Assessment of lung volumes in pulmonary emphysema using multidetector helical CT: comparison with pulmonary function tests

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of multidetector he lical CT (MDCT) with three-dimensional (3D) postprocessing for assessing th e lung volume at inspiration and expiration of the pulmonary emphysema and for comparing it with pulmonary function tests. Percentage lung volume at t he threshold of -930, -900, -810, -790, and -770 at expiration showed good correlation with FEV1, FEV1/ FVC, and DLCO/Va. Excellent correlation was ob served between percentage lung volume at the threshold of -900 and FEV1/FVC . CT densitometry at expiration showed better correlation than that at insp iration with pulmonary function tests. MDCT with 3D technique is useful for assessing the severity of pulmonary emphysema. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science L td. Ail rights reserved.