title: Free-breathing cine CT for the diagnosis of tracheomalacia in young children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tracheomalacia is characterized by excessive expiratory collapse of the trachea.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the accuracy of free-breathing cine CT for diagnosis of tracheomalacia in young children with bronchoscopy as reference standard.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a retrospective study (May 2001-July 2008), a patient group (n = 27) of children with bronchoscopic evidence of tracheomalacia, and a control group (n = 320) underwent free-breathing cine CT. The tracheal shape on free-breathing cine CT was classified as round, lunate, elongated or crescentic. Cross-sectional area change of the trachea and age were compared between the groups and the diagnostic performance of free-breathing cine CT for tracheomalacia was evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patient group showed significantly greater cross-sectional area change of the trachea (57.2% ± 22.2% vs. 10.6% ± 11.2%, P < 0.001) than the control group. If a cross-sectional area change of the trachea of 31.6% was used as a cut-off value for the diagnosis of tracheomalacia, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of cine CT were 96.3% (26/27), 97.2% (311/320) and 97.1% (337/347), respectively. If a crescentic shape during the expiratory phase was used, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 51.9% (14/27), 98.8% (316/320) and 95.1% (330/347), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Free-breathing cine CT has potential to provide the diagnosis of tracheomalacia in young children.
authors: Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88, Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 138-736, Korea. hwgoo@amc.seoul.kr
authors: Hyun Woo
authors: HW
authors: Goo
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D055090:Tracheomalacia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014741:Video Recording / Q000379:methods*