Evaluation of pulmonary arterial hypertension in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by multislice spiral CT

Abstract

To investigate the use of multislice spiral CT (MSCT) in the diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The diameters and areas of the pulmonary artery were measured in 81 cases with COPD and 100 normal adults from January to November 2011. The ratios of the diameters of the main pulmonary artery (MPA) to ascending aorta (AA), descending aorta (DA), trachea, thoracic vertebra (ThV) were also calculated. Data analysis used the t test of the 2 samples compared, multi-rate compared by χ(2) test. There were significant differences in the measured parameters between the COPD group and the control group. The differences were also significant among groups of COPD patients aged < 40 y, 40 - 60 y, > 60 y, and the control group, among patients with different stages of COPD (stage I, II, III, IV) and the control group, and among patients with sPAP > 50 mm Hg (1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa), sPAP ≤ 50 mm Hg and the control group. There were positive correlations between sPAP and the measured indexes such as MPA [(3.14 ± 0.63) cm] of pulmonary artery in COPD. There were negative correlations between FEV(1)% and some of the measured indexes such as MPA/T(d) (1.81 ± 0.48). Multi-indicators was no significant difference (χ(2) = 17.76, P > 0.05). MSCT is very useful in diagnosis of PAH in COPD. The diameter ratio of MPA to trachea, the area of MPA, and the diameter ratio of MPA to ThV can be used as diagnostic criteria for evaluation of PAH in COPD.