Assessment of early bronchiectasis in young children with cystic fibrosis is dependent on lung volume.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether assessment of early CT scan-detected bronchiectasis in young children with cystic fibrosis (CF) depends on lung volume.

Methods: This study, approved by the hospital ethics committee, included 40 young children with CF from a newborn screened population contributing paired volume-controlled inspiratory and expiratory volumetric chest CT scans acquired under general anesthesia while clinically stable. Bronchiectasis was assessed with a semiquantitative CT scan score in inspiration and expiration, and the sensitivity of the expiratory CT scan to detect bronchiectasis was compared with the inspiratory CT scan by sensitivity and intraclass correlation coefficient analysis and Bland-Altman plots.