Objective To explore the early coal pneumoconiosis patients with HRCT staging and pulmonary function abnormali-ties indicators ,provide an objective basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment early pneumoconiosis .Methods Strict control of the inclusion criteria :no smoking ,no pneumonia ,no tuberculosis ,no lung cancer and no lung surgery ,as a result ,total 33 early coal pneumoconiosis patients were chosen in the study .All of them were underwent paired CT obtained at full inspiratory position .High kv chest radiography ,and pulmonary function tests at the same day .Reference to the chest X-ray pneumoconiosis classification method as pneumoconiosis HRCT staging .Analyzed the correlation between early coal pneumoconiosis with HRCT staging and the parameters ,including Forced vital capacity (FVC) ,Forced expiratory volume in 1 second(FEV1) ,FEV1/FVC ,Maximum midexpi-ratory flow(MMEF) ,Peak expiratory flow(PEF) ,FEF75 ,FEF50 ,FEF25 ,Total lung capacity(TLC) ,Residual volume(RV) ,Carbon monoxide diffusion capacity(DLco) ,KCO and so on .Results HRCT could be more accurately display the shape ,size and distribu-tion of coal pneumoconiosis small nodules .There were significant correlation with MMEF ,PEF ,FEF75 ,FEF50 and FEF25 in different HRCT staging .Conclusion HRCT can early detection and validation early coal workers pneumoconiosis .Early coal worker′s pneu-moconiosis small airway flow rate decline caused by inhalation coal dust .

OBJECTIVETo study the value of compute tomography (CT)-based quantitative assessment in the diagnosis of pneumoconiosis.

METHODSSixty patients with pneumoconiosis and 40 healthy volunteers (control) underwent CT scanning at the levels of the top of the aortic arch, tracheal carina, and 3 cm and 6 cm below the tracheal carina. All the CT images were analyzed with density histograms for a specific region to calculate the mean lung CT value (ME) and pixel index for assessment of lung density changes.

RESULTSAt the levels of the top of the aortic arch and 6 cm below the tracheal carina, the pixel indices in the 10 CT threshold density intervals within -832 to -352 HU was all significantly higher in pneumoconiosis group than in the control group (P<0.05). At the levels of the tracheal carina and 3 cm below the tracheal carina, the 11 pixel indices in the CT threshold density intervals within -880 to -352 HU were also significantly higher in pneumoconiosis group (P<0.05). At all the 4 scan levels, the pixel indices in the 10 intervals between -880 and -352 HU were all significantly higher in pneumoconiosis group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONCT density histograms allow quantitative evaluation of lung fibrosis in patients with pneumoconiosis for diagnostic purposes.

Adult ; Aged ; Case-Control Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pneumoconiosis ; diagnostic imaging ; Pulmonary Fibrosis ; diagnostic imaging ; Spiral Cone-Beam Computed Tomography ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; methods