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Published on: April 13, 2010
A Quantitative Study of Airway Changes on Micro-CT in a Mouse Asthma Model: Comparison With Histopathological
Sang-Hyun Paik1, Won-Kyung Kim1, Jai-Soung Park1
1Department of Radiology, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Bucheon, Korea.
Purpose:
To evaluate airway changes in ovalbumin-induced asthmatic mice in terms of postmortem micro-CT images and pathological findings.
Methods:
Asthma was induced in mice by intraperitoneal injection and nasal instillation of ovalbumin aluminium hydroxide into mice (experimental group, n=6), and another group of mice received intraperitoneal injection and nasal instillation of distilled phosphate-buffered saline (control group, n=6). Bronchial lumen area was measured in the main bronchial lumen of the distal third bronchial branch level (6 parts per each mouse) on axial scans of Micro-CT, using a Lucion's smart pen (semi-automated) and a curve pen (manual). Bronchial wall thickness was obtained in 4 sections (2 levels on either side) after the third bronchial branch by measuring the diameter which was perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the main bronchus on curved Multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) images. Histologic slides were obtained from the lesion that was matched with its CT images, and bronchial wall thicknesses were determined.
Results:
The mean bronchial lumen area was 0.196±0.072 mm(2) in the experimental group and 0.243±0.116 mm(2) in the control group; the difference was significant. Bronchial wall thickness on micro-CT images (mean, 0.119±0.01 vs. 0.108±0.013 mm) and in pathological specimens (mean, 0.066±0.011 vs. 0.041±0.009 mm) were thicker in the experimental group than in the control group; bronchial wall thickness on micro-CT images correlated well with pathological thickness (for the experimental group, r=0.712; for the control group, r=0.46). The thick bronchial wall in the experimental group demonstrated submucosal hypertrophy along with goblet cell hyperplasia and smooth muscle hyperplasia.
Conclusions:
The results of this study suggest that asthma may induce thickening of bronchial wall and narrowing of the lumen area on micro-CT images and that these results may significantly correlate with pathological findings.
