The Evidence of Hyperinflation on Chest X Ray and its Correlation with Air Flow Obstruction in COPD Patients

Introduction: according to the latest statistical and epidemiologicalstudies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) will become thefourth leading cause of death in 2030 worldwide. scientists are studyingon methods to diagnose copd in the patients in early stages, because itis a curable and preventable disease in early stages. in this study,evidences of hyperinflation on chest x- ray (cxr) of copd patients werecompared with pulmonary function test (pft) finding.materials and methods: this cross-sectional study was done on 100patients who were referred to the pulmonary clinic with symptoms ofchronic cough and dyspnea. after taking history and performing physicalexamination, demographic information, history of smoking and bakeryand frequency of exacerbations were recorded. standard spirometrywas performed and the severity of copd was determined by gold(global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease) staging.additionally, they underwent cxr examination (pa and lateral).collected data were analyzed in spss ver. 18.results: in this study, there were 79 male and 21 female. the patients,64% of whom were urban and 36% were rural dwellers. there wassignificant correlation between forced expiratory ??low (fef) 50%predict with sterno-diaphragmatic angle and retro-sternal lucency(p=0.01, r=-0.26 and p=0.01, r=-0.25 respectively). also there weresignificant correlations between the forced expiratory volume/forcedvital capacity (fev1/fvc) with retro-sternal lucency (p=0.006, r=-0.27)and fev1%predict with sterno-diaphragmatic angle (p=0.002, r=-0.31).conclusion: the study showed some evidences of lung hyperinflationon cxr which significantly associated with pft parameters. sternodiaphragmaticangle and retro-sternal lucency can be used to predict theseverity of airway obstruction in patients with copd, although the cxrfinding cannot be substituted for pft and ct data.