CT densitovolumetry in children with obliterative bronchiolitis: correlation with clinical scores and pulmonary function test results(,)

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether air trapping (expressed as the percentage of air trapping relative to total lung volume [AT%]) correlates with clinical and functional parameters in children with obliterative bronchiolitis (OB). METHODS: CT scans of 19 children with OB were post-processed for AT% quantification with the use of a fixed threshold of −950 HU (AT%950) and of thresholds selected with the aid of density masks (AT%DM). Patients were divided into three groups by AT% severity. We examined AT% correlations with oxygen saturation (SO(2)) at rest, six-minute walk distance (6MWD), minimum SO(2) during the six-minute walk test (6MWT_SO(2)), FVC, FEV(1), FEV(1)/FVC, and clinical parameters. RESULTS: The 6MWD was longer in the patients with larger normal lung volumes (r = 0.53). We found that AT%950 showed significant correlations (before and after the exclusion of outliers, respectively) with the clinical score (r = 0.72; 0.80), FVC (r = 0.24; 0.59), FEV(1) (r = −0.58; −0.67), and FEV(1)/FVC (r = −0.53; r = −0.62), as did AT%DM with the clinical score (r = 0.58; r = 0.63), SO(2) at rest (r = −0.40; r = −0.61), 6MWT_SO(2) (r = −0.24; r = −0.55), FVC (r = −0.44; r = −0.80), FEV(1) (r = −0.65; r = −0.71), and FEV(1)/FVC (r = −0.41; r = −0.52). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that AT% correlates significantly with clinical scores and pulmonary function test results in children with OB.