Emphysema severity index (ESI) associated with respiratory death in a large Swedish general population.

Recently, it has been shown and validated that presence and severity of emphysema on computed tomography could be estimated by a novel spirometry based index, the emphysema severity index (ESI). However, the clinical relevance of the index has not been established. We conducted cox-regression analyses with adjustment for age, smoking, sex, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) and forced vital capacity (FVC) to study whether ESI was associated with all-cause, respiratory and non-respiratory 10-year mortality.

Relative and absolute lung function change in a general population aged 60-102 years.

Data on longitudinal lung function change in the elderly are scarce. Uncertainty remains about whether to use absolute or relative change and how it relates to subject demographics.We studied absolute and relative forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) and forced vital capacity (FVC) change in a population-based geriatric sample using a repeated measurements model adjusted for age, sex, smoking habits, heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, educational level, occupation, alcohol consumption, C-reactive protein (CRP) and body mass index.

Incidence of airflow limitation in subjects 65-100 years of age.

The true incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is largely unknown, because the few longitudinal studies performed have used diagnostic criteria no longer recommended by either the European Respiratory Society or the American Thoracic Society (ATS).We studied the incidence and significance of airflow limitation in a population-based geriatric sample using both an age-dependent predicted lower limit of normal (LLN) value and a fixed-ratio spirometric criterion.Out of 2025 subjects with acceptable spirometry at baseline, 984 subjects aged 65-100 years completed a 6-year follow-up visit.