ArticleInternational journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease2015
Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in asymptomatic smokers.
Article in International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- How to Enhance the Diagnosis of Early Stages of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)? The Role of Mobile Spirometry in COPD Screening and Diagnosis-A Systematic Review.Advances in respiratory medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Prevalence and incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Latin America and the Caribbean: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Artificial Intelligence-derived Measurements of Myosteatosis from Coronary Artery Calcium CT Scans to Predict COPD: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.Radiology. Cardiothoracic imaging · 2026Article
- Spatial epidemiological analysis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Qingdao City, China.Respiratory research · 2026Article
- Article
- Fractional Dynamics Foster Deep Learning of COPD Stage Prediction.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2023Article
- Subtle right ventricular dysfunction in asymptomatic chronic heavy cigarette smokers: a speckle tracking case-control study.The Egyptian heart journal : (EHJ) : official bulletin of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology · 2021Article
- Underestimation of respiratory symptoms by smokers: a thorn in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease diagnosis.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2021Article
- Diagnosis and Treatment of Early Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD).Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Review
- Clinical Application of Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT) in Early Detection of Airway Changes in Smokers.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Article
- Missed diagnosis and overtreatment of COPD among smoking primary care population in Central Greece: old problems persist.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2018Article
- When Pulmonary Function Test is Available, Should we Wait for the COPD Symptoms to Develop?Journal of clinical and diagnostic research : JCDR · 2016Review
- Focus on Early COPD: Definition and Early Lung Development.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseReview
- Forced oscillation technique for early detection of the effects of smoking and COPD: contribution of fractional-order modeling.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPhysicians do not routinely recommend smokers to undergo spirometry unless they are symptomatic.
objectiveTo test the hypothesis that there are a significant number of asymptomatic smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we estimated the prevalence of COPD in a group of asymptomatic smokers.
methodsTwo thousand nine hundred and sixty-one smokers with a cumulative consumption history of at least 10 pack-years, either smokers with symptoms or smokers without symptoms (WOS) were invited to perform a spirometry and complete a symptom questionnaire.
resultsSix hundred and thirty-seven (21.5%) smokers had no symptoms, whereas 2,324 (78.5%) had at least one symptom. The prevalence of COPD in subjects WOS was 1.5% when considering the whole group of smokers (45/2,961) and 7% when considering only the group WOS (45/637). From 329 smokers with COPD, 13.7% were WOS. Subjects WOS were younger, had better lung function and lower cumulative consumption of cigarettes, estimated as both cigarettes per day and pack-years. According to severity of airflow limitation, 69% vs 87% of subjects were classified as Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stages I-II in the WOS and smokers with symptoms groups, respectively (P<0.001). A multivariate analysis showed that forced expiratory volume in 1 second (mL) was the only predictive factor for COPD in asymptomatic smokers.
conclusionPrevalence of COPD in asymptomatic smokers is 1.5%. This number of asymptomatic smokers may be excluded from the benefit of an "early" intervention, not just pharmacological but also from smoking cessation counseling. The higher forced expiratory volume in 1 second may contribute to prevent early diagnosis.
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