Pulmonary ventilation and perfusion studies in lung cancer.

In 46 patients with bronchogenic carcinoma, the diagnostic significance of pulmonary ventilation images by the continuous inhalation of Kr-81m gas, which has an extremely short half life, was studied in comparison with pulmonary perfusion images with Tc-99m MAA. The data were processed using digital analysis techniques. There were 15 cases with discrepancies between ventilation and perfusion. The V/Q ratios of the affected lung among the 43 patients showed values above 1.2 in nine cases and below 0.8 in six cases. The Kr-81m ventilation and Tc-99m perfusion images were compared before and after radiation therapy in eight patients. It was possible to assess the therapeutic effect on regional ventilation and regional perfusion, which could not be evaluated by chest x-ray alone, under the same conditions of normal breathing.