Contribution of small airway inflammation to the development of COPD.

Background: Little attention has been paid to the pathophysiological changes in the natural history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The destructions of the small airways were visualized on thoracic micro-computed tomography scan. We investigated whether small airway inflammation (SAI) was the risk for the development of COPD.

Methods: A total of 1062 patients were enrolled and analyzed in the study. The partitioned airway inflammation was determined by exhaled nitric oxide (NO) of FnNO, FeNO, FeNO, and calculated CaNO. Both FeNO and CaNO were compared to detect the promising predictor for peripheral airway/alveolar inflammation in COPD. The correlation between exhaled NO and white cell classification was evaluated to determine the inflammation type during the development of COPD.

Results: Exhaled NO levels (FnNO, FeNO, FeNO, and CaNO) were the highest in the COPD group compared with all other groups. Furthermore, compared with controls, exhaled NO levels (FeNO, FeNO, and CaNO) were also significantly higher in the emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and smoking groups. FeNO was found to be a promising predictor for peripheral airway/alveolar inflammation (area under the curve [AUC] of the receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve, area under the curve [AUC] = 0.841) compared with CaNO (AUC ROC = 0.707) in COPD. FeNO was the main risk factor (adjusted odds ratio, 2.191; 95% CI, 1.797-2.671; p = 0.002) for the development of COPD. The blood eosinophil and basophil levels were correlated with FeNO and FeNO.

Conclusion: The complete airway inflammations were shown in COPD, whereas SAI was the main risk factor for the development of COPD, which might relate to eosinophil and basophil levels.