TITLE:
Findings Associated with Pulmonary Hypertension: CT Angiography Based Study
AUTHORS:
Salah Eldein Hassan Aloub, Caroline Edward Ayad, Mohammed Elfadil Mohammed Gar Elnabi
KEYWORDS:
Pulmonary Hypertension (PH), Pulmonary Artery Diameter, Computed Tomography (CT), Pulmonary Embolism
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Radiology,
Vol.6 No.3,
August
5,
2016
ABSTRACT: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a complex disorder and may be related to a variety of diseases. It may arise in association with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Knowledge of the radiological features is required to characterize and accurately diagnose the conditions and may improve the outcome. This study was designed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and the computerized tomography angiography findings in patients with PH, PE and CTEPH. Contrast-enhanced CT scans were acquired in 55 Sudanese patients with PE, 20 patients with PH, 25 patients with CTEPH and 50 normal subjects who were considered as control group. The CT diagnostic criteria for all cases were characterized. The clinical signs, parenchymal abnormalities, pulmonary tree and cardiac segments in all groups were characterized and compared with the control group. The results showed that the most common clinical characteristics were found to be chest pain, dyspnea, lower limb swelling, tachycardia and syncope which were correlated significantly with the presence of the disease. In all patients groups, the pulmonary vascular segments, cardiac segments and lung parenchyma changes were detected and were significantly different from the normal control subjects at p ≤ 0.01. It was found that CT angiography has a significant role in the diagnostic evaluation of these groups of patients. CT imaging is acceptably used in diagnosis, defining cause, quantifying heart segments and parenchyma changes in order to assess the feasibility of surgery, monitoring and therapeutic planning.