BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to clarify the association between morphological phenotypes according to the predominance of emphysema and efficacy of long-acting muscarinic antagonist and β(2) agonist bronchodilators in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS Seventy-two patients with stable COPD treated with tiotropium (n = 41) or salmeterol (n = 31) wer...

BACKGROUND Hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors are key growth factors in the process of alveolar repair. We hypothesized that excessive alveolar destruction observed in lung emphysema involves impaired expression of hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors or their respective receptors, c-met and keratinocyte growth factor receptor. The aim of our study was to compare the expression of...

BACKGROUND Emphysema and fibrosis, typically the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) form of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), can co-exist as combined pulmonary fibrosis emphysema (CPFE). It is unknown whether there is a pathobiologic basis for CPFE beyond the coexistence of fibrosis and emphysema. The aim of this study was to ascertain radiologic differences in severity of fibrosis and emph...

To assess the role of emphysema on the hyperinflation in chronic asthma, we studied 20 subjects with irreversible airflow limitation. Ten of the subjects had asthma and had never smoked; the other ten were cigarette smokers. Pulmonary function testing and chest computed tomography (CT) scans were performed on all subjects. Emphysema was graded using a score based on the percentage of lung invol...

BACKGROUND Systemic effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) significantly contribute to severity and mortality of the disease. We aimed to develop a COPD/emphysema model exhibiting systemic manifestations of the disease. METHODS Female NMRI mice were treated 5 times intratracheally with porcine pancreatic elastase (emphysema) or phosphate-buffered saline (control). Emphysema s...

BACKGROUND The overexpression of interferon (IFN)gamma or interleukin (IL)-13 in the adult murine lung induces the development of changes that mirror human lung emphysema. METHODS IL-13 and IFNgamma expression was determined in lung samples from five groups of PATIENTS severe emphysema without alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency (SE+, n = 10); severe emphysema with alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficien...

Quantitative computed tomography (CT) measures of emphysema have been shown to be associated with increased mortality in humans, but genetic variants affecting the quantitative parameters of chest CT that measure degree of emphysema have not yet been examined. In this study, using available chest CT data from a total of 344 emphysema patients, we assessed the correlations between five chronic o...

BACKGROUND To study the relationship between collagen amount and degree of emphysema as assessed by mean linear intercept (Lm) and correlating these with lung function test workup in patients with and without COPD. METHODS Lung function tests were assessed in 16 smokers or ex-smokers and 1 non-smoker in order to separate them into two groups: COPD (FEV1/FVC lower than 70%) and non-COPD. A pie...