Reliability of quantitative computed tomography to predict postoperative lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease having a lobectomy.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the reliability of quantitative computed tomography (CT) to estimate the postoperative lung function in patients with mild to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who underwent a lobectomy.
METHODS: Nine COPD patients with lung cancer having a lung lobectomy with preoperative CT were enrolled. By applying a density mask technique and a specific equation, predicted postoperative forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and vital capacity (VC) were calculated. Predicted values were correlated with postoperative measured values.
RESULTS: Estimated FEV1 and VC were always significantly lower than the corresponding postoperative values; however, CT-estimated postresection FEV1 values were better than the postresection VC values (biases between estimated and measured values were -0.14 and -0.536 L, respectively, according to the Bland-Altman method). Quantitative CT predicted postoperative FEV1 (r = 0.97, P < 0.001) and VC (r = 0.93, P < 0.001) well in all patients, however.
CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative CT may be an alternative tool to perfusion scan to predict postresection lung function, even in patients with borderline pulmonary function undergoing a lobectomy.