Small airway disease is associated with elastic recoil changes in excised human lungs.
We studied 54 excised human lungs, 15 with no emphysema and 39 with varying degrees of emphysema, to examine the relationship of small airway disease and elastic recoil. We found a negative correlation between the total small airway pathology score and the mean internal bronchiolar diameter (r = -0.309, p = less than 0.03), as well as with other measurements of small airway size. The internal bronchiolar diameter correlated well with both the elastic recoil expressed as a percentage of predicted values at 70% of total lung capacity (r = 0.533, p less than 0.001) and elastic recoil expressed as an exponential constant k (r = -0.370, p less than 0.01). Fibrosis of the small airways was associated with a reduced internal bronchiolar diameter (r = 0.460, p less than 0.001), as well as the percentage of predicted elastic recoil at 70% of total lung capacity (r = -0.382, p less than 0.01) and elastic recoil expressed as an exponential constant k (r = 0.348, p less than 0.02). We have concluded that changes in elastic recoil seen in these lungs and fibrosis of small airways may be related by a common inflammatory process.
D001980:Bronchi / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008170:Lung Compliance; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011658:Pulmonary Fibrosis / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology