Computed tomography (CT) imaging has been used to diagnose radiation-induced lung injury for decades. However, histogram-based quantitative tools have rarely been applied to assess lung abnormality due to radiation-induced lung injury (RILI). Here, we used first-order summary statistics to derive and assess threshold measures extracted from whole lung histograms of CT radiodensity in rhesus macaques. For the present study, CT scans of animals exposed to 10 Gy of whole thorax irradiation were utilized from a previous study spanning 2–9 months postirradiation. These animals were grouped into survivors and non-survivors based on their clinical and experimental endpoints. We quantified the change in lung attenuation after irradiation relative to baseline using three density parameters; average lung density (ALD), percent change in hyper-dense lung volume (PCHV), hyperdense volume as a percent of total volume (PCHV/TV) at 2-month intervals and compared each parameter between the two irradiated groups (non-survivors and survivors). We also correlated our results with histological findings. All the three indices (ALD, PCHV, PCHV/TV) obtained from density histograms showed a significant increase in lung injury in non-survivors relative to survivors, with PCHV relatively more sensitive to detect early RILI changes. We observed a significant positive correlation between histologic pneumonitis scores and each of the three CT measurements, indicating that CT density is useful as a surrogate for histologic disease severity in RILI. CT-based three density parameters, ALD, PCHV, PCHV/TV, may serve as surrogates for likely histopathology patterns in future studies of RILI disease progression.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
January 2023
RESEARCH ARTICLES|
November 17 2022
Quantitative Assessment and Comparative Analysis of Longitudinal Lung CT Scans of Chest-Irradiated Nonhuman Primates
Priyanka Thakur;
Priyanka Thakur
Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1040
Search for other works by this author on:
John D. Olson;
John D. Olson
Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1040
Search for other works by this author on:
Gregory O Dugan;
Gregory O Dugan
Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1040
Search for other works by this author on:
J. Daniel Bourland;
J. Daniel Bourland
Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1040
Search for other works by this author on:
Nancy D. Kock;
Nancy D. Kock
Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1040
Search for other works by this author on:
J. Mark Cline
J. Mark Cline
1
Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1040
1 Corresponding author: J. Mark Cline, DVM, Ph.D., DACVP, Professor, Pathology-Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157-1040; email: jmcline@wakehealth.edu.
Search for other works by this author on:
Radiat Res (2023) 199 (1): 39–47.
Article history
Accepted:
October 24 2022
Received:
November 14 2022
Citation
Priyanka Thakur, John D. Olson, Gregory O Dugan, J. Daniel Bourland, Nancy D. Kock, J. Mark Cline; Quantitative Assessment and Comparative Analysis of Longitudinal Lung CT Scans of Chest-Irradiated Nonhuman Primates. Radiat Res 1 January 2023; 199 (1): 39–47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1667/RADE-21-00225.1
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your Institution
18
Views
Citing articles via
Commonalities Between COVID-19 and Radiation Injury
Carmen I. Rios, David R. Cassatt, Brynn A. Hollingsworth, Merriline M. Satyamitra, Yeabsera S. Tadesse, Lanyn P. Taliaferro, Thomas A. Winters, Andrea L. DiCarlo
Effects of Radiation on Blood Pressure and Body Weight in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat Model. Are Radiation Effects on Blood Pressure Affected by Genetic Background?
Norio Takahashi, Munechika Misumi, Yasuharu Niwa, Hideko Murakami, Waka Ohishi, Toshiya Inaba, Akiko Nagamachi, Satoshi Tanaka, Ignacia Braga Tanaka, III, Gen Suzuki
Solid Cancer Incidence among the Life Span Study of Atomic Bomb Survivors: 1958–2009
Eric J. Grant, Alina Brenner, Hiromi Sugiyama, Ritsu Sakata, Atsuko Sadakane, Mai Utada, Elizabeth K. Cahoon, Caitlin M. Milder, Midori Soda, Harry M. Cullings, Dale L. Preston, Kiyohiko Mabuchi, Kotaro Ozasa
Studies of the Mortality of Atomic Bomb Survivors, Report 14, 1950–2003: An Overview of Cancer and Noncancer Diseases
Kotaro Ozasa, Yukiko Shimizu, Akihiko Suyama, Fumiyoshi Kasagi, Midori Soda, Eric J. Grant, Ritsu Sakata, Hiromi Sugiyama, Kazunori Kodama
Radiofrequency Fields and Calcium Movements Into and Out of Cells
Andrew Wood, Ken Karipidis