Interalveolar pore morphology in (pre-)COPD stages and associations with small airways
Extract COPD is nowadays considered to be a heterogeneous lung condition characterised by chronic respiratory symptoms caused by airway and/or alveolar abnormalities causing persistent airflow obstruction. This airflow obstruction is defined by a post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio lower than 0.7. However, the recent 2023 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines also pointed out that some patients can present with symptoms and/or structural changes such as emphysema and/or physiological abnormalities without airway obstruction, defined as pre-COPD, bearing a higher risk for progression to COPD [1]. Shareable abstract There is a severity dependent increase in the size but not the absolute number of interalveolar pores of Kohn in COPD. In addition, the pore size shows important correlations with pulmonary function testing. https://bit.ly/3HL1GJ8