Pediatric pulmonology
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Pediatric pulmonology · Jun 2012
The sensitivity of lung disease surrogates in detecting chest CT abnormalities in children with cystic fibrosis.
Chest CT scans detect structural abnormalities in children with cystic fibrosis (CF), even when pulmonary function tests (PFTs) are normal. The use of chest CT is limited in clinical practice, because of concerns over expense, increased resource utilization, and radiation exposure. Quantitative chest radiography scores are useful in detecting mild lung disease, but whether they are sensitive to the presence of CT scan abnormalities has not been evaluated. ⋯ In this cross sectional study, quantitative chest radiography has excellent sensitivity to detect an abnormal chest CT and may have a role in monitoring lung disease progression in children with CF.