Abstract
BACKGROUND: This retrospective study aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of volume measurement of central pulmonary arteries using computer tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for predicting pulmonary hypertension (PH). METHODS: A total of 59 patients in our hospital from November 2013 to April 2021 who underwent both right cardiac catheterization (RHC) and CTPA examination were included. Systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP), mean PAP (mPAP), and diastolic PAP (DPAP) were acquired from RHC testing. Patients were divided into the non-PH group (18 cases) and the PH group (41 cases). The diameters of the main pulmonary artery (D(MPA)), right pulmonary artery (D(RPA)), and left pulmonary artery (D(LPA)) were measured manually. A 3D model software was used for the segmentation of central pulmonary arteries. The cross-sectional areas (A(MPA), A(RPA), A(LPA)) and the volumes (V(MPA), V(RPA), V(LPA)) were calculated. Measurements of the pulmonary arteries derived from CTPA images were compared between the two groups, and correlated with the parameters of RHC testing. ROC curves and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to evaluate the benefit of the three-dimensional CTPA parameters for predicting PH. A multiple linear regression model with a forward-step approach was adopted to integrate all statistically significant CTPA parameters for PH prediction. RESULTS: All parameters (D(MPA), D(RPA), D(LPA), A(MPA), A(RPA), A(LPA,) V(MPA), V(RPA), and V(LPA)) of CTPA images exhibited significantly elevated in the PH group in contrast to the non-PH group (P < 0.05), and showed positive correlations with the parameters of RHC testing (mPAP, DPAP, SPAP) (r ranged 0.586~0.752 for MPA, 0.527~0.640 for RPA, and 0.302~0.495 for LPA, all with P < 0.05). For the MPA and RPA, 3D parameters showed higher correlation coefficients compared to their one-dimensional and two-dimensional counterparts. The ROC analysis indicated that the V(MPA) showed higher area under the curves (AUC) than the D(MPA) and A(MPA) without significance, and the V(RPA) showed higher AUC than the D(RPA) and A(RPA) significantly (D(RPA) vs. V(RPA), Z = 2.029, P = 0.042; A(RPA) vs. V(RPA), Z = 2.119, P = 0.034). The DCA demonstrated that the three-dimensional parameters could provide great net benefit for MPA and RPA. The predictive equations for mPAP, DPAP, and SPAP were formulated as [8.178 + 0.0006 * V(MPA)], [1.418 + 0.0005 * V(MPA)], and [-11.137 + 0.0006*V(RPA) + 1.259 * D(MPA)], respectively. CONCLUSION: The 3D volume measurement of the MPA and RPA based on CTPA images maybe more informative than the traditional diameter and cross-sectional area in predicting PH.