Lung function differences between men and women with COPD

Introduction: COPD is traditionally considered a male disease, however its prevalence in women is increasing because they are smoking more. Aims: To identify airway obstruction severity, air trapping, pulmonary hyperinflation and DLco changes in both genders; to characterize the association between lung function and pack/years in both genders. Methods: Cross-sectional study. The sample included 349 COPD patients that were characterized according to airway obstruction severity, presence/absence of air trapping and pulmonary hyperinflation and DLco reduction severity. Results: Male presented a higher tobacco consumption than female (63.1 Vs 49.7 pack/years). In male, most of patients had mild (34.4%) and severe (21.6%) airway obstruction, while female had mild (51.5%) and moderate (16.2%). Men had more air trapping than women (25.6% Vs 17.2%), however female had more pulmonary hyperinflation (38.4% Vs 18.8%). In both genders the group that included more patients was normal DLco (44.4% and 38.4%), but women had a greater reduction in DLco mean. In male were observed correlations between FEV1, RV, RV/TLC, DLco and pack/years (r=-0.179, 0.138, 0.191 and -0.235; p Conclusions: Male presented a more severe airway obstruction, which was compatible with the highest tobacco consumption. A greater repercussion of smoking on female9s lung function was observed with regard to presence of pulmonary hyperinflation and DLco decrease. In women the lack of correlations between lung function and pack/years warns that this isn´t a major factor of influence to lung function decline, highlighting the existence of other factors influencing susceptibility to tobacco smoke.