Airflow limitation: is there a correlation between spirometry and quantitative computed tomography measurements in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

Abstract

Abstract Background The ability of computed tomography (CT) in illustrating the pathology of lung parenchyma in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was discussed previously in many articles. However, the correlation between airflow limitation that is evaluated by spirometry and its corresponding airway diameter that is measured by multislice computed tomography (MSCT) still under investigation. Therefore, the objective of our study was to answer the questions about possible correlation between forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1%), forced vital capacity (FVC%), FEV1/FVC, and peak expiratory flow25–75% (PEF25–75%), both before bronchodilator and post it with the diameters of airway at 3 different levels either during inspiratory or expiratory phase of respiration. Results The quantitative MSCT results at RB1 (apical bronchus of the right upper lobe), RB10 (the posterior basal bronchus of the right lower lobe), and LB3 (the anterior bronchus of the left upper lobe) showed weak positive correlation with FEV1% during inspiratory phase of respiration (r = 0.19, 0.20, and 0.18; P = 0.23, 0.22, and 0.26 respectively), but this correlation became more stronger and significant during expiratory phase of respiration (r = 0.76, 0.78, and 0.66; P < 0.001). Conclusions Expiratory CT parameters were significantly correlated with the predicted peak expiratory flow in 1 s.

Keywords

• COPD
• Quantitative MSCT
• Pulmonary function test