Effect of Common Medications on Longitudinal Pectoralis Muscle Area in Smokers.

Background: Cigarette smoke contributes to skeletal muscle wasting. While exercise and nutritional therapies are effective in improving skeletal muscle quantity and quality, the effect of medications on longitudinal muscle loss is unclear. We investigated whether long-term use of common medications affects longitudinal skeletal muscle changes in current and former smokers.

Vasoreactivity and inhaled treprostinil response in interstitial lung disease pulmonary hypertension.

Introduction: Despite shared features with pulmonary arterial hypertension, acute vasoreactivity in pulmonary hypertension with interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD) is not well characterised, including its potential ability to predict therapeutic outcomes. We sought to determine whether acute vasoreactivity in PH-ILD to oxygen (O) and inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) predicts inhaled treprostinil (iTre) outcomes.

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective cohort analysis, we identified treatment-naive PH-ILD patients with vasoreactivity testing using O and O+iNO.

Associations between life-course FEV/FVC trajectories and respiratory symptoms up to middle age: analysis of data from two prospective cohort studies.

Background: Life-course lung function trajectories leading to airflow obstruction, as measured by impaired FEV/FVC (forced vital capacity), precede the onset of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We aimed to investigate whether individuals on impaired FEV/FVC trajectories have an increased burden of respiratory symptoms, including those who do not meet the spirometric criteria for COPD.

Methods: We analysed serial life-course data from two population-based cohort studies separately, which included respiratory symptoms and spirometry: the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS, Australia) cohort was recruited at age 6-7 years and followed up until middle age (mean age 53 years; range 51-55); and the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA, USA) cohort was recruited at a mean age of 25 years (range 18-30) and followed up to a mean age of 55 years (range 47-64).

Profibrotic monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages are expanded in patients with persistent respiratory symptoms and radiographic abnormalities after COVID-19.

Monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages drive lung injury and fibrosis in murine models and are associated with pulmonary fibrosis in humans. Monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages have been suggested to develop a phenotype that promotes lung repair as injury resolves. We compared single-cell and cytokine profiling of the alveolar space in a cohort of 35 patients with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 who had persistent respiratory symptoms and abnormalities on a computed tomography scan of the chest that subsequently improved or progressed.

Proteomic Risk Score of Increased Respiratory Susceptibility: A Multi-Cohort Study.

Rationale: Accelerated decline in lung function is associated with incident COPD, hospitalizations and death. However, identifying this trajectory with longitudinal spirometry measurements is challenging in clinical practice.

Objective: To determine whether a proteomic risk score trained on accelerated decline in lung function can assess risk of future respiratory disease and mortality.

Proteomics and machine learning in the prediction and explanation of low pectoralis muscle area.

Low muscle mass is associated with numerous adverse outcomes independent of other associated comorbid diseases. We aimed to predict and understand an individual's risk for developing low muscle mass using proteomics and machine learning. We identified eight biomarkers associated with low pectoralis muscle area (PMA).

Rheumatoid arthritis and changes on spirometry by smoking status in two prospective longitudinal cohorts.

Objective: To compare longitudinal changes in spirometric measures between patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and non-RA comparators.

Methods: We analysed longitudinal data from two prospective cohorts: the UK Biobank and COPDGene. Spirometry was conducted at baseline and a second visit after 5-7 years.

Proteomic analysis of cardiorespiratory fitness for prediction of mortality and multisystem disease risks.

Despite the wide effects of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) on metabolic, cardiovascular, pulmonary and neurological health, challenges in the feasibility and reproducibility of CRF measurements have impeded its use for clinical decision-making. Here we link proteomic profiles to CRF in 14,145 individuals across four international cohorts with diverse CRF ascertainment methods to establish, validate and characterize a proteomic CRF score. In a cohort of around 22,000 individuals in the UK Biobank, a proteomic CRF score was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality (unadjusted hazard ratio 0.

Preacinar Arterial Dilation Mediates Outcomes of Quantitative Interstitial Abnormalities in the COPDGene Study.

