Brian Jack Bartholmai MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Stephen Jeffrey Swensen MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Steve Gerhardt Langer PhD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Cynthia H. McCollough PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Thomas Edward Hartman MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Jie Zhang PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Thomas Croxton MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Andrew Limper MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Frank Sciurba MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Marvin I. Schwarz MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Fernando J. Martinez MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Bruce Thompson PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Carlyne Cool MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Robert A. Wist MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

et al, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

The Lung Tissue Resource Consortium (LTRC) will enable better management of COPD and IPF by physiologic and clinical phenotyping, pre-operative volumetric HRCT imaging and tissue collection with molecular, histopathological, genetic and proteomic studies. The LTRC will facilitate research by banking specimens with and without disease, distributing collections of specimens with clinical data and CT scans to researchers.

The LTRC Clinical Centers (Mayo Clinic Rochester, U. of Colorado, U. of Michigan and U. of Pittsburgh) enroll patients scheduled for lung resection for clinical reasons, perform clinical testing, medical record extraction and standardized CT scan of the chest. Preserved specimens are transferred to the Pathology Core Laboratory (U. of Colorado). Clinical data is stored and analyzed at a Data Coordinating Center (C-TASC, Bethesda MD) and the Radiology Core Laboratory (Mayo Clinic Rochester) processes and stores CT scan data.

The LTRC has begun acquisition of clinical data, lung tissue specimens and standardized volumetric HRCT data. The final recruitment goal for this five-year project includes 1600 lung tissue specimens with associated data. The Radiology Core Laboratory oversees a the multicenter QA program which enables standardized chest CT datasets to be acquired on varied multidetector CT scanners with different capabilities. The CT protocol includes 1 to 1.25 mm slices reconstructed at 50% overlap in a high-resolution kernel during supine inspiration, supine expiration and prone inspiration. LTRC protocols are designed for consistent image quality such that automated segmentation and quantitative analysis of disease can be performed. Specific quantitative measures are: emphysema volume, tracheal branch analysis, lung volumes and regional parenchymal analysis designed to detect and quantify features including honeycombing, ground glass infiltrates and reticular opacities through texture analysis.

The NHLIB-funded LTRC effort has successfully created a lung tissue, clinical data and volumetric HRCT repository. Initial data and specimens from this growing resource should be available to qualified researchers in the near future.

Bartholmai, B, Swensen, S, Langer, S, McCollough, C, Hartman, T, Zhang, J, Croxton, T, Limper, A, Sciurba, F, Schwarz, M, Martinez, F, Thompson, B, Cool, C, Wist, R, et al, , The Lung Tissue Research Consortium: A NHLBI-sponsored Repository of Standardized Volumetric Chest HRCT Data with Clinical, Pathological, and Physiological Correlation.  Radiological Society of North America 2005 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 27 - December 2, 2005 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2005/4415681.html