The Section of Thoracic Radiology is an active participant in research both within the department and institution.  Dr. Ravenel is co Principal Investigator on a $4 million DOD award for Computer Aided Cancer Management.  The is a multi-disciplinary project involving the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and GE Research and Development in Schenectady, NY.  The core focus on this research is to design improvements in the early detection and evaluation of small pulmonary nodules, use computer aided techniques for detection (CAD) as well as the distinction of benign and malignant nodules.  A second phase of research will look at using new PET/CT techniques with respiratory gating to better characterize nodules under 1 cm.

Dr. Ravenel is also the site primary investigator on two large multi-institutional ACRIN trials: ACRIN 6654, part of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) closed to accrual in 2004 and participants are currently in active follow-up; and ACRIN 6668, Predicting Treatment Response with PET designed to assess the value of FDG-PET in predicting response to combined modality therapy (chemotherapy plus radiation therapy) in non-operable lung cancer.  The section supports the Section of Cardiac Imaging in its research endeavors focusing on the frequency and significance of findings outside the heart on Cardiac CT.  Similarly, the section supports the Hollings Cancer Center in its clinical trials and the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in clinical trials involving Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Scleroderma, Emphysema, and Rare Lung Diseases.

Current research interests of the section include the projects above as well as the use of CT for the detection of pulmonary embolism, the evaluation of acute traumatic aortic injury, and the relationship of radiation dose to image quality and dose reduction techniques.  The recent ability of the 64-slice Dual Source Siemens scanner to perform dual energy imaging will hopefully lead to research opportunities in the evaluation of pulmonary perfusion with a specific interest in patients with pulmonary hypertension.