Objective: To probe the clinical application and value of dual source CT quantification volume imaging to forecast lung cancer patients' postoperative pulmonary function changing.
Methods: Between June 2012 and June 2013, there were 233 patients (121 male patients and 112 female patients, with a mean age of (53 ± 16) years) who accepted the thoracoscope lobectomy or unilateral holo-lungs pneumonectomy accepted pulmonary function test before and after 3 months of the surgery. CT scan was conducted at both inspiration phase and expiration phase before the surgery and the lung volume of the single lobe, the pixel exponential distribution histogram, and the average lung density were measured after CT scan. The discrepancy and correlation between the preoperative lung volume accepted by CT and preoperative, postoperative pulmonary function index were compared.
Results: The CT volume scan showed that average lung density of the superior part at decubitus position is -(870 ± 22) HU, the inferior part was -(767 ± 16) HU (t = 3.13, P < 0.01). The volume ratio of the right upper lobe, right middle lobe, right lower lobe, left upper lobe, left lower lobe were 20.5%, 10.3%, 23.1%, 24.6%, 21.5%, whole-right lung was 53.9% and whole-left was 46.1%. There were high correlation between CT volume index and preoperative routine pulmonary function index such as total lung capacity, forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV(1)), residual volume, and FEV(1)/FVC. The highest correlation coefficient were 0.92, 0.76, 0.70, 0.85, 0.56 (t = 3.14, 3.05, 2.86, 3.09, 2.68; all P < 0.01). The highest correlation coefficient for the postoperative pulmonary function index were 0.87, 0.68, 0.75, 0.81, -0.64 (t = 3.10, 2.85, 3.05, 3.02, 2.79; all P < 0.01).
Conclusions: It is feasible to use dual source CT quantification volume imaging to predict lung cancer patients' postoperative pulmonary function alteration, which can provide precise predictive value of these patients. CT quantification volume imaging technology has important clinical application value.