title: The relationships of serum prealbumin levels with parameters that indicate severity of disease and emphysema pattern in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Malnutrition, which is a complication frequently observed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and negatively affects prognosis, has become a parameter that must be monitored. Even though various methods are applied to assess malnutrition, biochemical parameters, especially serum prealbumin levels, are useful.
  
  
  METHODS
  The relationships between serum prealbumin levels, which we used as an indicator of malnutrition, with the severity of disease and the parameters predicting emphysema in stable COPD patients with no additional health problems were determined in this prospective study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred stable COPD patients were evaluated prospectively. Serum prealbumin levels had a negative correlation with the total number of hospitalizations due to acute exacerbation, total hospitalization time, and average number of annual hospitalizations, whereas it showed a positive correlation with FEV1 and FEV1/FVC% values. Serum prealbumin levels were positively correlated with the length of the line connecting the costophrenic sinus to the dome of the diaphragm, which is used to assess the presence of emphysema and was negatively correlated with retrosternal distance. Also, in COPD patients with low prealbumin levels, while the FEV1 and FEV1/FVC% values and the length of the line connecting the costophrenic sinus to the diaphragm dome significantly decreased, the retrosternal distance dramatically increased compared to COPD patients with normal prealbumin levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Serum prealbumin levels were convenient for monitoring malnutrition in COPD, were correlated with spirometric and anamnestic data indicating the severity of COPD, and were useful in distinguishing the subtype of COPD due to its decrease in the presence of emphysema.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Disease, Medical Faculty, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hayrettin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gocmen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Disease, Medical Faculty, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Dane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ediger
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Disease, Medical Faculty, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Uzaslan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Medical Faculty, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey.
authors.forename: Selim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Doganay
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Disease, Medical Faculty, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nevin Ay
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Guney
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Disease, Medical Faculty, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ercument
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ege
keywords: COPD; Emphysema; Malnutrition; Serum prealbumin level