Abstract
Many methods of pulmonary function study have been used, most of which have been used for so-called overall pulmonary function studies. With some of these methods, the patients were made to endure much pain.
However, pulmonary function studies using radioisotope are one of the useful methods of studying regional pulmonary fuction without subjecting the patient to much pain.
For these reasons, we decided to perform the regional pulmonary function study using133Xe, which proved to be very useful and important.
In performing regional pulmonary function studies using133Xe, we used the spot sampling method with 2 or more scintillation probes and the dynamic study method using scintillation-camera computer on line system.
The half time of133Xe wash-out curve is calculated on the regional lung area under both methods.
To use the combination of the133Xe ventilation scan and the perfusion scan with131I-MAA made the patho-physiological analysis of the pulmonary function easier.
We have found in our133Xe regional pulmonary function studies that the analysis of regional pulmonary function change is as necessary as the analysis of regional pulmonary anatomical change, which is performed with information from chest X-ray film.
Both together provide much more information in evaluating the clinical state of pulmonary disease in details.
