Acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Summary. The purpose of this study was to evaluate effect of β2-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms on therapeutic response to β2-agonists and inhaled corticosteroids during 6-month therapy of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In 146 patients with stable COPD, polymorphisms of the amino acid positions 16 (Arg16/Gly16) and 27 (Gln27/Glu27) in the ADRB2 gene were assessed by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. Gly16-Glu27-haplotype was associated with improvements in lung function, quality of life, and exercise tolerance after 6 months of combined treatment with long-acting β2-agonists and inhaled corticosteroids.

Summary. The study was aimed at investigation of regulatory T-lymphocytes (Treg) with CD4+CD25+CD127 phenotype in non-smoking and smoking patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We examined 21 non-smokers with COPD, 20 smokers with COPD, 20 healthy non-smokers, and 21 healthy smokers. T-lymphocyte subtypes were analyzed using flow cytometry. Treg percentage was significantly higher in non-smokers with COPD compared to non-smoking healthy controls. Blood Treg number in smokers with COPD was higher than in healthy smokers. Smokers with COPD had significantly higher proportion of Treg than non- smokers with COPD. We also found significant inverse correlation between Treg proportion and the CD8+ T-lymphocyte percentage in non-smoking COPD patients. The results of this study suppose a possible contribution of Treg to the systemic inflammation in COPD irrespectively of smoking.

Summary. 58 patients with essential hypertension have been examined. 27 of them had a combination of essential hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 31 persons had an isolated essential hypertension. The control group included 13 healthy individuals. A daily monitoring of blood pressure in the apparatus BPLab (Russia) and the analysis of peripheral, central aortic pressure and the vessel stiffness data have been made. Comparison of groups was carried out using the methods of nonparametric statistics. The combination of hypertension and COPD showed increased daily average of peripheral and central aortic pressure in comparison with isolated essential hypertension and the control group. In patients with COPD and hypertension the increase pulse wave velocity, the index of arterial stiffness and the ambulatory arterial stiffness index as compared with the control group and isolated arterial hypertension have been determined. A direct correlation of arterial stiffness and smoking has been found out.

Summary. The objective of this study was to analyze results of duplex scanning of the carotid arteries in 77 patients with acute exacerbation of COPD including those with co-existing hypertension. Control groups included 36 patients with hypertension and 33 healthy individuals. In COPD patients, the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis increased from 33.3 % in GOLD stage I to 72.2 % in severe disease. In the group with combined COPD and hypertension, proportion of patients with carotid atherosclerosis was independent of COPD stage and ranged from 50 % to 73.9 %. Intima-media thickening and / or atherosclerotic plaques were found in all patients with COPD and two thirds of patients with COPD and hypertension having the right ventricular hypertrophy.

Источник: Tse H.N., Raiteri L., Wong K.Y. et al. High-dose N-acetylcysteine in stable COPD. The 1-year, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled HIACE study. CHEST 2013; 144 (1): 106–118.

Different types of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in term of pathologist's view.

Non-invasive biomarkers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A role of biomarkers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Functional diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Croupous pneumonia.

Natalya G. Astafyeva. To the 70th birthday.