Keywords:
Inflammation, Chronic obstructive airways disease, Screening, Diagnostic procedure, Computer Applications-Detection, diagnosis, CT-High Resolution, CT, Thorax, Respiratory system, Lung
Authors:
E. Detorakis1, M. Raissaki2, K. Antoniou2, I. Papadopoulou2, R. Illing3; 1Iraklion/GR, 2Heraklion/GR, 3Budapest/HU
DOI:
10.26044/esti2019/P-0032
Methods & Materials
Ninety-two former tobacco smokers (60 men,
32 women,
median age 48 years) were prospectively recruited.
Patients with active bronchial asthma,
recent respiratory tract infection,
thromboembolic lung disease or known exposure to dusts were excluded from the study.
All patients were light smokers (<10 pack-years) for 12-22 years and quit smoking 5-15 years ago.
They all underwent native paired inspiratory and expiratory chest HRCT on a 128 slice CT scanner (GE Optima CT 660) with 1mm slice thickness.
Inspiratory scans were evaluated for the presence of emphysema,
mosaic attenuation,
pulmonary nodules,
bronchial wall thickening and cylindrical bronchiectasis.
Bronchial wall thickening was quantified accordingly: grade 0: absence of bronchial wall thickening,
grade 1: < 50%,
grade 2: 50-100% and grade 3: > 100% of the adjacent artery diameter (Figure 1).
Expiratory scans were evaluated for the presence of air trapping and its extent was estimated accordingly: grade 0: no air trapping,
grade 1: mild (1-25%),
grade 2: moderate (26-50%) and grade 3: severe (>50% of lung parenchyma).
Statistical analysis was performed using Student-t test and Chi-square test and a p value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.