Thin-section CT obtained at 10-mm increments versus limited three-level thin-section CT for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: correlation with pathologic scoring.

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to determine if three-level thin-section CT depicts idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) pathology as accurately as CT obtained at 10-mm increments throughout the entire lungs.Thin-section (1.0- to 1.5-mm) images at 10-mm increments were obtained and scored prospectively in 25 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed IPF who were participating in a Special Center of Research grant for interstitial lung disease. Each patient's lobe was scored by four thoracic radiologists on a scale of 0-5 for both ground-glass attenuation and fibrosis. The radiologists used three images (limited CT) and also used the entire data set (complete CT). CT scores were compared with pathology scores from 67 open and thoracoscopic biopsies. Limited and complete scores were compared with each other (Pearson correlation coefficient). Interobserver variation in the CT scoring system was assessed using kappa values.CT fibrosis scores strongly correlated with pathology fibrosis scores for complete (r = .53...