Sarcoidosis: correlation of pulmonary parenchymal pattern at CT with results of pulmonary function tests

Article Abstract:

Sarcoidosis is a disease of unknown cause resulting in the growth of granular lesion (areas of altered tissue growth). The disease usually occurs in the lungs. Some physicians use computed tomography (CT) to diagnose sarcoidosis and define the extent of lung damage, but the accuracy of CT scanning in cases of lung sarcoidosis has been questioned. Research was conducted, therefore, to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of CT imaging on twenty-seven patients with impaired lung function due to sarcoidosis. The CT images were compared with x-ray images of the same patients. The findings of structural change in the lung (due to sarcoidosis) and pulmonary (lung) function test results (PFT) are believed to be clinically related. Future research is needed to correlate CT patterns with pulmonary dysfunction as a result of structural changes in the lung due to sarcoidosis. Estimation of disease activity, with CT findings of lungs affected by sarcoidosis, is not possible at present. Different CT scanning methods (e.g., ultra-high resolution) may improve the ability of physicians to predict the course of the disease and the extent of lung damage due to sarcoidosis.

Pulmonary function tests

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Sarcoidosis: correlation of extent of disease at CT with clinical, functional, and radiographic findings

Article Abstract:

Computed tomography (CT) was compared with standard chest x-ray imaging as a means of estimating the severity of sarcoidosis involvement in the lungs. Sarcoidosis is a disease of unknown origin in which granular lesions (areas of altered tissue growth) occur, most often in the lungs. CT has proven superior to x-ray imaging as a diagnostic tool for assessing lung damage in patients with scattered infiltrative lung disease, including sarcoidosis (infiltration is the process of a substance passing into and being deposited within the substance of a cell, tissue, or organ). In a study of twenty-seven patients with sarcoidosis of the lung it was found that CT was not better than chest x-ray imaging as a predictor of the degree to which lung function would be impaired by sarcoidosis. CT was superior in one respect: in the display of sarcoidal lesion distribution in the lung. Neither CT or chest x-ray, however, proved better as a diagnostic technique for predicting the extent of functional impairment of the lungs in a patient suffering from sarcoidosis.

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Pulmonary sarcoidosis: what are we learning from CT?

Article Abstract:

Recent studies of pulmonary (lung) sarcoidosis (small, granular lesions of unknown origin) with computed tomography (CT) imaging demonstrate that the disease, especially in the upper regions of the lung, is difficult to assess. The presence of sarcoidosis in a patient requires an assessment of the extent of tissue damage in the lung in order to allow surgeons to make a pre-surgical evaluation. Atypical (uncommon) symptoms of sarcoidosis occur in at least twenty-five percent of the patients with this disease, and include thickening lung walls, nodules (a small group of cells) that suggest the presence of cancer, and fibrous tissue development. CT is also useful in assessing the atypical symptoms that alter the diameter of the small blood vessels in the lungs, therefore impairing blood flow to lung tissue. CT studies of sarcoidosis will continue to yield new information on the course of this lung disease.

Respiratory system, Pathological histology, Pulmonary circulation, Respiratory organs, editorial

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