BACKGROUND Baseline high neuromuscular drive is present in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In moderate-to-very severe COPD patients, both static and/or dynamic pulmonary hyperinflation have been demonstrated at rest. AIM To assess the influence of dynamic hyperinflation on neuromuscular drive at rest. METHODS We recruited 22 patients with severe-to-very severe COPD showing res...

Although persistent activation of the inspiratory muscles and narrowing of the glottic aperture during expiration have been indicated as relevant mechanisms leading to dynamic hyperinflation in acute asthma, expiratory flow limitation (EFL) has recently been proposed as a possible triggering factor for increasing endexpiratory lung volume (EELV). To establish whether the attainment of maximal f...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by expiratory flow limitation, causing air trapping and lung hyperinflation. Hyperinflation leads to reduced exercise tolerance and poor quality of life in COPD patients. Total lung capacity (TLC) is an indicator of hyperinflation particularly in subjects with moderate-to-severe airflow obstruction. The aim of our study wa...

RATIONALE Basic research implicates alveolar endothelial cell apoptosis in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema. However, information on endothelial microparticles (EMPs) in mild COPD and emphysema is lacking. OBJECTIVES We hypothesized that levels of CD31(+) EMPs phenotypic for endothelial cell apoptosis would be elevated in COPD and associated with ...

Endobronchial valve therapy in patients with severe emphysema achieves similar clinical benefits to lung volume reduction surgery without the potential morbidity. We report successful endobronchial valve treatments in two patients with severe emphysema. Valves were placed in the first patient 5 months before lung transplantation and in the second patient 10 years after lung transplantation, usi...

The effect of lobectomy on lung function was investigated in 16 patients in whom comprehensive lung function tests were performed before and between six weeks and six months after lobectomy. The operation was well tolerated even by patients with quite severe airways obstruction. The effect of lobectomy on forced flow rates was in keeping with the change in lung volumes. There was no alteration ...

BACKGROUND Some patients with irreversible chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience subjective benefit from long acting bronchodilators without change in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)). Dynamic hyperinflation is an important determinant of exercise induced dyspnoea in COPD. We hypothesised that long acting bronchodilators improve symptoms by reducing dynamic hyperi...

INTRODUCTION Atelectasis and distal airway closure are common clinical entities of general anaesthesia. These two phenomena are expected to reduce the ventilation of dependent lung regions and represent major causes of arterial oxygenation impairment in anaesthetic conditions. In the present study, the behavior of the elastance of the respiratory system (Ers), as well as the lung aeration asses...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To determine the correlates of static lung volumes in patients with airways obstruction, and to determine if static lung volumes differ between asthma and COPD. PATIENTS AND METHODS We examined the data from all of the adult patients (mean age of 69) who were referred to a pulmonary function laboratory from January 1990 through July 1994 with an FEV1/FVC ratio of < 0.70 and t...