J Asthma Allergy Clin Immunol.  2003 Sep;23(3):494-501.

Airway wall thickness and pulmonary functions in patients with bronchial asthma: Assessment with high resolution computed tomography (HRCT)

• Lim SY
• Shin JW
• Kim JY
• Park IW
• Kim YS
• Choi BW

Abstract

BACKGROUND
The presence of airway wall thickening and its relationship with pulmonary functions or airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) have not yet been sufficiently clarified in bronchial asthma. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the relation of airway wall thickness to the pulmonary functions and AHR in patients with asthma. METHODS: After baseline measurement of pulmonary functions and PC20 in 24 patients, we measured airway wall thickness (T), internal diameter (d) using HRCT and calculated external diameter (D)[(D)=(d)+ 2x(T)]. We used the T/D ratio as a parameter for comparisons with pulmonary functions and PC20. RESULTS: We measured total 185 airways (upper;92, lower;93). The mean T/D ratio of small airways (diameter< 2mm;n=111) showed higher value than that of large airways (diameter>or=2mm;n=74) (0.324 +/- 0.028 vs 0.274 +/- 0.033, p<0.001). The mean T/D ratio of each subjects showed significant negative correlation with FEV1(% of predicted) in total (r=-0.407, p=0.048) and small airways (r=-0.468, p=0.024). PC20 showed a tendency of weak negative correlation with mean T/D ratio in small airways (r=-0.290, p=0.179). CONCLUSION: The thicker the airway wall is, the lower the FEV1 (% of predicted) in patients with bronchial asthma. Airway wall thickening occurred predominantly in the small airways.

Keyword

Airway wall thickness; airway hyperresponsiveness; pulmonary function; high resolution computed tomography

MeSH Terms

Asthma*
Humans