• Ankura Singh, Charles Liu, Barbara Putman, Rachel Zeig-Owens, Charles B Hall, Theresa Schwartz, Mayris P Webber, Hillel W Cohen, Kenneth I Berger, Anna Nolan, David J Prezant, and Michael D Weiden.
• Bureau of Health Services and the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program, Fire Department of the City of New York, Brooklyn, NY; Pulmonary Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.
• Chest. 2018 Dec 1; 154 (6): 1301-1310.

BackgroundPreviously healthy firefighters with World Trade Center (WTC) dust exposure developed airway disease. Risk factors for irritant-associated asthma/COPD overlap are poorly defined.MethodsThis study included 2,137 WTC-exposed firefighters who underwent a clinically indicated bronchodilator pulmonary function test (BD-PFT) between 9/11/2001 and 9/10/2017. A post-BD FEV1 increase of > 12% and 200 mL from baseline defined asthma, and a post-BD FEV1/FVC ratio < 0.7 identified COPD cases. Participants who met both criteria had asthma/COPD overlap. Eosinophil levels were measured on screening blood tests performed shortly after 9/11/2001 and prior to BD-PFT; a subgroup of participants also had serum IgE and 21 cytokines measured (n = 215). Marginal Cox regression models for multiple events assessed the associations of eosinophil levels or serum biomarkers with subsequent diagnosis, with age, race, smoking, WTC exposure, first post-9/11 FEV1/FVC ratio, and BMI included as covariates.ResultsBD-PFT diagnosed asthma/COPD overlap in 99 subjects (4.6%), isolated-asthma in 202 (9.5%), and isolated-COPD in 215 (10.1%). Eosinophil concentration ≥ 300 cells/μL was associated with increased risk of asthma/COPD overlap (hazard ratio [HR], 1.85; 95% CI, 1.16-2.95) but not with isolated-asthma or isolated-COPD. Serum IL-4 also predicted asthma/COPD overlap (HR, 1.51 per doubling of cytokine concentration; 95% CI, 1.17-1.95). Greater IL-21 concentration was associated with both isolated-asthma and isolated-COPD (HRs of 1.73 [95% CI, 1.27-2.35] and 2.06 [95% CI, 1.31-3.23], respectively).ConclusionsIn WTC-exposed firefighters, elevated blood eosinophil and IL-4 levels are associated with subsequent asthma/COPD overlap. Disease-specific T-helper cell type 2 biomarkers present years before diagnosis suggest patient-intrinsic predisposition to irritant-associated asthma/COPD overlap.Copyright © 2018 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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