Emphysema Severity Index ESI
ESI, Emphysema Severity Index for the assessment of emphysema in smokers, ex smokers and patients with COPD
The ESI index is a quantitative score (0-10) reflecting the severity of emphysema.
The ESI methodology was implemented to provide a simple and effective tool for the assessment of emphysema severity in smokers, ex-smokers patients with COPD.
The Emphysema Severity Index application was used to calculate the ESI (Emphysema Severity Index) in a population of 5930 subjects (smokers, ex-smokers, patients with COPD).
The ESI values were compared with the CT-based metrics obtained by advanced software (CT images analysis).
The obtained results were published in Respiratory Research:
Validation of a method to assess emphysema severity by spirometry in the COPDGene study
The ESI index method is suitable for:
- Emphysema assessment by spirometry in smokers, ex-smokers, patients with COPD
- Application on prospective wide-scale clinical trials
- Post-hoc analyses of previous randomized pharmacologic clinical trials to evaluate the effects of emphysema severity on the outcome
- Scientific partnerships and publications
- Integration on portable devices and spirometers
- Integration of ESI in clinical records software
- Batch analysis of large datasets
The analysis is based uniquely on data derived by standard spirometry without any standardization or normalization (i.e. % pred. or LLN, z-scores, etc…, DLco is not requested.)
Emphysema in smokers and COPD
According to WHO (World Health Organization): “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is not one single disease but an umbrella term used to describe chronic lung diseases that cause airflow obstruction.
The more familiar terms ‘chronic bronchitis‘ and ‘emphysema‘ are no longer used, but are now included within the COPD diagnosis.” According to the recent estimates, currently 64 million people have COPD and 3 million people died of COPD. WHO predicts that COPD will become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex condition with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations and pathological features unified under the spirometric definition of airflow obstruction. Airway narrowing and parenchymal destruction are recognized as the mechanisms responsible for airflow obstruction in COPD, but they cannot be distinguished by standard spirometry indexes such as FEV1 (%pred) or FEV1/FVC.