Comparative sensitivity of early cystic fibrosis lung disease detection tools in school aged children

Effective detection of early lung disease in cystic fibrosis (CF) is critical to understanding early pathogenesis and evaluating early intervention strategies. We aimed to compare ability of several proposed sensitive functional tools to detect early CF lung disease as defined by CT structural disease in school aged children.

50 CF subjects (mean±SD 11.2 ± 3.5y, range 5-18y) with early lung disease (FEV₁≥70 % predicted: 95.7 ± 11.8 %) performed spirometry, Multiple breath washout (MBW, including trapped gas assessment), oscillometry, cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) and simultaneous spirometer-directed low-dose CT imaging. CT data were analysed using well-evaluated fully quantitative software for bronchiectasis and air trapping (AT).

CT bronchiectasis and AT occurred in 24 % and 58 % of patients, respectively. Of the functional tools, MBW detected the highest rates of abnormality: S_cond 82 %, MBW_{TG RV} 78 %, LCI 74 %, MBW_{TG IC} 68 % and S_acin 51 %. CPET VO₂peak detected slightly higher rates of abnormality (9 %) than spirometry-based FEV₁ (2 %). For oscillometry AX (14 %) performed better than Rrs (2 %) whereas Xrs and R5-19 failed to detect any abnormality. LCI and S_cond correlated with bronchiectasis (r = 0.55-0.64, p < 0.001) and AT (r = 0.73-0.74, p < 0.001). MBW-assessed trapped gas was detectable in 92 % of subjects and concordant with CT-assessed AT in 74 %.

Significant structural and functional deficits occur in early CF lung disease, as detected by CT and MBW. For MBW, additional utility, beyond that offered by LCI, was suggested for S_cond and MBW-assessed gas trapping. Our study reinforces the complementary nature of these tools and the limited utility of conventional oscillometry and CPET in this setting.