Diagnostic Capabilities of Digital Fluorography in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

The purpose of the study – to examine the capabilities of the method of digital chest fluorography in diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) of different stages. By chest digital fluorography 247 patients with clinically diagnosed COPD stage I–III were examined. The average age of the patients was (55.3  1.7) years (16 to 88 years), forced expiration volume for the first second (FEV1) was (59.17  16.28) %. It was shown that for patients with COPD stage I most characteristic radiographic symptom was emphysema of the lung in the upper regions (26 (48%) of 54 patients); the mean values of the inspiratory lung optical density (ILOD) ranged from (703.48  2.15) to (807.47  5.61) optical density units (ODU), the expiratory lung optical density (ELOD) – from (786.05  6.15) to (830.23  4.71) ODU. For patients with COPD stage II the most common radiographic sign was the presence of amplification and deformation pulmonary pattern (95 (89%) of 107 patients); the mean values of ILOD ranged from (646.20  4.94) to (791.38  2.81) ODU, ELOD – from (677.34  9.91) to (813.91  3.29) ODU. Patients with COPD stage III were characterized by a combination of amplification and deformation pulmonary pattern (77 (90%) of 86 patients) with lung emphysema (51 (59%) of 86 patients); the mean values of the inspiratory lung optical density ranged from (765.93  16.4) to (863.37  15.83) ODU, expiratory lung optical density – from (826.80  11.64) to (881.37  4.29) ODU. Thus, we concluded that the method of digital chest fluorography, possessing low dose burden to the patient, can detect the characteristic radiological symptoms and determine the stage of the disease up to the values of the lung optical density in patients with COPD.