[A study on the feasibility of CT pulmonary function imaging for screening target lung lobes in bronchoscopic lung...

To study the feasibility of CT pulmonary function imaging as a tool for screening target lung lobes in bronchoscopic lung volume reduction.

A total of 31 patients with chronic bronchitis were included in the study and all of them underwent lung function tests, chest HRCT, and pulmonary ventilation-perfusion radionuclide scan. According to the lung function results, the patients were divided into 2 groups: 9 with normal lung function (normal group) and 22 with obstructive ventilatory dysfunction (emphysema group). The correlation between HRCT visual score, CT imaging parameters of lung function and pulmonary function results were analyzed. For each lung lobe, the correlation and difference between average CT values, pixel index (PI), and ventilation perfusion ratio (V/Q) were also analyzed to explore the reliability of CT lung function imaging for determining regional non-functional "target area" in candidate patients for bronchoscopic lung volume reduction.

There was no correlation between HRCT visual scores and lung function test parameters (RV/TLC and FEV1/FVC) However, CT lung function imaging evaluation showed a good correlation with the lung function test parameters. For individual lung lobes, the average CT value and the pixel index (PI = -910 HU) were correlated with the corresponding lobe perfusion of the total lung perfusion percentage ratio.

CT pulmonary function imaging results were objective, and had a good correlation with lung function tests and lung ventilation-perfusion scan results, which may be useful as a tool for screening target lung lobes in bronchoscopic lung volume reduction.