Automated quantification of airway wall thickness on chest CT using retina U-Nets – Performance evaluation and application to a large cohort of chest CTs of COPD patients

•An AI algorithm pipeline allows for automated measurement of airway wall thickness on CT.•Walls of airway generations 3–8 were significantly thicker in COPD patients compared to controls.•A classifier combining average airway wall thickness with an emphysema score was successfully differentiated CTs of COPD patients from CTs of controls.•Airway wall thickness could complement the CT emphysema scoring (%LAV-950) in lung disease in the future.