Projected lung areas using dynamic X-ray (DXR)

BACKGROUND: Dynamic X-ray (DXR) provides images of multiple phases of breath with less radiation exposure than CT. The exact images at end-inspiratory or end-expiratory phases can be chosen accurately. PURPOSE: To investigate the correlation of the projected lung area (PLA) by dynamic chest X-ray with pulmonary functions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred sixty-two healthy volunteers who received medical check-ups for health screening were included in this study. All subjects underwent DXR in both posteroanterior (PA) and lateral views and pulmonary function tests on the same day. All the volunteers took several tidal breaths before one forced breath as instructed. The outlines of lungs were contoured manually on the workstation with reference to the motion of diaphragm and the graph of pixel values. The PLAs were calculated automatically, and correlations with pulmonary functions and demographic data were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: The PLAs have correlation with physical characteristics, including height, weight and BMI, and pulmonary functions such as vital capacity (VC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)). VC and FEV(1) revealed moderate correlation with the PLAs of PA view in forced inspiratory phase (VC: right, r = 0.65; left, r = 0.69. FEV1: right, r = 0.54; left, r = 0.59). Multivariate analysis showed that body mass index (BMI), sex and VC were considered independent correlation factors, respectively. CONCLUSION: PLA showed statistically significant correlation with pulmonary functions. Our results indicate DXR has a possibility to serve as an alternate method for pulmonary function tests in subjects requiring contact inhibition including patients with suspected or confirmed covid-19.