Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is described as airflow limitation that is not
fully reversible. Quantitative assessment of structural changes within the lung that are
responsible for this airflow limitation has relied on the examination of tissue obtained from
surgical or postmortem specimens. However, in the past two decades, researchers have
developed novel and robust tools to measure the structure of the lung parenchyma and
airway wall by using computed tomographic (CT) scans, which do not require the removal of …