CT Scans May Offer Early Diagnosis of COPD in Smokers

With smoking comes a high risk of disease, including the debilitating COPD. With this disease the lung tissue looses its elasticity and eventually become unable to effectively exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. A CT-based screening tool for COPD

The author of the study, Dr. Pim A. de Jong, said, “Early cessation of smoking can prevent COPD progression, underscoring the importance of early detection,” de Jong said. “This CT-based detection may provide a possibility to enhance the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening with CT.”

“Among men who were current or former heavy smokers, undergoing lung cancer screening with CT scanning identified a substantial proportion who had COPD, suggesting that this method may be helpful as an additional tool in detecting COPD,” de Jong said.

Still other experts question the need of an additional way to find COPD. Medical Director Dr. Neil Schachter says, “The question is, is CT a useful way to screen for COPD,” he said. “On the one hand, you are using an expensive tool to make a diagnosis that you could make with a simpler, cheaper tool, namely spirometry.” However he also stated that since most lung cancer was screened with CT, that it might also make sense to use it as a COPD diagnostic tool as well.

Source: http://news.health.com/2011/10/25/ct-scans-may-pick-up-copd-early-in-smo...