NCT03012958

Utility of Lung Clearance Index Score as a Noninvasive Marker of Deployment Lung Disease

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 73 (actual)
• Sponsor: National Jewish Health · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to learn more about new noninvasive ways of detecting lung disease in US Military personnel and people who worked as contractors during military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This study is looking at conducting a type of breathing test called the lung clearance index (LCI) test which is being investigated as a potential noninvasive way to detect the type of lung disease that may be seen in symptomatic deployers retuning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Detailed description

The healthy control group will comprise volunteers who are at least 18 years of age, have no history of pre-existing lung disease, and report no respiratory illness in the four weeks preceding enrollment. The symptomatic deployers who have undergone lung biopsy and meet the case definition for deployment-related lung disease. A case of deployment-related lung disease is defined as the presence of unexplained chest symptoms in a deployer who, on a surgical lung biopsy, is found to have bronchiolitis or granulomatous pneumonitis without other known cause.

Conditions

• Bronchiolitis
• Pneumonitis
• Dyspnea

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Lung clearance index (LCI)	LCI is determined by the number of lung volume turnovers necessary to clear the lungs of an inert tracer gas such as nitrogen that is inhaled at the beginning of the test. The LCI is calculated by determining the cumulative expired volume (CEV) and then dividing the CEV by the functional residual capacity. Values of less than7.0 indicate normal values while an LCI greater than 7.0 is associated with heterogeneity in ventilation and distal airway abnormalities. The ability to detect peripheral airway disease may make LCI a better modality for detecting distal airways abnormalities seen on lung histopathology but often missed on traditional pulmonary function testing.

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-07-01
• Primary completion: 2018-05-01
• Completion: 2018-05-01
• First posted: 2017-01-06
• Last updated: 2021-01-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States