Morphological changes in small pulmonary vessels are associated with severe acute exacerbation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pulmonary vascular remodeling is essential for understanding the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The total cross-sectional area (CSA) of small pulmonary vessels has been reported to correlate with the pulmonary artery pressure, and this technique has enabled the assessment of pulmonary vascular involvements. We investigated the contribution of morphological alterations in the pulmonary vessels to severe acute exacerbation of COPD (AE-COPD).

Methods

This study enrolled 81 patients with COPD and 28 non-COPD subjects as control and assessed the percentage of CSA (%CSA) less than 5 mm(2) (%CSA<5) and %CSA in the range of 5-10 mm(2) (%CSA5-10) on high-resolution computed tomography images.

Results

Compared with the non-COPD subjects

SUBMITTER: Yoshimura K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4934566 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature