title: Pulmonary fissure integrity and collateral ventilation in COPD patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether the integrity (completeness) of pulmonary fissures affects pulmonary function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A dataset consisting of 573 CT exams acquired on different subjects was collected from a COPD study. According to the global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) criteria, these subjects (examinations) were classified into five different subgroups, namely non-COPD (222 subjects), GOLD-I (83 subjects), GOLD-II (141 subjects), GOLD-III (63 subjects), and GOLD-IV (64 subjects), in terms of disease severity. An available computer tool was used to aid in an objective and efficient quantification of fissure integrity. The correlations between fissure integrity, and pulmonary functions (e.g., FEV1, and FEV1/FVC) and COPD severity were assessed using Pearson and Spearman's correlation coefficients, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the five sub-groups ranging from non-COPD to GOLD-IV, the average integrities of the right oblique fissure (ROF) were 81.8%, 82.4%, 81.8%, 82.8%, and 80.2%, respectively; the average integrities of the right horizontal fissure (RHF) were 62.6%, 61.8%, 62.1%, 62.2%, and 62.3%, respectively; the average integrities of the left oblique fissure (LOF) were 82.0%, 83.2%, 81.7%, 82.0%, and 78.4%, respectively; and the average integrities of all fissures in the entire lung were 78.0%, 78.6%, 78.1%, 78.5%, and 76.4%, respectively. Their Pearson correlation coefficients with FEV1 and FE1/FVC range from 0.027 to 0.248 with p values larger than 0.05. Their Spearman correlation coefficients with COPD severity except GOLD-IV range from -0.013 to -0.073 with p values larger than 0.08.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is no significant difference in fissure integrity for patients with different levels of disease severity, suggesting that the development of COPD does not change the completeness of pulmonary fissures and incomplete fissures alone may not contribute to the collateral ventilation.
authors.affiliation: Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Xi'an, Shaanxi Providence, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jiantao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.affiliation: Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zhimin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Suicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fuhrman
authors.affiliation: Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joseph K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Leader
authors.affiliation: Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tedrow
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Frank C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Sciurba
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed