Study of digital lung three-dimensional imaging technology in early COPD

Background: COPD is characterized by progressive development of airflow limitation. Small airway functional and structural disease is considered pivotal in the pathology of early COPD. We used pulmonary function (PFT) and digital lung three-dimensional (3D) imaging technology to detect small airway functional and structural disease that applied for screening early COPD. Methods 136 patients underwent PFT and CT at the 903th Hospital of People Liberation Army from January 2018 to January 2019, including 90 in the observation group and 46 in the control group. We tested the associations between digital lung 3D imaging technology parameters and PFT. Then, we detected small airway functional and structural disease by comparing digital lung 3D imaging technology parameters and PFT between the observation and control groups. Results There were correlations between digital lung 3D imaging technology parameters and PFT. Furthermore, compared with generation 5 bronchus, there were significant correlations between FEV1/FVC with generation 7 WT (r = -0.592; p  < 0.01), and TDR (r = -0.608; p  < 0.01). There were significant correlations between MEF50 with generation 7 WT (r = -0.607; p  < 0.01), LA (r = 0.632; p  < 0.01), and WA% (r = -0.643; p  < 0.01). We found that we could evaluate the lung function change by the technology, and generation 7 bronchus were more effective in assessing small airway disease. There were significant differences between the observation and control groups in digital lung 3D imaging technology parameters and PFT ( P  < 0.05). Conclusion We found that the observation group had small airway functional and structural disease as compared with control group, which was diagnosed as early COPD. Our results showed that we could use PFT and digital lung 3D imaging technology to detect small airway functional and structural disease that applied for screening early COPD.