An Anthropometric Study of Lung Donors

Purpose: A difference in the lower body to upper body ratio between similarly heighted individuals could lead to inadequately matched transplants. There has been a perception in clinical circles that body ratio varies between people of different races, and investigating this supposition would prove useful in increasing transplant match accuracy. The investigation’s purpose was to derive an equation with a greater correlation to lung length than height alone. Methods: Lung transplantation donor data for 480 adult patients was obtained and divided by ethnicity—Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic. Height, weight, age, sex, right and left lung length were evaluated for significance. The R² value of the multiple linear regression with these variables vs. lung length was determined and tested in a separate dataset of 100 patients. Results: Only the distribution of height was significant between the 3 ethnicities (P = 0.041). None of the ANCOVAs were significant (P < 0.05) or near significant (P < 0.10). For the strongest correlation model with lung length, height had a linear fit, weight had a cubic fit, and age had a logistic fit. Multiple regression models were successfully created for right lung (R² = 0.202) and left lung (R² = 0.213). Independent testing showed a correlation of 0.131 and 0.136, respectively. Conclusion: Using demographic information from the donor and recipient as proxies for estimating lung size should only serve as a rough guide due to their weak correlation with lung length. As a result, for greater accuracy, donor-recipient matching should be individualized by taking donor and recipient chest X-Rays and/or TLC into consideration.