Summary

Summary

  • The technology described in this briefing is lung texture analysis, which includes the algorithm known as CALIPER (Computer-Aided Lung Informatics for Pathology Evaluation and Rating) in peer-reviewed publications. It is used for automated measurement of interstitial lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and other fibrotic conditions.

  • The innovative aspect is that lung texture analysis is a fully automated way of processing images, running analyses and returning the output without clinician involvement.

  • The intended place in therapy would be in addition to current standard care in people with suspected interstitial lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis or other fibrotic conditions.

  • The main points from the evidence summarised in this briefing are from 3 cohort studies including a total of 300 patients diagnosed with interstitial lung diseases and 1 validation study including 119 patients. They show that lung texture analysis could be an effective addition to standard care in assessing interstitial lung disease.

  • Key uncertainties around the evidence or technology are that there are no randomised controlled trials in the evidence base; the available studies are mainly retrospective cohort studies. Also, most studies that have been done within a UK context used the same patient dataset.

  • The cost of Imbio CT lung texture analysis is £40 per analysis (excluding VAT). Unlimited use annual subscriptions are available at a cost of £20,000 per year per site (excluding VAT). This would be in addition to standard care.