• Jieyang Ju, Ruosha Li, Suicheng Gu, Joseph K Leader, Xiaohua Wang, Yahong Chen, Bin Zheng, Shandong Wu, David Gur, Frank Sciurba, and Jiantao Pu.
• Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
• Plos One. 2014 Jan 1; 9 (11): e113320.

ObjectivesTo investigate the association between emphysema heterogeneity in spatial distribution, pulmonary function and disease severity.Methods And MaterialsWe ascertained a dataset of anonymized Computed Tomography (CT) examinations acquired on 565 participants in a COPD study. Subjects with chronic bronchitis (CB) and/or bronchodilator response were excluded resulting in 190 cases without COPD and 160 cases with COPD. Low attenuations areas (LAAs) (≤ 950 Hounsfield Unit (HU)) were identified and quantified at the level of individual lobes. Emphysema heterogeneity was defined in a manner that ranged in value from -100% to 100%. The association between emphysema heterogeneity and pulmonary function measures (e.g., FEV1% predicted, RV/TLC, and DLco% predicted) adjusted for age, sex, and smoking history (pack-years) was assessed using multiple linear regression analysis.ResultsThe majority (128/160) of the subjects with COPD had a heterogeneity greater than zero. After adjusting for age, gender, smoking history, and extent of emphysema, heterogeneity in depicted disease in upper lobe dominant cases was positively associated with pulmonary function measures, such as FEV1 Predicted (p<.001) and FEV1/FVC (p<.001), as well as disease severity (p<0.05). We found a negative association between HI% , RV/TLC (p<0.001), and DLco% (albeit not a statistically significant one, p = 0.06) in this group of patients.ConclusionSubjects with more homogeneous distribution of emphysema and/or lower lung dominant emphysema tend to have worse pulmonary function.

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