Correlation between high-resolution computed tomography features and patients' characteristics in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND During the last few decades, high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) has come up as a new diagnostic modality to diagnose emphysematous and chronic bronchitis components of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The present study was undertaken to evaluate for various quantitative and qualitative HRCT features in patients with COPD, and to detect patients' characteristics that correlate with these HRCT features. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty male patients with COPD attending the COPD clinic at a tertiary referral hospital and postgraduate medical institute were included in the study. Various HRCT features, including tracheal index, thoracic cage ratio, sterno-aortic distance, thoracic cross-sectional area, vascular attenuation, vascular distortion, mosaic attenuation pattern, and directly visible small airways, were evaluated and correlated with patients' characteristics, including age, duration of illness, quantum of smoking, dyspnea score, quality-of-life index, and various spirometric indices. RESULTS We found significant correlations of various quantitative and qualitative HRCT features with age, duration of illness, quantum of smoking, quality-of-life index, and the spirometric indices showing the extent of airways obstruction. CONCLUSIONS Various quantitative and qualitative HRCT features were found to correlate with patients' characteristics, spirometric indices, and health-related quality-of-life score, suggesting that HRCT is useful not only in detecting emphysema and its various subtypes but also in predicting the extent and severity of COPD.