Noninvasive diagnosis of emphysema. Aerosol morphometry and aerosol bolus dispersion in comparison to HRCT.

Aerosol-derived airway morphometry (ADAM) and aerosol bolus dispersion (ABD) test are altered in patients with emphysema. We examined the diagnostic power of these aerosol methods in comparison with the noninvasive "gold-standard" HRCT in 50 consecutive patients with various lung diseases. The severity of airflow limitation was mild to moderate in the group of patients without emphysema and moderate to severe in the group of patients with HRCT-confirmed emphysema (FEV(1), 78 +/- 23% pred versus 53 +/- 33% pred; p < 0.