MDCT severity score of bronchiectasis in correlation with pulmonary function tests

Objectives:

To assess whether there is a correlation between a proposed MDCT severity score of bronchiectasis and pulmonary function tests.

Materials/Methods:

40 patients presented with clinically or CT known bronchiectasis evaluated clinicaly and with multidetector CT of the chest and relevant pulmonary function tests.

Results:

By correlating severity of airway obstruction represented by the FEV1 severity (decreased forced expiratory volume in one second) with our proposed CT score of bronchiectasis, we found that CT score correlate with the severity of PFTs, and airflow obstruction in bronchiectasis which is primarily linked to severity of extent of bronchiectasis, severity of bronchial wall thickening and the degree of mosaic attenuation (the extent of decreased attenuation of lung parenchyma) which implies an association of obliterative bronchitis with bronchiectasis. On the other hand there was no statistically significant relationship between the severity of bronchial dilatation and FEV1 (p value of 0.655). Also no statistically significant relationship between the extent of mucous plugging in relation to FEV1 severity (p value of 0.091).

Conclusions:

MDCT is sensitive for showing, detecting, scoring and evaluating bronchiectasis, and with the recent advances in MDCT, it become the modality of choice and the corner stone in the evaluation of bronchiectasis.