Predicting postoperative lung function using ventilation SPECT/CT in patients with lung cancer

Area of Science:

• Pulmonary Medicine
• Radiology
• Thoracic Surgery

Background:

• Single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) offers regional lung function assessment.
• Predicting postoperative lung function is crucial for patients with lung cancer undergoing surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the utility of ventilation (SPECT/CT) in predicting postoperative lung function after lobectomy in lung cancer patients.
• To compare the predictive performance of ventilation SPECT/CT with perfusion SPECT/CT.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 47 lung cancer patients who underwent lobectomy and preoperative SPECT/CT (ventilation and perfusion).
• Calculation of predicted postoperative forced expiratory volume in 1 second (ppoFEV₁%) and predicted postoperative diffusion capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (ppoDL_CO%) using SPECT/CT data.
• Correlation analysis between predicted and actual postoperative lung function (FEV₁% and DL_CO%).

Main Results:

• Ventilation SPECT/CT demonstrated a strong correlation with perfusion SPECT/CT for both ppoFEV₁% (r=0.939) and ppoDL_CO% (r=0.938).
• Predicted lung function values from both ventilation and perfusion SPECT/CT showed strong correlations with actual postoperative FEV₁% (r=0.774 and r=0.795, respectively) and DL_CO% (r=0.768 and r=0.751, respectively).

Conclusions:

• Ventilation SPECT/CT is a valuable tool for predicting postoperative lung function in lung cancer patients.
• The predictive accuracy of ventilation SPECT/CT is comparable to that of perfusion SPECT/CT.