Quality assurance of CT images is multi-level. Each CT scan is visually inspected by the local clinical radiologist for adequate inspiration, absence of motion artifact, and inclusion of all parts of the chest. At the Imaging Core, a trained Professional Research Assistant evaluates the scan for technical completeness, compliance with protocol, adequacy of inspiration, and presence of motion artifact. The quality of the automated segmentations of airways is verified. Finally, the stability of CT measurements for each scanner used in the study is monitored by monthly scanning using a custom COPDGene phantom designed for this study.