Quantitative interstitial abnormalities (QIAs) are a computed tomography (CT) measure of early parenchymal lung disease associated with worse clinical outcomes, including exercise capacity and symptoms. The presence of pulmonary vasculopathy in QIAs and its role in the QIA-outcome relationship is unknown. To quantify radiographic pulmonary vasculopathy in QIAs and determine whether this vasculopathy mediates the QIA-outcome relationship.

Association of Acute Respiratory Disease Events with Quantitative Interstitial Abnormality Progression at CT in Individuals with a History of Smoking.

Background Acute respiratory disease (ARD) events are often thought to be airway-disease related, but some may be related to quantitative interstitial abnormalities (QIAs), which are subtle parenchymal abnormalities on CT scans associated with morbidity and mortality in individuals with a smoking history. Purpose To determine whether QIA progression at CT is associated with ARD and severe ARD events in individuals with a history of smoking. Materials and Methods This secondary analysis of a prospective study included individuals with a 10 pack-years or greater smoking history recruited from multiple centers between November 2007 and July 2017.

Proteomics and Machine Learning in the Prediction and Explanation of Low Pectoralis Muscle Area.

Low muscle mass is associated with numerous adverse outcomes independent of other associated comorbid diseases. We aimed to predict and understand an individual's risk for developing low muscle mass using proteomics and machine learning. We identified 8 biomarkers associated with low pectoralis muscle area (PMA).

Utility of peripheral protein biomarkers for the prediction of incident interstitial features: a multicentre retrospective cohort study.

Introduction/rationale: Protein biomarkers may help enable the prediction of incident interstitial features on chest CT.

Methods: We identified which protein biomarkers in a cohort of smokers (COPDGene) differed between those with and without objectively measured interstitial features at baseline using a univariate screen (t-test false discovery rate, FDR p<0.001), and which of those were associated with interstitial features longitudinally (multivariable mixed effects model FDR p<0.

Associations of a plant-centered diet and lung function across early to mid-adulthood: The CARDIA Lung Study.

Background: Lung function throughout adulthood predicts morbidity and mortality even among adults without chronic respiratory disease. Diet quality may represent a modifiable risk factor for lung function impairment later in life. We investigated associations between nutritionally-rich plant-centered diet and lung function across early and middle adulthood from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study.

Proteomic Biomarkers of Quantitative Interstitial Abnormalities in COPDGene and CARDIA Lung Study.

Quantitative interstitial abnormalities (QIAs) are early measures of lung injury automatically detected on chest computed tomography scans. QIAs are associated with impaired respiratory health and share features with advanced lung diseases, but their biological underpinnings are not well understood. To identify novel protein biomarkers of QIAs using high-throughput plasma proteomic panels within two multicenter cohorts.

Dysanapsis is differentially related to lung function trajectories with distinct structural and functional patterns in COPD and variable risk for adverse outcomes.

Background: Abnormal lung function trajectories are associated with increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and premature mortality; several risk factors for following these trajectories have been identified. Airway under-sizing dysanapsis (small airway lumens relative to lung size), is associated with an increased risk for COPD. The relationship between dysanapsis and lung function trajectories at risk for adverse outcomes of COPD is largely unexplored.

Quantification of Emphysema Progression at CT Using Simultaneous Volume, Noise, and Bias Lung Density Correction.

Background CT attenuation is affected by lung volume, dosage, and scanner bias, leading to inaccurate emphysema progression measurements in multicenter studies. Purpose To develop and validate a method that simultaneously corrects volume, noise, and interscanner bias for lung density change estimation in emphysema progression at CT in a longitudinal multicenter study. Materials and Methods In this secondary analysis of the prospective Genetic Epidemiology of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPDGene) study, lung function data were obtained from participants who completed baseline and 5-year follow-up visits from January 2008 to August 2017.

Rheumatoid arthritis, quantitative parenchymal lung features and mortality among smokers.

Objectives: There have been limited investigations of the prevalence and mortality impact of quantitative CT (QCT) parenchymal lung features in RA. We examined the cross-sectional prevalence and mortality associations of QCT features, comparing RA and non-RA participants.

Methods: We identified participants with and without RA in COPDGene, a multicentre cohort study of current or former smokers.