A normative database of free-breathing pediatric thoracic 4D dynamic MRI images

In pediatric patients with respiratory abnormalities, it is important to
understand the alterations in regional dynamics of the lungs and other
thoracoabdominal components, which in turn requires a quantitative
understanding of what is considered as normal in healthy children.
Currently, such a normative database of regional respiratory structure and
function in healthy children does not exist. The shared open-source
normative database is from our ongoing virtual growing child (VGC)
project, which includes 4D dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI)
images during one breathing cycle for each normal child and also 10 object
segmentations at end expiration (EE) and end inspiration (EI) phases of
the respiratory cycle in the 4D image. The lung volumes at EE and EI as
well as the excursion volumes of chest wall and diaphragm from EE to EI,
left and right separately, are also reported. The database has 4,000 3D
segmentations from 200 healthy children, which to our knowledge is the
largest dMRI dataset of healthy children to date. The database is unique
and provides dMRI images, object segmentations, and quantitative regional
respiratory measurement parameters of volumes for healthy children. The
database can serve as a reference standard to quantify regional
respiratory abnormalities in young patients with various respiratory
conditions and facilitate treatment planning and response assessment. The
database can be useful to advance future AI-based research on image-based
object segmentation and analysis.