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Emphysema presence, severity and distribution has little impact on the clinical presentation of a cohort of patients with mild to moderate COPD.
Chest. 2010 Aug 12;
Authors: de Torres JP, Bastarrika G, Zagaceta J, Mendiguren RS, Alcaide AB, Seijo LM, Montes U, Campo A, Zulueta JJ
AbstractRationale: Phenotypic characterisation of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) may have potential prognostic and therapeutic implications. Available information on the relationship between emphysema and the clinical presentation in COPD patients is limited to advanced stages of the disease. OBJECTIVE: To describe emphysema presence, severity, and distribution and its impact on clinical presentation of patients with mild to moderate COPD. METHODS: One hundred and fifteen COPD patients underwent clinical and chest computed tomography (CT) evaluation for the presence, severity and distribution of emphysema. Patients with and without emphysema and with different forms of emphysema distribution (upper/lower/core/peel) were compared. The impact of emphysema severity and distribution on clinical presentation was determined. RESULTS: Fifty percent of the patients had mild homogeneously distributed emphysema (1.84; 0.76-4.77%). Upper and core zones had the more severe degree of emphysema. Patients with emphysema were older, more frequently males, and had lower FEV(1)%, higher TLC% and lower DLCO. No differences were found between the clinical or physiological parameters of the different emphysema distributions. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with mild to moderate COPD, although the presence of emphysema has an impact on physiological presentation, its severity and distribution seem to have little impact on clinical presentation.
PMID: 20705800 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]