Urinary levels of bombesin-related peptides in a population sample from northern Italy: potential role in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Bombesin-related peptides (BRP) are present in the lung and have various biological functions, including modulation of lung maturation. Many recent studies have suggested that BRP have a pathogenic role in airway wall remodeling in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to evaluate the distribution of urinary BRP excretion as a indirect marker of pulmonary BRP production and to assess the prevalence of smoking, chronic respiratory symptoms, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and asthma in a population sample from northern Italy.

Reference values of arterial oxygen tension in the middle-aged and elderly.

The lack of available reference values of arterial PO2, particularly for elderly persons, led us to study a sample of 194 normal nonsmoking subjects, equally distributed over all age ranges from 40 to 90 yr. The radial artery was punctured and blood samples were taken and analyzed on an automated, computerized gas-analyzer. The trend of the mean values of PaO2 in the 5-yr class intervals of age showed a clear decline up to the 70- to 74-yr class, and then an inversion.

Respiratory function in precapillary pulmonary hypertension.

Since dyspnoea on exertion is very often the first symptom of precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), either from chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) or from idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (IPH), these patients are often first examined in a pulmonary function laboratory. We carried out a retrospective study (1987-1992) on pulmonary function in 34 patients diagnosed to have PPH by means of specific diagnostic tools, out of 5,467 patients first attending our laboratory. Nine suffered from IPH, 10 from CTEPH and 15 from Eisenmenger physiology.