Alix School of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 26;12(1):17970. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22005-6.
Respiratory epithelium in the conducting airways of the human body is one of the primary targets of SARS-CoV-2 infection, however, there is a paucity of studies describing the association between COVID-19 and physical characteristics of the conducting airways. To better understand the pathophysiology of COVID-19 on the size of larger conducting airways, we determined the luminal area of the central airways in patients with a history of COVID-19 compared to a height-matched cohort of controls using a case-control study design. Using three-dimensional reconstruction from low-dose high-resolution computed tomography, we retrospectively assessed airway luminal cross-sectional area in 114 patients with COVID-19 (66 females, 48 males) and 114 healthy, sex- and height-matched controls (66 females, 48 males). People with a history of smoking, cardiopulmonary disease, or a body mass index greater than 40 kg·m were excluded. Luminal areas of seven conducting airways were analyzed, including trachea, left and right main bronchus, intermediate bronchus, left and right upper lobe, and left lower lobe. For the central conducting airways, luminal area was ~ 15% greater patients with COVID-19 compared to matched controls (p < 0.05). Among patients with COVID-19, there were generally no differences in the luminal areas of the conducting airways between hospitalized patients compared to patients who did not require COVID-19-related hospitalization. Our findings suggest that males and females with COVID-19 have pathologically larger conducting airway luminal areas than healthy, sex- and height-matched controls.
人体呼吸道的传导气道中的呼吸上皮是 SARS-CoV-2 感染的主要靶标之一，但是，描述 COVID-19 与传导气道的物理特征之间的关联的研究甚少。为了更好地了解 COVID-19 对较大传导气道大小的病理生理学影响，我们使用病例对照研究设计，比较了有 COVID-19 病史的患者与身高匹配的对照组之间的中央气道的管腔面积。使用低剂量高分辨率计算机断层扫描的三维重建，我们回顾性评估了 114 例 COVID-19 患者（66 名女性，48 名男性）和 114 名健康、性别和身高匹配的对照组（66 名女性，48 名男性）的气道管腔横截面积。排除有吸烟史、心肺疾病或 BMI 大于 40kg·m 的人。分析了 7 条传导气道的管腔面积，包括气管、左右主支气管、中间支气管、左右上叶和左下叶。对于中央传导气道，与匹配的对照组相比，COVID-19 患者的管腔面积大了约 15%（p<0.05）。在 COVID-19 患者中，与不需要 COVID-19 相关住院治疗的患者相比，住院患者的传导气道管腔面积通常没有差异。我们的研究结果表明，与健康、性别和身高匹配的对照组相比，患有 COVID-19 的男性和女性的传导气道管腔面积病理性增大。
