Lung Densitometry to Assess Progression of Emphysema in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Time to Apply in the Clinic?

摘要

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous lung disease, and therefore requires careful phenotyping of the condition whenever such a population is studied (1). In clinical practice, spirometry plays a key role in the diagnosis of COPD and assessment of disease severity and progression (2). However, it provides little information as to the presence or absence of the emphysema component in COPD. Since emphysema is denned as a structural pulmonary abnormality, its recognition is based on tests that reflect lung structure rather than function (3). For many years, computed tomography (CT) has been the most accurate imaging technique for the diagnosis of emphysema in vivo (4).