TY - JOUR T1 - Sex differences in COPD JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 288 LP - 289 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00038909 VL - 34 IS - 1 AU - T. Lahm Y1 - 2009/07/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/34/1/288.abstract N2 - To the Editors: I read with interest the elegant study by de Torres et al. 1 indicating that female patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have better survival than male patients. As eloquently discussed by the authors, despite previous conflicting data, several other recent studies support the survival advantage of females with this disease 1. However, the underlying mechanisms for this survival advantage remain unknown. De Torres et al. 1 speculate that the increased mortality in males may be due to a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and/or lung cancer in this population. I propose an additional potential mechanism to explain the sex differences in COPD mortality. Interestingly, females have been demonstrated to exhibit less severe hypoxic pulmonary hypertension … ER -