Respiratory function 8 years after a diagnosis of peripheral airways disease.
A program of screening for airways obstruction was designed to examine: (1) the precision and the reliability of the proposed tests (2) the evolution of respiratory impairment in 69 subjects, 8 years after a diagnosis of peripheral (small) airways obstruction. The tests that exhibit very good reliability are: vital capacity, total lung capacity, 1-second forced expiratory volume, single breath CO diffusion capacity, curvilinearity score; and the ratio of closing capacity to total lung capacity. 39% of smokers and 15% of nonsmokers developed central airways obstruction 8 years after the diagnosis of peripheral airways disease. These results confirm the hypothesis that small airways may be regarded as a noisy rather than a silent zone.
D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000209:etiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012306:Risk; D012907:Smoking