EP1.01-50 Quantitative Assessment of Subsegmental Bronchi on Thin-Section CT for Pulmonary Lymphangitis Carcinomatosa

CT is the main modality to measure the of the tumor and/or metastasis of solid malignancies to evaluate the change over time due to conservative therapy, especially in chemotherapy. However, the change of lymphangitis carcinomatosa which appears at advanced stage could be evaluated quantitatively, only. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the availability of CT to quantify the lymphangitis carcinomatosa of lung cancer. Fifteen consecutive patients (12 males, three females; 51-76 y.o.) with pulmonary lung cancer who were diagnosed as lung cancer with lymphangitis carcinomatosa by CT were enrolled retrospectively. Each patient’s lung cancer was diagnosed by using bronchoscope or CT guided biopsy. All patients underwent CT examination before and after the chemotherapy. All CT studies were performed by using MDCT machine (Aquilion Prime or Aquilion Precision; Canon Medical Systems, Otawara, Japan). All CT examinations were performed with 80 or 160-detector row CT scanner with contrast media. CT images were reconstructed with 1mm slice, 1mm interval, 512 x 512 matrix. The long axis diameters of primary tumors were measured on CT before and after the therapy. The wall area of the sub-segmental bronchus affected by lymphangitis carcinomatosa was defined by Synapse Vincent (Fujifilm Medical; Tokyo, Japan) before and after the therapy. The correlation coefficient of tumor reduction rates between the primary tumor diameter and wall area of the affected sub-segmental bronchus was statistically assessed. P value less than 0.05 was considered as significant in statistical analyses. The correlation coefficient of tumor reduction rates between the primary tumor diameter and wall area of the affected sub-segmental bronchus was 0.533 (p = 0.041). The positive correlation of tumor reduction rates was significant between the primary tumor diameter and wall area of the affected sub-segmental bronchus. The measurement of wall area of affected sub-segmental bronchus on thin-slice CT has the availability to evaluate the quantitative change of lymphangitis carcinomatosa of lung cancer patients.