Measurements of pulmonary vein ostial diameter and distance to first bifurcation: a comparison of different measurement methods.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the agreement between axial, multiplanar reformatted (MPR) and semi-automated software measurements of pulmonary vein ostial diameters and distance to the first bifurcation. CT examinations of the thorax were retrospectively reviewed in 150 consecutive patients. The pulmonary vein ostial diameter and distance to the first bifurcation of the four main pulmonary veins were independently measured. The three measurement methods were compared using a Bland-Altman test. There was no significant variation between pulmonary vein ostial diameter measurements for the superior pulmonary veins across the three measurement methods. There was significant variation between the semi-automated program and both the axial (p=0.001) and MPR (p<0.001) measured diameters for the right inferior pulmonary vein ostial diameter and between the MPR and semi-automated program measurements (p=0.02) for the left inferior pulmonary vein ostial diameter. There was no significant variation between the pulmonary vein distance to first bifurcation measurements for any pulmonary vein across the three measurement methods. However, from a clinical perspective, differences were negligible; therefore, the clinician may confidently use any of the three measurement methods presented.