ERS 2020 – FRI shows significant regional ventilation defects in COPD

Functional Respiratory Imaging (FRI) shows significant regional ventilation defects in COPD patients as compared to healthy patients

Ventilation defects in COPD are associated with reduced exercise tolerance and worse quality of life. Standard lung function tests lack the ability to detect and quantify regional ventilation defects often resulting in sub-optimal treatment. For the first time a study uses FRI qCT to quantify and visualize ventilation defects in COPD and compare them to a healthy population.

The study concluded that ventilation defects express themselves heterogeneously in COPD patients’ lungs. The lower lobes appear to be more affected by the disease, reflected in an overall larger reduction in ventilation as compared to the upper lobes. These findings are particularly relevant when optimizing inhalation therapies that rely on inspiratory airflow to ensure adequate drug delivery to the lung.

This study was presented as a poster at the ERS 2020 Congress


Categorised in: / September 11, 2020 11:00 am / Published by

Tags: , , ,