The impact of emphysema heterogeneity on treatment response after endobronchial valve treatment.

Heterogeneity index influences the degree of clinical improvement after endobronchial valve treatment where in general a more heterogeneous distribution translates to larger improvements. However, patients with a more homogeneous distribution also showed clinically meaningful improvements. Therefore, we believe emphysema heterogeneity alone should not be used as a decisive patient selection criterion, but should be weighed in the context of all other relevant patient and target lobe characteristics when deciding on a patient's treatment eligibility.