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Quantitative Computed Tomography: What Clinical Questions Can it Answer in Chronic Lung Disease?

  • QUANTITATIVE COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY: LUNG IMAGING
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Abstract

Quantitative computed tomography (QCT) has recently gained an important role in the functional assessment of chronic lung disease. Its capacity in diagnostic, staging, and prognostic evaluation in this setting is similar to that of traditional pulmonary function testing. Furthermore, it can demonstrate lung injury before the alteration of pulmonary function test parameters, and it enables the classification of disease phenotypes, contributing to the customization of therapy and performance of comparative studies without the intra- and inter-observer variation that occurs with qualitative analysis. In this review, we address technical issues with QCT analysis and demonstrate the ability of this modality to answer clinical questions encountered in daily practice in the management of patients with chronic lung disease.

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Abbreviations

CALIPER:

Computer-Aided Lung Informatics for Pathology Evaluation and Rating

COPD:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

CT:

Computed tomography

DTA:

Data-driven textural analysis

FEV1 :

Forced expiratory volume in the first second

FVC:

Forced vital capacity

HAAs:

High-attenuation areas

HU:

Hounsfield units

ILD:

Interstitial lung disease

MESA:

Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

NLI:

Normal lung index

PFT:

Pulmonary function test

PRM:

Parametric response mapping

QCT:

Quantitative computed tomography

SPIROMICS:

Sub-Populations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study

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Acknowledgements

We thank Imbio (Minneapolis, MN) for providing us with a sample report of their software for this review.

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Ipiranga, 6681, Porto Alegre - RS, 90619-900, Brazil

    Marcelo Cardoso Barros, Matheus Zanon & Jose Miguel Chatkin

  2. Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Stephan Altmayer

  3. Department of Radiology, Instituto Dor, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Alysson Roncally Carvalho & Rosana Rodrigues

  4. Department of Radiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Tan-Lucien Mohammed, Pratik Patel & Bruno Hochhegger

  5. Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Al-Ani Mohammad & Borna Mehrad

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  1. Marcelo Cardoso Barros
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Contributions

M.C.B. and S.A. wrote the first draft. A.R.C., R.R., and M.Z. contributed to the writing of the manuscript draft and literature review. T.L.M., P.P., A.M, B.M., M.C. helped with the preparation of figures and provided intellectual input. B.H. conceptualized the manuscript and supervised its writing. All authors reviewed the final version and contributed to the editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marcelo Cardoso Barros.

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Barros, M.C., Altmayer, S., Carvalho, A.R. et al. Quantitative Computed Tomography: What Clinical Questions Can it Answer in Chronic Lung Disease?. Lung 200, 447–455 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-022-00550-1

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