideal case, with an
ideal nodule and an ideal scanner.
The ideal nodule
The nodule is a perfect isolated sphere, with homogeneous water
intensity (0 HU) inside. It is surrounded by homogeneous lung intensity
(-900 HU).
The ideal scanner
The scanner has no noise. The pixel value is sampled within a voxel cube
and so partial volume effect is simulated. When slice thickness is set
to 0, we are simulating extremely thin slice.
Volume Measurement
The nodule is segmented by simple thresholding at -450 HU (the median
between the nodule and the lung). Then the volume is calculated by
counting the segmented voxels, multiplying with the volume of a voxel.