Lung function and blood markers of nutritional status in non-COPD aging men with smoking history: a cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: Cigarette smoking and advanced age are well known as risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and nutritional abnormalities are important in patients with COPD. However, little is known about the nutritional status in non-COPD aging men with smoking history. We therefore investigated whether reduced lung function is associated with lower blood markers of nutritional status in those men. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This association was examined in a cross-sectional study of 65 Japanese male current or former smokers aged 50 to 80 years: 48 without COPD (non-COPD group), divided into tertiles according to forced expiratory volume in one second as percent of forced vital capacity (FEV(1)/FVC), and 17 with COPD (COPD group). RESULTS: After adjustment for potential confounders, lower FEV(1)/FVC was significantly associated with lower red blood cell count (RBCc), hemoglobin, and total protein (TP); not with total energy intake. The difference in adjusted RBCc and TP among the non-COPD group tertiles was greater than that between the bottom tertile in the non-COPD group and the COPD group. CONCLUSION: In non-COPD aging men with smoking history, trends toward reduced nutritional status and anemia may independently emerge in blood components along with decreased lung function even before COPD onset.

Elevation of antioxidant enzymes in the clinical effects of radon and thermal therapy for bronchial asthma.

An increased systemic production of oxygen-free radicals by activated inflammatory cells is thought to be involved in the pathophysiology of asthma. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical effects of radon and thermal therapy on asthma in relation to antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxide. Radon and thermal therapy were performed once a week. All subjects went to a hot bathroom with a high concentration of radon, and nasal inhalation of vapor from a hot spring was performed for 40 min once a day under conditions of high humidity. The room temperature was 48 degrees C; the room radon concentration was 2,080 Bq/m3. Blood samples were collected at 2 h, 14, and 28 days after the first therapy. A blood sample also was collected before the first therapy (at body temperature and background radon level) to be used as the control. The forced expiratory volume in one second (%FEV1) was significantly increased 28 days after the first therapy. On day 28, the catalase (CAT) activity was significantly increased in comparison with the control. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was significantly increased compared to the control after first inhalation. On days 14 and 28, the lipid peroxide level was significantly decreased in comparison with the control. In conclusion, the present pilot study has shown that radon and thermal therapy improved the pulmonary function of asthmatics by increasing the reduced activities of antioxidant enzymes.

Complexity of terminal airspace geometry assessed by computed tomography in asthma.

Low attenuation areas in computed tomography images from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have been reported to represent macroscopic and/or microscopic emphysema. The cumulative size distribution of the clusters has been shown to follow a power law characterized by the exponent D, a measure of the complexity of the terminal airspace geometry. We have previously found increased low attenuation areas in nonsmoking subjects with asthma. We examined the size distribution of the clusters in nonsmoking subjects with asthma compared with both nonsmoking control subjects and subjects with asthma with a smoking history. The percentage of lung field occupied by low attenuation areas (LAA%) and D in subjects with asthma with a smoking history differed significantly from nonsmoking subjects with asthma and control subjects. In nonsmoking subjects with asthma, both parameters differed significantly between severe asthma and mild or moderate asthma. The LAA% differed significantly between moderate and mild asthma, but D did not. In mild and moderate asthma, a highly significant correlation between LAA% and D was observed in patients with a smoking history, but not in nonsmoking subjects with asthma. Our results suggest that decreased D is mostly related to emphysematous change, and both measurements of LAA% and D may provide useful information to characterize low attenuation areas in subjects with asthma.