Contributions of Emphysema and Functional Small Airway Disease on Intrapulmonary Vascular Volume in COPD

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that there is a certain correlation between emphysema and changes in pulmonary small blood vessels in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but most of them were limited to the investigation of the inspiratory phase. The emphysema indicators need to be further optimized. Based on the parametric response mapping (PRM) method, this study aimed to investigate the effect of emphysema and functional small airway disease on intrapulmonary vascular volume (IPVV). METHODS: This retrospective study enrolled 63 healthy subjects and 47 COPD patients, who underwent both inspiratory and expiratory CT scans of the chest and pulmonary function tests (PFTs). Inspiratory and expiratory IPVV were measured by using an automatic pulmonary vessels integration segmentation approach, the ratio of emphysema volume (Emph%), functional small airway disease volume (fsAD%), and normal areas volume (Normal%) were quantified by the PRM method for biphasic CT scans. The participants were grouped according to PFTs. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal–Wallis H-test were used to analyze the differences in indicators between different groups. Then, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were used to analyze the correlation between Emph%, fsAD%, Normal%, PFTs, and IPVV. Finally, multiple linear regression was applied to analyze the effects of Emph% and fsAD% on IPVV. RESULTS: Differences were found in age, body mass index (BMI), smoking index, FEV1%, FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC), expiratory IPVV, IPVV relative value, IPVV difference value, Emph%, fsAD%, and Normal% between the groups (P<0.05). A strong correlation was established between the outcomes of PFTs and quantitative CT indexes. Finally, the effect of Emph% was more significant than that of fsAD% on expiratory IPVV, IPVV difference value, and IPVV relative value. CONCLUSION: IPVV may have a potential value in assessing COPD severity and is significantly affected by emphysema.