COPD
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Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells have been reported to play an important role in mucosal immunity. However, little is known about the roles of MAIT cells in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aims of this study were to examine the levels of circulating MAIT cells and their subsets in COPD patients and to investigate the potential relationship between clinical parameters and MAIT cell levels. ⋯ Our data shows that MAIT cells are numerically deficient in the peripheral blood of patients with COPD. In addition, this MAIT cell deficiency was found to reflect inflammatory activity and disease severity. These findings provide important information for monitoring the changes in MAIT cell levels and for predicting the prognosis during the disease course.
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Pulmonary vascular disease is a common complication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and an important risk factor for COPD exacerbations and death. We explored the relationship between pulmonary artery volumes measured using thoracic computed tomography (CT) and lung structure-function measured using spirometry, CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 124 ex-smokers with (n = 68) and without (n = 56) airflow obstruction, and a control group of 35 never-smokers. We observed significantly greater main (p = .01), right (p = .001) and total (p = .003) pulmonary artery volumes in ex-smokers with airflow obstruction as compared to ex-smokers without airflow obstruction. ⋯ In ex-smokers, ventilation defect percent was significantly correlated with right (r = 0.27, p = .02) and total (r = 0.25, p = .03) pulmonary artery volumes. Multivariate zero-inflated Poisson regression analysis showed that FEV1%pred (p = .004), DLCO%pred (p = .03), the six minute walk distance (p = .04) and total pulmonary artery volume (p = .03) were significant predictors of acute exacerbations of COPD, while the number of previous exacerbations was not. In conclusion, pulmonary artery enlargement measured using thoracic CT was observed even in ex-smokers without airflow obstruction and was predictive of COPD exacerbations in ex-smokers with airflow obstruction.
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The rising prevalence of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is generally attributed to smoking, since the role of other risk factors among non-smokers are not well established especially in low and middle income countries like India. This is also reflected by the limited literature available on non-smoking related COPD risk factors like indoor and outdoor air pollution. ⋯ We observed that the studies undertaken to evaluate the role of such risk factors are inconclusive due to weak methodologies and small sample sizes, may be due to limited financial resources. The present review suggests the need of a nationally representative study to estimate the effect of each of the potential modifiable risk factor (other than smoking) for framing impactful public health policies to prevent and manage COPD at community and population level in India.
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Prevalence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and its influence on survival in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are not well studied in the lung allocation score (LAS) era. ⋯ PH is highly prevalent in advanced COPD and associated with a significantly higher risk for mortality.
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The concurrent diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (SAHS) (overlap syndrome), can contribute to worsening respiratory symptoms, but whether the severity of COPD is associated with co-morbid SAHS is unknown. We investigated whether the severity of COPD is associated with the complication of SAHS by examination of nocturnal oximetry as an alternative to polysomnography. Patients with COPD concurrently completed nocturnal oximetry, pulmonary function tests, a COPD assessment test, an Epworth sleepiness scale and a hospital anxiety and depression scale to evaluate the severity of COPD and possible concurrent presence of SAHS. ⋯ ODI was positively correlated with FEV1, FEV1/FVC and FEV1% predicted, which meant that ODI was inversely correlated with airflow limitation. Univariate logistic regression analysis revealed that FEV1% predicted and FEV1/FVC were predictors of ODI ≥ 15. ODI is inversely correlated with airflow limitation and milder COPD patients may have co-morbid SAHS.