CHEST
Clinical InvestigationsEarly Detection of COPD in a High-Risk Population Using Spirometric Screening
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
Pulmonary physicians, members of the Know the Age of Your LungStudy Group, performed their investigations in pulmonary outpatientclinics in 12 Polish cities. They prepared written materials for localTV, radio, or newspapers. Materials included information on the causesand symptoms of COPD. In some places, it was thought that the termCOPD was unfamiliar, and it was replaced by the better knownterm emphysema. Information that not all smokers aresusceptible to COPD and that spirometry is a simple
Results
A total number of 11,027 evaluable spirograms and questionnaireswere reviewed. Subjects consisted of 57.3% men and 42.7% women, with a mean (± SD) age of 51.8 ± 12.5 years. Eighty percent of subjectswere current smokers or ex-smokers with a smoking history of26.1 ± 16.8 pack-years. Two thousand two hundred subjects declaredthemselves as lifelong nonsmokers. Exposure to passive smoking was notinvestigated. One thousand five hundred eighty-four subjects(14.4%) were < 40 years of age. The youngest
Discussion
In 1990, COPD ranked sixth among the most common causes of deathand is predicted to rank third by the year 2020.13Cigarette smoking is the major risk factor for COPD, inducinginflammatory changes in the airway and an protease/antiproteaseimbalance as well as an oxidant/antioxidant imbalance, leadingto irreversible damage to the most peripheral structures of the lung(emphysema).
Approximately 15 to 20% of smokers develop COPD.14 Assmoking is a behavior that can be changed, a key issue in avoiding
Appendix
Members of the Know the Age of Your Lung Study Group and theircity affiliation in Poland: M. Czajkowska-Malinowska, MD (Bydgoszcz);Z. Sankowski, MD (Koszalin); A. Kisło, MD (Suwałki); K. Krawczyk, MD (Kraków); W. Skucha, MD (Proszowice); A. Zalewska, MD(Rzeszów); W. Remiszewski, MD (Lublin); T. Kachel, MD(Bystra Ślaska); B. Cynowska, MD (Gdañsk); M. Jedrzejczak, MD (Checiny); and U. Czechowska, MD(Radom).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Thomas L. Petty, MD, Master FCCP, of Denver, CO, for his inspiration and interest in the study.
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Cited by (0)
None of the authors have any financial involvement with BoehringerIngelheim, which supported the study.
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A complete list of investigators of the Know the Age of Your Lung Study Group is located in the Appendix.