Detection of air trapping in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by low frequency ultrasound

BMC Pulmonary Medicine

Research Article

Thomas Glaab¹  Jens M Hohlfeld²  Heike Biller²  Dirk Rüter³  Stefan Uhlig⁴  Katrin Morenz⁴  Frank Wolfram⁵  Steffen Leonhadt⁶ 

[1] Boehringer Ingelheim, Medical Affairs, Respiratory, Binger Straße 173, 55216, Ingelheim, Germany;Department of Clinical Airway Research, Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology & Experimental Medicine (ITEM), Nikolai-Fuchs-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany;Institute for Measurement and Sensor Technology, Mülheim University of Applied Science, Wiesenstraße 36, 45473, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany;Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Wendlingweg 2, 52074, Aachen, Germany;Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Wendlingweg 2, 52074, Aachen, Germany;Philips Chair of Medical Information Technology, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 20, 52074, Aachen, Germany;Philips Chair of Medical Information Technology, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 20, 52074, Aachen, Germany;

关键词: Bronchodilation;    Pulmonary function test;    Diagnosis;    GOLD;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2466-12-8

 received in 2011-10-07, accepted in 2012-03-16,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSpirometry is regarded as the gold standard for the diagnosis of COPD, yet the condition is widely underdiagnosed. Therefore, additional screening methods that are easy to perform and to interpret are needed. Recently, we demonstrated that low frequency ultrasound (LFU) may be helpful for monitoring lung diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether LFU can be used to detect air trapping in COPD. In addition, we evaluated the ability of LFU to detect the effects of short-acting bronchodilator medication.MethodsSeventeen patients with COPD and 9 healthy subjects were examined by body plethysmography and LFU. Ultrasound frequencies ranging from 1 to 40 kHz were transmitted to the sternum and received at the back during inspiration and expiration. The high pass frequency was determined from the inspiratory and the expiratory signals and their difference termed ΔF. Measurements were repeated after inhalation of salbutamol.ResultsWe found significant differences in ΔF between COPD subjects and healthy subjects. These differences were already significant at GOLD stage 1 and increased with the severity of COPD. Sensitivity for detection of GOLD stage 1 was 83% and for GOLD stages worse than 1 it was 91%. Bronchodilator effects could not be detected reliably.ConclusionsWe conclude that low frequency ultrasound is cost-effective, easy to perform and suitable for detecting air trapping. It might be useful in screening for COPD.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01080924

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Morenz et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.