vq scan complete question

[withie]

Sorry but my question re vq scan was sent unfinished I have retyped it and hope it makes a bit more sense thankyou for your help in the past. Withie
.  When I started being short of breath last year I was sent from my hospital to another hospital for a vq scan, this was due to a history of blood clots in our family because of an inhereted blood disorder.  I was allowed to return straight back to the other hospital because thankfully it was not one.  The specialist said I could go home but come back for a pft at a later date, it was at the pft or at least due to the results from the pft I was told I had emphysema.  My question is, well one half is, would the radiographer have picked up the emphysema  on the vq scan i.e. the holes it makes and have reported it on the results sheet or would he only have reported what he was asked to look for,i.e. the pulmonary embolism .  The other part of my question is that I also suffer from achalasia and had a dilation a number of years ago, which needs to be re done as it is playing up quite a bit. I have noticed that when this is active my breathing seems to get worse.  Would this have had any effect on my pft, cos I was thinking of asking for another done when my achalasia was less active. Surely achalasia wouldnt have any effect on the results of the emphysema diagnosis as regards the TLCO SB  of 47% and air trapping maybe on the FEV1 and FVC  What are your thoughts? thankyou so much for your time and anticipation of an answer Withie

[National Jewish]

To your first question, if the changes were evident on the ventilation/perfusion lung scan the radiologist might or might not have commented. It would depend to a significant degree on the magnitude of the changes.  Keep in mind that the purpose of this scan is detection of pulmonary emboli, not emphysema.
The achalasia would not effect air trapping or FVC results unless it caused gastric reflux which could cause bronchospasm. This could then effect your pulmonary function testing.