Evaluation of retrieval accuracy and visual similarity in content-based image retrieval of chest CT for obstructive lung disease

The aim of our study was to assess the performance of content-based image retrieval (CBIR) for similar chest computed tomography (CT) in obstructive lung disease. This retrospective study included patients with obstructive lung disease who underwent volumetric chest CT scans. The CBIR database included 600 chest CT scans from 541 patients. To assess the system performance, follow-up chest CT scans of 50 patients were evaluated as query cases, which showed the stability of the CT findings between baseline and follow-up chest CT, as confirmed by thoracic radiologists. The CBIR system retrieved the top five similar CT scans for each query case from the database by quantifying and comparing emphysema extent and size, airway wall thickness, and peripheral pulmonary vasculatures in descending order from the database. The rates of retrieval of the same pairs of query CT scans in the top 1–5 retrievals were assessed. Two expert chest radiologists evaluated the visual similarities between the query and retrieved CT scans using a five-point scale grading system. The rates of retrieving the same pairs of query CTs were 60.0% (30/50) and 68.0% (34/50) for top-three and top-five retrievals. Radiologists rated 64.8% (95% confidence interval 58.8–70.4) of the retrieved CT scans with a visual similarity score of four or five and at least one case scored five points in 74% (74/100) of all query cases. The proposed CBIR system for obstructive lung disease integrating quantitative CT measures demonstrated potential for retrieving chest CT scans with similar imaging phenotypes. Further refinement and validation in this field would be valuable.