• C L Maini, M G Bonetti, A Giordano, R Pistelli, R Antonelli Incalzi, and L Marchetti.
• Cattedra di Medicina Nucleare, Università degli Studi, Ancona.
• Radiol Med. 1987 Dec 1;74(6):520-4.

AbstractPulmonary clearance of small droplet 99mTc-DTPA radioaerosol was studied in 100 patients (12 normal subjects, N; 10 asymptomatic healthy smokers, FA; 31 patients with interstitial lung diseases, IP; 47 patients with chronic obstructive lung disease, BPCO). The first seven minutes of clearance were described with the function At = Ao*exp (-K*t) and the time constant K was considered representative of the 99mTc-DTPA clearance rate and hence of the alveolar-capillary barrier permeability. Groups FA, IP and BPCO showed a significant (p less than 0.05) or a highly significant (p less than 0.01) increase in permeability when compared to group N. No correlation was found between permeability and bronchial obstruction tests. The following conclusions were drawn: --99mTc-DTPA dynamic lung scanning is an easy, non-invasive method to assess derangements of alveolar-capillary barrier permeability secondary to epithelial damage; --permeability increase is a very early effect of cigarette smoke damage to the epithelium; --other mechanisms of epithelial injury are present in diffuse lung disease; --while the clinical role of this new pathophysiological test is not yet clear, it is likely that it may become a very early marker of pulmonary epithelial damage in diffuse lung disease.

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