Texture-Based Automated Quantitative Assessment of Regional Patterns on Initial CT in Patients With Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Relationship to Decline in Forced Vital Capacity

In this retrospective study, the objective was to identify predictive factors for a decline in forced vital capacity (FVC) based on initial CT scans using texture-based automated quantification in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The study included 193 IPF patients with 1-year follow-up pulmonary function tests. A texture-based automated system was used to quantify six regional CT patterns: normal, ground-glass opacity (GGO), reticular opacity (RO), honeycombing, emphysema, and consolidation. A decline in FVC was defined as a decrease of more than 10% in the initial FVC. The results showed that a decline in FVC occurred in 32 patients, with the extent of RO being the only independent predictor for this decline. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated that an RO extent of less than 22.05% accurately predicted stable IPF at the 1-year follow-up in terms of FVC. The concept of the research has been comercialized in AVIEW Lung Texture, Coreline Soft.