Correlation between Bhalla score and spirometry in children and adolescents with Cystic Fibrosis

Objective: to correlate the findings of high resolution computed tomography of the chest based on the Bhalla score with the clinical data and spirometry in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis, and to study the concordance between two radiologists for the Bhalla score and its categories. Methods: we evaluated the medical records of 23 patients from the outpatient clinic. The items evaluated included age, weight, height, height/age Z-score, weight/age Z-score, body mass index (BMI), O-2 saturation, spirometry and Bhalla score. Results: the patients had a mean age of 17.4 years +/- 5.7 years, with fifteen females and eight males. There was good correlation between Bhalla score and spirometry (FVC-r = 0.718, p<0.001; FEV1-r= 0.830, p<0.001; FEF25-75%-r = 0.786, p<0.001; FEV1/FVC-r=0.714, p<0.001). It was also noted that some patients with FEF25-75%> 70% already had changes in their final Bhalla score. In the analysis of the concordance between the examiners a Kappa coefficient of 0.81 (p < 0.001) was found, and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.98. Conclusion: a good correlation between Bhalla scores with spirometry confirmed its usefulness in evaluating and monitoring patients with cystic fibrosis, given it can be used both in patients who are unable to perform spirometry as well as for a pooled analysis of the two examinations since the HRCT scans show early changes in patients with normal function tests.