• K-W Jo, S W Ra, E J Chae, J B Seo, N K Kim, J-H Lee, E-K Kim, Y K Lee, T-H Kim, J W Huh, W J Kim, J H Lee, S-M Lee, S Y Lim, T R Shin, H I Yoon, S S Sheen, J S Lee, S-D Lee, and Y-M Oh.
• Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine & Clinical Research Center for Chronic Obstructive Airway Diseases, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
• Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. 2010 Nov 1;14(11):1481-8.

SettingEleven referring hospitals in South Korea.ObjectiveTo classify the phenotypes in elderly subjects with obstructive lung disease (OLD).MethodsWe analysed 191 subjects aged ≥ 60 years with chronic respiratory symptoms and either obstructive spirometry or bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Factor analysis was performed using commonly measured variables and revealed four significant variables: 1) the ratio of inspiratory capacity to total lung capacity, 2) the total score on the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire, 3) the volume fraction of the lung less than 950 Hounsfield Unit at full inspiration on volumetric computed tomography and 4) post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) changes. We performed a cluster analysis on these four variables.ResultsThe mean age was 68.5 (± 5.2 SD) years and the mean post-bronchodilator FEV(1) was 52.4% (± 16.5) predicted. Three clusters with the following phenotypes were identified: Cluster 1 included subjects with moderate to severe airflow obstruction and bronchodilator reversibility; Cluster 2 subjects had moderate airflow obstruction without bronchodilator reversibility, and Cluster 3 subjects had severe airflow obstruction without bronchodilator reversibility.ConclusionsWe identified three phenotypes in elderly subjects with OLD. Follow-up studies are needed to explore the clinical significance of each phenotype.

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