International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
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Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis · Jan 2016
Continuous quantitative measurement of the proximal airway dimensions and lung density on four-dimensional dynamic-ventilation CT in smokers.
Four-dimensional dynamic-ventilation computed tomography (CT) imaging demonstrates continuous movement of the airways and lungs, which cannot be depicted with conventional CT. We aimed to investigate continuous changes in lung density and airway dimensions and to assess the correlation with spirometric values in smokers. ⋯ Respiratory changes in the MLD and synchrony between the airway Ai and the MLD measured with dynamic-ventilation CT were correlated with patient's spirometric values.
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Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are associated with accelerated disease progression and are important drivers of health care resource utilization. The study aimed to quantify the rates of COPD exacerbations in England and assess health care resource utilization by severity categories according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 2013. ⋯ Patients in the most severe category (GOLD D) experienced nearly three times the number of exacerbations and COPD-related hospitalizations as those in the least severe category (GOLD A), in addition to increased general practitioner visits. Better patient management to stabilize the disease progression could allow for an improvement in exacerbation frequency and a reduction in health care resource utilization.
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Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis · Jan 2016
Speckle tracking echocardiography in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and overlapping obstructive sleep apnea.
COPD and congestive heart failure represent two disease entities of growing global burden that share common etiological features. Therefore, we aimed to identify the degree of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in COPD as a function of COPD severity stages and concurrently placed particular emphasis on the presence of overlapping obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). ⋯ To conclude, COPD itself seems to be accompanied with decreased LV deformation properties that worsen over COPD severity stages, but do not vary in case of overlapping OSA.
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Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis · Jan 2016
The objective evaluation of obstructive pulmonary diseases with spirometry.
Airway obstruction is variable in asthma, while it is progressive and persistent in chronic bronchitis and emphysema. However, some of the patients presenting with symptoms of chronic airway diseases have clinical features of both asthma and COPD. The group with "Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome" (ACOS) phenotype was characterized by definitely irreversible airway obstruction accompanied by symptoms and signs of reversibility. ⋯ Number and percentage distribution of patients by groups were 58 (24.7%) in the asthma group, 70 (29.8%) in the ACOS group, 61 (26%) in the chronic bronchitis group, 32 (13.6%) in the emphysema group, and 14 (6%) in the UNDO group. In conclusion, in our study, the types of obstructive airway diseases could be classified based on clinical, radiological, and pulmonary function test findings into five groups, including asthma, ACOS, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and both asthma and chronic bronchitis in association with underlying emphysema (emphysema with chronic bronchitis and emphysema with asthma) or the so-called undifferentiated obstruction. We suggest that these patient groups can be determined more accurately by studies that evaluate the association between spirometric FEV1, FEV1/FVC values, and reversibility ratios.
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Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis · Jan 2016
Observational Study"Frequent exacerbator" is a phenotype of poor prognosis in Japanese patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The prognosis of Japanese patients with COPD who suffer repeated exacerbations is unclear, although Westerners with such episodes have a poor prognosis. ⋯ Our present results indicate that Japanese COPD patients suffering frequent exacerbation have a poor prognosis. The characteristics of Japanese and Western COPD patients suffering frequent exacerbation are similar.