RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The effects of body weight on airway calibre
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP 896
OP 901
DO 10.1183/09031936.05.00104504
VO 25
IS 5
A1 G. G. King
A1 N. J. Brown
A1 C. Diba
A1 C. W. Thorpe
A1 P. Muñoz
A1 G. B. Marks
A1 B. Toelle
A1 K. Ng
A1 N. Berend
A1 C. M. Salome
YR 2005
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/25/5/896.abstract
AB Increased wheeze and asthma diagnosis in obesity may be due to reduced lung volume with subsequent airway narrowing. Asthma (wheeze and airway hyperresponsiveness), functional residual capacity (FRC) and airway conductance (Gaw) were measured in 276 randomly selected subjects aged 28–30 yrs. Data were initially adjusted for smoking and asthma before examining relationships between weight and FRC (after adjustment for height), and between body mass index (BMI = weight·height−2) and Gaw (after adjustment for FRC) by multiple linear regression, separately for females and males. For males and females, BMI (±95% confidence interval) was 27.0±4.6 kg·m−2 and 25.6±6.0 kg·m−2 respectively, Gaw was 0.64±0.04 L·s−1·cmH2O−1 and 0.57±0.03 L·s−1·cmH2O−1, and FRC was 85.3±3.4 and 84.0±2.9% of predicted. Weight correlated independently with FRC in males and females. BMI correlated independently and inversely with Gaw in males, but only weakly in females. In conclusion, obesity is associated with reduced lung volume, which is linked with airway narrowing. However, in males, airway narrowing is greater than that due to reduced lung volume alone. The mechanisms causing airway narrowing and sex differences in obesity are unknown.