The clinical significance of CT pulmonary perfusion imaging in clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer

Objective:To discuss the role of multi-slice spiral CT(MSCT) pulmonary perfusion imaging in the evaluation of clinical stage Ⅰ non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC).Methods:129 patients with NSCLC had MSCT perfusion imaging.Correlation analysis was made between CT perfusion parameters and pathology characteristics.Trend tests were used for the comparison of different groups.Results:There was correlation between CT perfusion parameters and pathology features of NSCLC.The blood flow(BF)of well-,middle-and poorly differentiated carcinoma was(58.3±20.5)、(38.5±15.7) and(30.3±6.7)ml/(100g·min) respectively,the peak enhanced index(PEI) was(26.1±11.7)、(23.6±6.9) and(16.2±4.9)HU respectively,with the p value as 0.01 and 0.023 respectively.The BF and PEI decreased with the decreasing of NSCLC differentiation grading.The BF value of NSCLC with lymph node metastasis was [(28.4±9.8)ml/(100g·min)] and the PEI was [(10.9±8.4)HU],which was obviously lower than that without lymph node metastases[(47.3±16.5)ml/(100g·min) and(24.0±8.7)HU] respectively,the p value was 0.000 and 0.002 respectively.The BF value of patients with post-surgery metastases was [(22.6±3.2)ml/(100g·min)],which was markedly lower than that with no metastasis [(45.0±16.4)ml/(100g·min)],with significant statistical difference(P0.001).No obvious differences were showed between the CT perfusion parameters of different pathology sub-types of NSCLC(P0.05).Conclusion:The mode and degree of angiogenesis of NSCLC could be evaluated by MSCT perfusion imaging,which is a non-invasive approach,could indirectly reflect the grade of tumor differentiation and predict the possibility of lymph node metastases as well as postoperative metastasis.MSCT pulmonary perfusion imaging can be used as a useful marker to judge the biological behavior and the prognosis of NSCLC.