Quantitative computed tomography measures of pectoralis muscle area and disease severity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A cross-sectional study.

McDonald M-LN, Diaz AA, Ross JC, Estepar RSJ, Zhou L, Regan EA, Eckbo E, Muralidhar N, Come CE, Cho MH, et al. Quantitative computed tomography measures of pectoralis muscle area and disease severity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A cross-sectional study. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2014;11(3):326–34.

Abstract

RATIONALE: Muscle wasting in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with a poor prognosis and is not readily assessed by measures of body mass index (BMI). BMI does not discriminate between relative proportions of adipose tissue and lean muscle and may be insensitive to early pathologic changes in body composition. Computed tomography (CT)-based assessments of the pectoralis muscles may provide insight into the clinical significance of skeletal muscles in smokers. OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that objective assessment of the pectoralis muscle area on chest CT scans provides information that is clinically relevant and independent of BMI.
Last updated on 02/26/2023