Abstract
Identification of disease phenotypes might improve the understanding of patients with chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD). The aim of the study was to assess the impact of pulmonary restriction and air trapping by lung volume measurements at the onset of CLAD.
A total of 396 bilateral lung transplant recipients were analysed. At onset, CLAD was further categorised based on plethysmography. A restrictive CLAD (R-CLAD) was defined as a loss of total lung capacity from baseline. CLAD with air trapping (AT-CLAD) was defined as an increased ratio of residual volume to total lung capacity. Outcome was survival after CLAD onset. Patients with insufficient clinical information were excluded (n=95).
Of 301 lung transplant recipients, 94 (31.2%) developed CLAD. Patients with R-CLAD (n=20) and AT-CLAD (n=21), respectively, had a significantly worse survival (p<0.001) than patients with non-R/AT-CLAD. Both R-CLAD and AT-CLAD were associated with increased mortality when controlling for multiple confounding variables (hazard ratio (HR) 3.57, 95% CI 1.39–9.18; p=0.008; and HR 2.65, 95% CI 1.05–6.68; p=0.039). Furthermore, measurement of lung volumes was useful to identify patients with combined phenotypes.
Measurement of lung volumes in the long-term follow-up of lung transplant recipients allows the identification of patients who are at risk for worse outcome and warrant special consideration.
Abstract
Measurement of lung volumes in lung transplant recipients allows identification of patients at risk of poor outcome http://ow.ly/FCzy3084Al2
Footnotes
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Support statement: This work was supported by the German Center for Lung Research (DZL). Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
Conflict of interest: None declared.
- Received July 4, 2016.
- Accepted December 15, 2016.
- Copyright ©ERS 2017