Chest high-resolution CT features analysis in predicting the progression of asbestosis / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

Objective: To analyze the radiological characteristics of chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of patients with asbestosis, and to investigate the signs of predicting the disease progression of asbestosis. Methods: A prospective method was used to enroll 68 patients with asbestosis who were regularly followed up from 2013 to 2016. The radiological characteristics of patients with asbestosis were described by the International Classification of HRCT for Occupational and Environmental Respiratory Diseases (ICOERD) , and the differences between patients with and without progression were compared during the observation period. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to analyze the chest HRCT radiological signs predicting the progression of asbestosis. Results: The study included 68 patients with asbestosis aged (65.5±7.8) years old, of which 64.7% (44/68) were female, 29.4% (20/68) had a history of smoking. There was no significant difference in age, sex, smoking and asbestos exposure between patients with progressive asbestosis (20.6%, 14/68) and patients without progressive asbestosis (79.4%, 54/68) (P>0.05) . Chest HRCT of patients with asbestosis showed irregular and/or linear opacities, of which 5.9% (4/68) were accompanied by honeycombing. Irregular and/or linear opacities were mainly lower lung preponderant, often accompanied with ground glass opacity and mosaic perfusion. 98.5% (67/68) had pleural abnormalities, of which 39.7% (27/68) had diffuse pleural thickening with parenchymal bands and/or rounded atelectasis. The analysis of multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression showed that the risk of the progression of asbestosis was increased with higher irregular and/or linears opacities cores (HR=1.184, 95%CI: 1.012-1.384, P=0.034) and the appearance of honeycombing (HR=6.488, 95%CI: 1.447-29.097, P=0.015) . Conclusion: The irregular and/or linear opacities scores and honeycombing on chest HRCT are independent influencing factors for predicting the disease progression of asbestosis.

Pulmonary Honeycombing:HRCT Appearances,Pathological Fundament and Its Clinic Value / 实用放射学杂志

Objective To study HRCT appearances,clinic value and pathological fundament of the pulmonary honeycombing.Methods 60 patients including three groups with pulmonary honeycombing underwent HRCT scan.The comparative study of HRCT-pathology was done in 6 pulmonary postmortems with honeycombing.Results On HRCT images,honeycombing cysts were round-like with air inside,the cyst walls included remains of pulmonary inherent components and hyperplastic fibrotic tissue in pathology.The diameter of cysts was small,58 cases of them belonged to small group(90.6%).The distribution of lesions was mainly at lower(47cases,71.9%)and peripheral lung zone(52cases,81.3%),but there were differences in different type of the diseases.The cysts might become larger and it is impossible to recovery.Conclusion The honeycombing cysts appear as cystic cavities arranging as multiple layers,the cystic walls consist of different tissues in pathology,that are the manifestations of the end-stage of pulmonary fibrosis.HRCT appearances in different patients in three groups were different.