Computed tomography in the assessment of bullous lung disease

The assessment of bullous lung disease with respect to possible surgical treatment requires anatomical and functional information about the extent of disease and the mechanism of symptom production. It is also important to measure the function of non-bullous lung and to make some prediction of the behaviour of non-bullous lung after resection of bullae. We have used computed tomography during inspiration and expiration together with bronchoscopic single-breath inert gas techniques of regional lung function to assess such patients. Computed tomography clearly demonstrates the extent and distribution of bullous disease while both the computed tomography and the bronchoscopic argon/freon test give functional information about bullous and non-bullous lung. In our experience computed tomography improves the assessment of bullous lung disease.