j Comput Assist Tomogr • Volume 32, Number 6, November/December 2008
Jean-Marc Naccache, MD, Armelle Lavole, MD, Hilario Nunes, MD, Christine Lamberto, MD, Philippe Letoumelin, MD, Michel Brauner, MD, Dominique Valeyre, MD, and Pierre Yves Brillet, MD
Objective: To investigate airway involvement in patients with pul¬monary sarcoidosis and airflow obstruction (AO) using high-resolution computed tomography.
Methods: Forty-two sarcoidosis patients with AO and 42 matched sarcoidosis patients without AO were retrospectively analyzed. High-resolution computed tomographic patterns of airway involvement were bronchial distortion, peribronchovascular thickening, small air¬way obstruction, and bronchial compression by enlarged lymph nodes.
Results: Interobserver agreement was good (K > 0.8). High-resolution computed tomographic patterns of airway involvement were found more frequently, scored higher, and were more often multiple (P < 0.05) in patients with AO than those without. Functional improvement under treatment was observed more frequently in patients with predominant peribronchovascular thickening compared with patients with predominant bronchial distortion (P < 0.03).
Conclusions: In pulmonary sarcoidosis patients with AO, high-resolution computed tomography is a reliable tool to identify under¬lying airways involvements, which are often multiple, and enables prediction of the therapeutic response.