Project Overview

There are two types of chest wall deformities; pigeon breast, where the chest protrudes out, and funnel chest, where the chest caves in. The deformities usually affect children from the ages of five to 16. One side effect of chest wall deformities is difficulty breathing and loss of other pulmonary functions. The current method used to monitor these deformities is periodically obtaining two, two-dimensional orthogonal radiographs. These two-dimensional images are poor evaluators of the three-dimensional change in the shape of the chest wall.

Treatments including surgery to stop the deformity progression likely alter the chest wall compliance. This makes it hard to evaluate, especially with only two-dimensional images, if the surgery improves the pulmonary function in younger patients. Ideally being able to look at the three-dimensional changes of the chest wall, would quantify the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the surgery. Methods that are currently used to measure the three-dimensional image of the chest wall are more expensive and require conditions that are not ideal for children. For example, a CT scan produces a three-dimensional image but the child is exposed to strong radiation often. MRI is another option but most often the child must be sedated to obtain an accurate image.

Our goal is to create two reusable jackets that can be placed on a child and create a mold of the thorax during maximal breathing and later be run through a CT scan to recreate a three-dimensional image of the chest wall. Currently we will only create jackets to fit average sized adults so we can determine if it creates on accurate mold on ourselves first. By comparing the chest wall shape and volume during maximal inspiration and expiration we will be able to calculate the chest wall compliance. This would also allow the changes of the deformity to be tracked over time, as well as before and after surgical intervention to observe the impact of the treatment.

Team Picture

Contact Information

Team Members

• Kelsie Harris - Team Leader
• Jaime Mortier - Communicator
• Lazura Krasteva - BSAC
• Danielle Horn - BWIG
• Cameron Hays - BPAG

Advisor and Client

• Prof. Beth Meyerand - Advisor
• Dr. Matthew Halanski - Client