The European respiratory journal : official journal of the European Society for Clinical Respiratory Physiology
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Air pollution and subclinical interstitial lung disease: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) air-lung study.
We studied whether ambient air pollution is associated with interstitial lung abnormalities (ILAs) and high attenuation areas (HAAs), which are qualitative and quantitative measurements of subclinical interstitial lung disease (ILD) on computed tomography (CT). We performed analyses of community-based dwellers enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) study. We used cohort-specific spatio-temporal models to estimate ambient pollution (fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3)) at each home. ⋯ There was an overall trend towards an association between higher exposure to NOx and greater progression of HAAs (0.45% annual increase in HAAs per 40 ppb increment in NOx; 95% CI -0.02 to 0.92, p = 0.06). Associations of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5), NOx and NO2 concentrations with progression of HAAs varied by race/ethnicity (p = 0.002, 0.007, 0.04, respectively, for interaction) and were strongest among non-Hispanic white people. We conclude that ambient air pollution exposures were associated with subclinical ILD.