Reactive pulmonary artery vasoconstriction in pulmonary consolidation evaluated by color Doppler ultrasonography

A total of 122 patients with pulmonary consolidation on chest radiographs u nderwent color Doppler ultrasonography to evaluate hemodynamic change in re gional pulmonary artery in pulmonary consolidation due to various causes. T he diseases underlying pulmonary consolidation included 66 simple pneumonia , 37 obstructive pneumonia, 13 tumor consolidation and 6 pulmonary infarcti ons, Blood flow signals in consolidation were detected by color-how mapping . The degree of reactive vasoconstriction was evaluated from analysis of th e spectral waveform of the blood how in the segmental pulmonary:artery by s everal vessel resistance-indicating Doppler ultrasound (US) indices, includ ing pulsativity index (PI), resistive index (RI), and acceleration time (AT ). The results showed that reactive vasoconstriction was most marked in obs tructive pneumonia, followed by simple pneumonia, and least in tumor consol idation (p < 0.001, Kruskal-Wallis test and p < 0.001, Dunn's test for comp arison of PI, RI and AT values between different groups of pulmonary consol idation). No flow was detected in pulmonary infarction, We conclude that co lor Doppler US is a useful tool for evaluating reactive vasoconstriction in pulmonary consolidation. The different degrees of-reactive vasoconstrictio n may be helpful in exploring the possible etiology of pulmonary consolidat ion. (C) 2000 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.