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(Chest. 2001;119:1455-1460.)
© 2001 American College of Chest Physicians

Usefulness of Pulmonary Vascular Leakiness Assessment in Interstitial Pneumonitis*

Akitoshi Ishizaka, MD; Naoki Hasegawa, MD; Kayoko Nakamura, PhD; Yaeko Takagi, MD; Makoto Takano, MD; Kazuhiro Yamaguchi, MD, FCCP and Atsushi Kubo, MD

* From the Departments of Medicine (Drs. Ishizaka and Takano) and Radiology (Dr. Takagi), Tokyo Electric Power Company Hospital, Tokyo; Departments of Medicine (Dr. Yamaguchi) and Radiology (Drs. Nakamura and Kubo), School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo; and Department of Medicine (Dr. Hasegawa), National Minami-Yokohama Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan.

Correspondence to: Akitoshi Ishizaka, MD, Chief, Department of Medicine, Tokyo Electric Power Company Hospital, Keio University, School of Medicine, 9–2 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0016, Japan; e-mail: ishiz{at}attglobal.net

Study objective: Pulmonary vascular leakiness of 67Ga-circulating transferrin in interstitial pneumonitis (IP) was estimated by our previously described method, and its ability to evaluate disease activity was compared with conventional 67Ga scintigraphy.

Design: Using 30-min dynamic scanning data after IV injection of 67Ga citrate, the exponential equilibration coefficient of 67Ga between the intravascular and pulmonary interstitial compartments was calculated and defined as the leak index (LI). Pulmonary 67Ga uptake was assessed by gallium index, determined by conventional static images taken 48 h after 67Ga citrate injection.

Setting: Hospitalized patients.

Participants: The study population consisted of 17 control patients and 20 patients with IP.

Results: The mean LI in patients with IP was significantly higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001), whereas no significant increase in gallium index was noted between the IP group and the control group. No significant correlation was found between gallium index and LI among all study participants. Mean LI in patients with active IP was significantly higher than in patients with stable IP (p = 0.0024).

Conclusions: An increase in pulmonary vascular leakiness was found in patients with IP. LI may be useful to assess the disease activity.

Key Words: interstitial lung disease • interstitial pneumonitis • 67gallium • permeability






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Copyright © 2001 by the American College of Chest Physicians.