BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate epidemiological relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and sleep apnea syndrome in a sample of Persian population. METHODS As a part of a population-based cross-sectional study, 3900 randomly selected individuals aged 15 years or older were invited to take part in the survey; 3770 individuals (96.6%) agreed to fill out the r...

INTRODUCTION Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are often unrecognized and undertreated. The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma in primary care patients in Serbia, and to examine the agreement between general practitioners and pulmonologists on the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. MATE...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an important cause of heart failure in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The pro brain natriuretic peptide N-terminal (NT-proBNP) has been suggested as a noninvasive marker to evaluate ventricular function. However, there is no evidence to support the use of NT-proBNP in monitoring the benefits of vasodilators in COPD induced PH. Thus, we used NT-proBN...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients not known to have these disorders, who present in general practice with persistent cough, and to ascertain criteria to help general practitioners in diagnosis. DESIGN Descriptive study. SETTING Primary healthcare centre in the Netherlands. SUBJECTS 192 patients aged 18-75 years, not known...

OBJECTIVES Several studies have confirmed the high potential of the forced oscillation technique for the assessment of respiratory modifications related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, most of these studies did not employ within-breath analyses of the respiratory system. The aim of this study is to analyze respiratory impedance alterations in different phases of the respirato...

There is now compelling evidence that proteinases and oxidative stress play pathogenetic roles in the following pathologies in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: airspace enlargement; chronic inflammation in the airways, lung interstitium, and alveolar space; and mucus hypersecretion in the large airways. Proteinases and oxidants may also contribute to remodeling processes in the small airw...

References 1 Camp PG, Ramirez-Venegas A, Sansores RH, et al. COPD phenotypes in biomass smokeversus tobacco smokeexposed Mexican women. Eur Respir J 2014; 43: 725–734. 2 Agustı́ A. Phenotypes and disease characterization in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Toward the extinction of phenotypes? Ann Am Thorac Soc 2013; 10: Suppl., S125–S130. 3 Ramı́rez-Venegas A, Sansores RH, Pérez-Padilla R, ...