ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the changes of intrapulmonary vascular volume (IPVV) of patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) based on computer-assisted measurement. Methods: One-hundred and sixty-seven male COPD patients were collected retrospectively from the "Digital Lung" database, and divided into four subgroups: GOLD 1, GOLD 2, GOLD 3 and GOLD 4 according to the pulmonary function test of Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Chest CT images of 315 non-smoking normal males were collected from the "Digital Lung" database. The intrapulmonary vessels were extracted by an automated 3-dimentional protocol, IPVV of the whole lung and each lobe were obtained. The differences in IPVV between COPD and normal groups and among different COPD subgroups were compared. Results: The IPVV of the whole lung and each lobe of COPD was significantly larger than that in normal control group (P0.05). Conclusion: IPVV is a sensitive biomarker between normal cohorts and COPD patients, but cannot differentiate COPD stages.