Toracic X-Ray Fractal Measures in Patients with Different Pathologies

Abstract

Introduction: Fractal geometry allows theobjective description of irregular objects likeRecibido: noviembre 30 de 2005Aceptado: febrero 1 de 2005* Javier Rodríguez: MD. director del Grupo Insight.Signed Prieto: investigadora del Grupo Insight.Catalina Correa: psicóloga.Nicolás Avilán: físico.Heber Ulloa: MD. profesor asociado Departamentode Imágenes Diagnósticas, Universidad Nacional deColombia.Rubén Caicedo: MD. jefe del Departamento de Cirugía,Universidad Nacional de ColombiaCorrespondencia: Signed Prieto Diag 51 A Bis No 56C 25 Sur. E-mail: [email protected] fractales de radiografías de tórax depacientes con diferentes patologíasToracic X-Ray Fractal Measures in Patients with Different PathologiesJavier Rodríguez, Signed Prieto, Catalina Correa, Nicolás Avilán, Heber Ulloa, Rubén Caicedo*the human body structures. In this case it wasapplied to the development of a new thoraxcavity characterization methodology.Materials and methods: Exploratorydescriptive study where it was applied a measurementmethodology based on the fractalgeometry to 14 thorax x-rays from differentpathologies patients. There were calculated thefractal dimensions of the thorax cavity, thecardiac silhouette and the superposition of theseparts using the Box-Counting method.Results: New objective morphometricmeasures of the thorax x-rays with fractaldimensions were obtained.Conclusions: The fractal geometry allows thethorax x-rays mathematic characterization inpatients with different pathologies. It is possiblethat the development of this methodology in laterinvestigations allows to generate useful parametersof clinical application.

Keywords

• fractal geometry
• thorax x-ray