Although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is attributed predominantly to tobacco smoke, occupational exposures are also suspected risk factors for COPD. Estimating the proportion of COPD attributable to occupation is thus an important public health need. A randomly selected sample of 2,061 US residents aged 55-75 yrs completed telephone interviews covering respiratory health, genera...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations impair health. The present authors analysed participants in the Boston Early-Onset COPD Study for familial aggregation and propensity for COPD exacerbations. In the present study, two exacerbation outcomes, episodes of cough and phlegm, and frequent exacerbations were analysed with multivariable modelling and generalised estimating equa...

T he readers of the European Respiratory Journal are well aware of the importance of environmental exposures on the incidence and aggravation of several respiratory disorders, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), leading in some cases to mortality. Almost each month, one or more scientific articles deal with environmental lung diseases or with environmentally induc...

Ageing is associated with a progressive degeneration of the tissues, which has a negative impact on the structure and function of vital organs and is among the most important known risk factors for most chronic diseases. Since the proportion of the world's population aged >60 years will double in the next four decades, this will be accompanied by an increased incidence of chronic age-related di...

Background: Dyspnea is highly distressing experience of breathlessness that limits the activities daily living and affects an increasingly large group patients with respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Aims: The aim our study was to investigate prevalence dyspnea its associated factors in COPD. Patients Methods: This cross-sectional carried out among 221 CO...

Biological or biochemical markers (so-called biomarkers) are of potential interest for clinical application to monitor chronic diseases. Although biomarkers are frequently used in toxicology and oncology, their application in monitoring nonmalignant pulmonary disease has been confined to basic research. With the appearance of new noninvasive and less invasive markers it is tempting to speculate...

Microvesicles (MVs) released from almost all cells are recognized as cell communication tools. MVs have been investigated in several inflammatory diseases but poorly biological fluids like bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of smokers. The purpose this study was to investigate the presence and source BAL smokers with without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) compared nonsmoking controls. U...

background and aims: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is a kind of pulmonary diseases characterized by chronic obstruction of lung that is in the form of a diffuse narrowing of airways resulting in air flow resistance. alpha-1 antitrypsin (aat) deficiency is genetically relatively common risk factor in patients with copd throughout the world and the exact cause of its prevalence is ...