Abstract

The aim of the study is comparing redistribution of pulmonary perfusion by scintigraphy during early and late periods in cases who had undergone to anatomic lung resections. During the study we have tried to calculate or predict FEV1 values, either before or after resection, which is one of the pulmonary function test. In this study preoperative and postoperative data of patients, who will be operated for lung cancer (n=3) and bronchiectasis (n=3) were collected. During preoperative and postoperative (first and fourth months) periods, arteriel blood gases, pulmonary function tests and lung scintigraphy were performed. Postoperative FEV1 values of the patients were calculated either with their preoperative lung function tests or with scintigrafic values. In addition redistribution were investigated according to scintigrafic findings. FEV1 values which were obtained later on (postoperative 1. and 4. months) were higher than preoperatively predicted. FEV1 values measured in the first month, and fourth month were 11% and 14.5% higher than the predicted values respectively. While scintigrafic region measurements on first and fourth months revealed a 13% enhancement at contralateral, 24.53% and 21.45% decrease were encountered at ipsilateral fields respectively. Adaptation of pulmonary tissues to recent situation can be achieved by either capability of pulmonary vasculature or increased ventilatory capacity. As we showed in our report, this new situation (redistribution) was mostly due to contralateral changings. The predicted values calculated either with spirometric or scintigrafic methods was lower than the measured ones. These results are encouraging us to perform resections in patients who have borderline values.