부산대학교 도서관

We compared peripheral airway and lung parenchyina images among patients with asthma, COPD and healthy controls using high-resolution CT images taken by a multidetector-row CT scanner (Aquillion, Toshiba, Japan). CT images were saved as digital image and communication (DICOM) files and %LAA (<-960 Hounsfield Unit) was calculated with the imaging software. %LAA was significantly increased in patients with COPD (p< 0.0001) and smokers with stable asthma (p< 0.01) as compared with healthy controls. In stable asthma, mucous plugging in the airway sometime appeared, while during asthma exacerbation small nodules and mosaic pattern of peripheral lung field appeared. Since smoker's patients with asthma have hyper-secretion of sputum due to smoking, mucous plugging and airway inflammation may easily occur and consequently air trapping may increase. In the future, image diagnosis of peripheral airway should develop for early detection of airway diseases as a non-invasive examination. On the other hand, micro focus X-ray computed tomography system (Hitachi Medico Technology Co. ,Japan) can display CT images closely similar to the pictures of microscopic findings and it will be a useful tool to analyze radiologic-pathologic correlations of peripheral airways and lung parenchyma.