Keywords:
Lung, Respiratory system, CT, CT-High Resolution, Computer Applications-Detection, diagnosis, Chronic obstructive airways disease
Authors:
E. Detorakis1, M. Raissaki2, K. Antoniou2, I. Papadopoulou2, R. Illing3; 1Iraklion/GR, 2Heraklion/GR, 3Budapest/HU
DOI:
10.26044/esti2019/P-0033
Methods & Materials
Fourty-six candidates (12 men,
34 women,
median age 52 years) were retrospectively recruited for the study.
None of them have ever actively smoked but were all passively exposed on a daily basis to tobacco smoke (28 due to partner smoking,
18 due to exposure at their work environment).
Patients with active bronchial asthma,
other chronic lung or cardiac disease,
recent respiratory tract infection,
thromboembolic lung disease or known exposure to silica or other dusts were excluded.
Fourteen candidates were asymptomatic,
while the remaining 32 reported episodes of mild dry coughing.
They all underwent a native low dose 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 bronchial involvement,
especially bronchial wall thickening (BWT),
or any other image finding possibly related to passive smoking.
BWT quantification was performed relative to the adjacent pulmonary artery diameter: grade 0: absence of BWT,
grade 1: < 50% of the adjacent artery diameter,
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 (% of cross sectional area of the lung affected).
Air-trapping extent was assessed as follows: grade 0: no air trapping,
grade 1: mild (1-25%),
grade 2: moderate (26-50%) and grade 3: severe (> 50% of lung parenchyma extent).
Statistical analysis was performed using Student-t test and Chi-square test and a p value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.