Quantification of pulmonary vessel volumes on low-dose computed tomography in a healthy male Chinese population: the effects of aging and smoking.

Background: This study sought to determine pulmonary vascular volumes (PVVs) on low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) in a healthy male Chinese population and analyze the effects of aging and smoking on PVVs.

Methods: A total of 1,320 healthy male participants (comprising 720 non-smokers, 445 smokers, and 155 ex-smokers) who underwent LDCT were retrospectively included in this study. Their demographic data and smoking status data were collected. An automatic integration segmentation approach for LDCT was used to segment pulmonary vessels semi-automatically. The PVVs of the whole lung, left lung, and right lung on LDCT were calculated, and correlations between PVVs and age and smoking status were then compared.

Results: The inter-rater correlation coefficient of the whole lung, left lung, and right lung PVVs was 0.98 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.95-0.99], 0.97 (95% CI: 0.93-0.98), and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.94-0.99), respectively. The intra-class correlation coefficient of the whole lung left lung, and right lung PVVs was 0.98 (95% CI: 0.95-0.99), 0.96 (95% CI: 0.95-0.99), and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.92-0.98), respectively. In non-smokers, PVVs decreased with age. The PVVs of heavy smokers were higher than those of light smokers, ex-smokers, and non-smokers. The PVVs of ex-smokers were comparable to those of light smokers.

Conclusions: The PVVs measured on LDCT tended to decrease with age in healthy male non-smokers gradually. Compared to non-smokers, the PVVs of smokers increased, even with the normal lung function.