A stripe sign on 99mTc-Technegas SPECT in pulmonary emphysema

Relative Regional Air Volume Change Maps at the Acinar Scale Reflect Variable Ventilation in Low Lung Attenuation of COPD patients

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to investigate regional air volume changes at the acinar scale of the lung in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients using an image registration technique.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty-four emphysema patients and 24 subjects with normal chest CT and pulmonary function test (PFT) results were included in this retrospective study for which informed consent was waived by the institutional review board. After lung segmentation, a mass-preserving image registration technique was used to compute relative regional air volume changes (RRAVCs) between inspiration and expiration CT scans. After determining the appropriate thresholds of RRAVCs for low ventilation areas (LVAs), they were displayed and analyzed using color maps on the background inspiration CT image, and compared with the low attenuation area (LAA) map. Correlations between quantitative CT parameters and PFTs were assessed using Pearson's correlation test, and parameters were compared between emphysema and normal-CT patients using the Student's t-test.

RESULTS

LVA percentage with an RRAVC threshold of 0.5 (%LVA_0.5) showed the strongest correlations with FEV₁/FVC (r = -0.566), FEV₁ (r = -0.534), %LAA_-950insp (r = 0.712), and %LAA_-856exp (r = 0.775). %LVA_0.5 was significantly higher (P < 0.001) in COPD patients than normal subjects. Despite the identical appearance of emphysematous lesions on the LAA_-950insp map, the RRAVC map depicted a wide range of ventilation differences between these LAA clusters.

CONCLUSION

RRAVC-based %LVA_0.5 correlated well with FEV₁/FVC, FEV₁, %LAA_-950insp and %LAA_-856exp. RRAVC holds the potential for providing additional acinar scale functional information for emphysematous LAAs in inspiratory CT images, providing the basis for a novel set for emphysematous phenotypes.

Lung Scintigraphy in COPD

Ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy is a functional imaging biomarker that has the potential of captivating the heterogeneity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It specifically images the distribution of ventilation and perfusion within the lungs, which is a critical pathophysiological component of COPD. The extent of ventilation defects and ventilation inhomogeneity, as well as the ventilation-perfusion ratio distribution thus correlate with severity of disease. Furthermore, specific scintigraphic patterns, such as the "stripe sign" may detect centrilobular emphysematous lesions with a higher sensitivity than other imaging techniques. Although ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy may conceivably detect COPD before any specific changes can be detected by spirometry or high-resolution CT, it is currently mostly used in the workup of lung volume reduction treatment, and for diagnosing various complications and comorbidities of COPD when combined with low-dose CT.