The correlation between the findings of expiratory high resoliution computed tomography and respiratory function tests in cases with chronic obstructive lung disease

The aim of the current study is to find out the relationships between measures of expiratory high resolution computoed tomography (HRCT) and prespiratory function tests (RFT) to determine the contrubition of HRCT in chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD) patients.In 2008-2009 60 patients diagnosed with COPD and followed by faculty of medicine, Gaziantep University, Department of Chest disease and 65 patients with in study as conrol groups. In our patients, HRCT examination was applied.Of the 60 COLD patients having airway obstruction in RFT 15 of them were women (%25), 45 of them were men (%75). Of the patients having normal RFT, 6 of them were women (%13.8) and 59 of them were men (%86.2) the avarage age of the patients was 50.4.In the HRCT examination of patients with COLD, 35 patients having tubular bronchiectasis, 33 patients having thickening of bronchial wall, 26 patients having centrilobuler bronchiolar thickening, 35 patients having emphysema and 23 patients air trapping were found.In the HRCT examination of control group; 1 patients with tubular bronchiectasis, 2 patients having thickening of bronchial wall, 16 patients having centrilobuler bronchiolar thickening, 2 patients having emphysema and 5 patients air trapping were found.%FEV1, %FVC and FEV1/FVC values in patients with COLD were found lower than those of control group. Morever, a significant correlation was found between HRCT findings and RFT values. Emphysema, bronchiectasis etc were found in expiratory HRCT although RFT values were normal.Consequntly, we have considered that RFT has significant contribution to RFT in the diagnosis of COLD . We also have considered that in the early stages of COLD expiratory HRCT provide more detailed diagnosis than RFT.