ISHLT members have recognized the importance of a consensus statement on the evaluation and management of patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. The creation of this document... Show moreISHLT members have recognized the importance of a consensus statement on the evaluation and management of patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. The creation of this document required multiple steps, including the engagement of the ISHLT councils, approval by the Standards and Guidelines Committee, identification and selection of experts in the field, and the development of 6 working groups. Each working group provided a separate section based on an extensive literature search. These sections were then coalesced into a single document that was circulated to all members of the working groups. Key points were summarized at the end of each section. Due to the limited number of comparative trials in this field, the document was written as a literature review with expert opinion rather than based on level of evidence. (C) 2021 International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. All rights reserved. Show less
In this thesis, we developed methods focusing on quantifying pulmonary vascular diseases and assessing treatment effects, based on CT images. A lung vessel segmentation method was proposed in... Show moreIn this thesis, we developed methods focusing on quantifying pulmonary vascular diseases and assessing treatment effects, based on CT images. A lung vessel segmentation method was proposed in Chapter 2, as accurately extracting lung vessels is an essentialstep for pulmonary vessel analysis. An automatic method for pulmonary vessel quantification was developed in Chapter 3, where two imaging biomarkers were proposed for quantifying the vascular morphology. In Chapter 4, the relation between these imaging biomarkers and pulmonary function were investigated in a selected SSc patient group, who had reductions in gas transfer but did not have fibrosis. The densitometry changes in pulmonary vasculature and parenchyma were studied by comparing CTPA scans before and after treatment for CTEPH patients treated with BPA, in Chapter 5. A vascular tree matching method was proposed for matching pulmonaryvasculature trees, for quantifying changes in vascular morphology for CTEPH patients in Chapter 6. Show less
