Brad Drummond, MD

CT scans are powerful tools to identify lung disease. Many studies of lung disease now use CT scans to measure the effect of medications studied in clinical trials. Our group has developed a new way to analyze CT scans to determine the presence of emphysema and how emphysema may change with medications. We think this approach adds new information to the way emphysema is currently described and measured. To study this new approach, we will apply our analysis methods to a recent study of losartan (a medication used to treat high blood pressure, prevent strokes in people with heart disease and high blood pressure, and prevent kidney damage in people with diabetes) compared to placebo in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  We will measure the changes in emphysema in people who took losartan compared to those who took a placebo using these new measurements. We will also study how the changes in these new CT scan measurements relate to lung function changes and symptoms experienced by patients. These results will help us understand how best to measure emphysema from CT scans.