What Does Radiologic Assessment Contribute to Asthma: A Subanalysis of the Turkish Adult Asthma Registry

Abstract

ObjectivesIt is aimed to assess how physicians use chest imaging in asthma and the relationship between the pathological findings and related disease characteristics in the radiological imaging of asthmatic patients.BackgroundThe daily practice of imaging and its contribution to the management of asthma are not well defined. It is common to use radiological imaging to investigate pathologies that cause respiratory symptoms and to evaluate differential diagnoses in asthma patients. In this study, as a subanalysis of the Turkish Adult Asthma Registry, radiological findings and outcomes of asthmatic patients were examined.MethodsBetween March 2018 and March 2022, the data of asthma patients in 36 secondary and tertiary health care centers was recorded using a web-based application. Patients with chest X-ray, computed thorax tomography, and paranasal sinus tomography data in the asthma database were statistically evaluated for sub-analysis.ResultsThe study included 2053 patients. Chest X-rays were taken in the majority of the cases (n:1739; 84.7%). Computed thorax tomography was performed in 869 (42.3%) patients and paranasal sinus tomography in 388 (18.9%) patients. The most common pathological findings on chest X-rays of asthmatic patients were increased bronchovascular branching and dirty lung appearance, whereas they were linear atelectasis, and bronchial wall thickening on computed thorax tomography bronchiectasis. Soft tissue in the sinuses and nasal polyps were the most common pathological findings in paranasal sinus tomography. Pathological findings were much more common in the radiological evaluations of patients with eosinophilic and allergic phenotypes and in patients with severe asthma.ConclusionThe radiological findings of asthma vary depending on the phenotype and severity of the disease. Patients with asthma, particularly those in the high-risk group, should be evaluated from a radiological perspective.