Determining emphysema in adult patients with COPD-Bronchiectasis overlap using a novel spirometric parameter: area under the forced expiratory flow-volume loop.

Conclusions: We found that AreaFE% is more suitable for determining the presence of emphysema than conventional spirometric parameters in CBO patients. This novel parameter may be helpful instead of scanning thorax CT to indicate presence of emphysema and manage treatment in the follow-up of CBO patients. We think that this study sheds light on future studies having larger sample to determine different cut-off values for each extent of BE. PMID: 32379507 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine - Category: Respiratory Medicine Tags: Expert Rev Respir Med Source Type: research