background: statins have anti-inflammatory effects in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd). this study designed to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin on serum highly sensitive c-reactive protein (hs-crp) and pulmonary function in sulfur mustard exposed patients with copd. materials and methods: fifty patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease due to sulfur musta...

background: epidemiological studies have illustrated that exposure to atmospheric nitrogen oxides (no2/nox) is responsible for an increased risk of acute or chronic diseases such as cancer. in this study the health risks associated with nitrogen dioxide (no2) were assessed in the city of kermanshah, the capital of kermanshah province, iran. methods: data on hourly no2 levels that had been measu...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE It is known that biomarkers of systemic inflammation are raised in COPD caused by tobacco (T-COPD) compared with healthy controls, but there is less information on the inflammatory status of subjects with COPD caused by biomass smoke (B-COPD). In addition, the possible (if any) differences in inflammation between both types of the disease are still not well known. The a...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) had been considered the only major disease that is continuing to increase in prevalence. There were a few studies about the change of the prevalence of COPD, which showed the prevalence of COPD did not increase. In this review, we report on the trends in the prevalence of COPD in Korea using the data from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examinati...

OBJECTIVE Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) are common disorders in ageing male populations. Nevertheless, the relationship between the two diseases has rarely been explored. The objective of this study was to examine whether patients with COPD are at an increased risk of BPH. DESIGN Retrospective nationwide cohort study. SETTING Data retrie...

PURPOSE Increased awareness and understanding of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important aspect of disease management. The aim of this study was to explore COPD awareness among smokers participating in a smoking cessation program. MATERIALS AND METHODS Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 289 subjects in three smoking cessation clinics, using a structured questionn...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Cigarette smoking is the most common risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, few studies of the attitudes toward COPD of smokers, the group at risk of developing this condition, have been conducted. The purpose of this study was to explore the awareness of and attitudes toward COPD of current smokers. METHODS The sample consisted of 502 individua...

BACKGROUND Altered pulmonary defenses in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may promote distal airways bacterial colonization. The expression/activation of Toll Like receptors (TLR) and beta 2 defensin (HBD2) release by epithelial cells crucially affect pulmonary defence mechanisms. METHODS The epithelial expression of TLR4 and of HBD2 was assessed in surgical specimens from current...

PURPOSE Studies suggest that COPD prevalence may vary between countries. We conducted an ecological study of data from COPD prevalence articles to assess the influence of differences in country-level risk factors on COPD prevalence. PATIENTS AND METHODS Our study covered English language articles published during 2003-2014. Qualified articles used spirometry to assess COPD prevalence and used...

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of COPD in Taiwan and to document the disease characteristics and associated risk factors. METHODS We conducted a random cross-sectional national survey of adults older than 40 years in Taiwan. Respiratory health screening questions identified subjects with diagnosed COPD or whose reported symptoms also fulfilled an epidemiological case definition; these...