bronchiolithis

The suspicion of chronic rejection [bronchiolithis obliterans syndrome (BOS)] is usually based on deteriorating forced expired volume in 1 s. It is however, desirable to develop more sensitive methods as increased anti-inflammatory therapy is thought to stop progression of the rejection. The aim of the present study was to develop quantitative tools based on ventilation scintigrams, to diagnose BOS. Sixteen double-lung-transplanted patients participated, six developing BOS and 10 who did not develop BOS. They were investigated with planar posterior-anterior (99m)Tc-Technegas (Tetley Manufacturing Ltd, Sydney, Australia) ventilation scintigraphy at baseline, 6 months to 1 year post-transplantation, and at a follow-up examination 3-4-year post-transplant or in the BOS patients close to the time of the diagnosis...