Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: physiologic tests, quantitative CT indexes, and CT visual scores as predictors of mortality.

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate quantitative computed tomographic (CT) indexes, pulmonary function test results, and visual CT scoring as predictors of mortality and to describe serial changes in quantitative CT indexes over 12 months in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained at all participating institutions. One hundred sixty-seven patients (110 men, 57 women; mean age, 63 years +/- 9 [standard deviation]) with IPF were enrolled in a clinical trial.

Quantitative CT indexes in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: relationship with physiologic impairment.

Purpose: To determine whether measurements of skewness, kurtosis, and mean lung attenuation on thin-section computed tomographic (CT) histograms in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) correlate with pulmonary physiologic abnormality in a nonspirometrically controlled multicenter study.

Materials And Methods: The authors analyzed baseline digital thin-section CT data from 144 patients with IPF who enrolled in a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical effectiveness trial of interferon beta 1a in the treatment of IPF. All patients underwent thin-section CT in the supine position at full inspiration.