Early diagnosis of COPD and quantitative evaluation of lung function by CT using a voxel-based morphometry / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective: To improve the time window of early diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and make quantitative evaluation of lung function using the voxel-based quantitative CT. Methods: Early COPD and COPD patients who had received inspiratory and expiratory CT scanning were consecutively recruited from the multi-center study named Digital Lung. Quantitative parameters of functional small-airway disease (fSAD) and emphysema (Emph) were measured. For the all COPD patients, Pearson correlation analysis or Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to test the correlation between the quantitative measurements of CT and pulmonary function. Results: Finally, 37 patients with early COPD and 50 patients with COPD were included. The mean value of Emph in early COPD was (3.50±3.36)% and the average value of fSAD was (18.12±12.73)%. Meanwhile, the mean value of Emph in COPD patients was (13.46±9.03)% and the mean value of fSAD was (36.57±9.88)%. Emph was negatively correlated with FEV1% and FEV1/FVC (r=-0.470, P=0.001; r=-0.334, P=0.018), respectively. fSAD was negatively correlated with FEV1% and FEV1/FVC (r=-0.453, P=0.001; r=-0.320, P=0.001). Conclusion: The voxel-based quantitative CT is helpful in early detection of small airway injury in early COPD with respiratory symptoms but no pulmonary function can be achieved.