[Intra-bullous ventilation of giant bulla: does slow ventilation space on multi-breath nitrogen washout test mean that giant bulla is present?].
Intra-bullous ventilation and uneven ventilation in patients with giant bulla were studied by the multi-breath nitrogen washout and 133Xe washout tests. Fourteen patients underwent the nitrogen washout test before and after bullectomy; 2 of them also underwent the 133Xe washout test before surgery. After bullectomy, pulmonary nitrogen clearance delay and alveolar dilution rate (ADR) of slow ventilation space improved significantly (p less than 0.01) from 202.5% to 51.5%, and from 0.98 to 0.95, respectively. The dilution rate of 133Xe in the bullous region, based on the 133Xe clearance curve, showed the same values as the nitrogen washout test. Therefore, we considered that bullous ventilation could be estimated by the ADR of the nitrogen washout test and that uneven ventilation resulted from the ADR difference between the giant bulla and the nonbullous lung. When the nonbullous lung region was emphysematous, however, it was impossible to estimate the intra-bullous ventilation from the nitrogen washout test.
Ohta
M
M
2nd Department of Surgery, Kagawa Medical School.
Yasumitsu
T
T
Kotake
Y
Y
Ohsugi
T
T
Seo
H
H
Maeda
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001944:Breath Tests; D003560:Cysts / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D011656:Pulmonary Emphysema / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D014980:Xenon Radioisotopes
D014980:Xenon Radioisotopes; D009584:Nitrogen