RESUMO
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] is characterized by chronic inflammation and progressive development of airflow limitation. Recently besides the typical pulmonary pathology of COPD, several effects occuring outside the lungs, for example weight loss and malnutrition have been described the so called systemic effects of COPD. In this study we evaluated body mass index [BMI], serum albumin and their relationship with pulmonary function. This descriptive study performed on 42 patients, referring to Ghaem Hospital Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran at 2005, with the mean age of 62.82 +/- 10.54 years and the mean forced expiratory volume in the first second [FEV1] [1,38 +/- 0.76 lit.]. This study was approved by the local ethics. Severity of disease was defined by global initiative for chronic lung disease [GOLD] guideline. BMI and serum albumin were measured. BMI was lower than normal in 9.5% of patients. There was a significant negative correlation between the severity of disease and BMI [p=0.004, r= - 0.43]. Furthermore the correlation between the severity of disease and serum albumin was significantly negative [p= 0.02, r= - 0.35]. The results of this study indicate that BMI and serum albumin decreased as the severity of disease increased. Therefore, the nutritional status is closely linked to the severity of COPD