QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF HYPERTENSIVE PULMONARY ARTERIAL CHANGE

Abstract
A new method to quantitatively evaluate pulmonary aterial change in human pulmonary hypertension is presented. Hypertensive pulmonary arterial changes ar classified into 4 grades according to severity. A score from 1-4 is given to each arterial change according to the grading. An index of pulmonary vascular disease is then defined as a relative mean value of all scores. This index accurately expresses the grade of pulmonary arterial change in the whole pulmonary arterial system in any given case and makes possible a detailed statistical analysis of many cases.