The staging of pulmonary angiography with the multi-slice spiral CT: to evaluate its significance in cancerous invasion of central pulmonary artery in lung cancer / 中国肺癌杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To explore the possibility of the staging of pulmonary angiography with multi slice spiral CT (MSCT) and to evaluate its value in making surgical plan for patients with lung cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>MSCT with two-segment injection and three-protocol scan was performed in 73 patients with central type lung cancer. According to the site and degree, the involvement of pulmonary artery was divided into three grades and blindly compared with the surgery and pathology.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>MSCT in 68 cases (93.15%, 68/73) was successfully performed. The involvement of central pulmonary artery was grade I in 4 cases (5.88%, 4/68), grade II in 9 (13.23%, 9/68), and grade III in 55 (80.88%, 55/68). All patients with grade I underwent lobectomy. There was remarkable difference of lobectomy ratio between grade II and III (Chi-square=64.03, P < 0.005) and also between IIIa and IIIb (Chi-square=68.69, P < 0.005). All patients with grade IIIc were ruled out from surgery.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The staging of pulmonary angiography by MSCT is useful to demonstrate the site and degree of involvement of central pulmonary artery and provides more precise evidence of images for making surgical plan.</p>