One study found that structural differences in the pulmonary airways between men and women may differ in the prevalence and outcomes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with women having a higher risk of lung disease.
The study, published in the medical journal Radiology, showed that both in adults who never smoked, or smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their life, the lung airways of women are smaller, which may put them at greater risk. .
The COPD refers to a group of diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, which cause airflow obstruction and breathing-related problems.
While men have a higher rate of diagnosis and mortality overall, with changes in smoking behavior and increased urbanization, the prevalence of COPD in women is increasingreported the Europa Press agency.
“The prevalence of COPD in women is rapidly approaching that seen in men, and respiratory diseases may account for some of the high numbers of COPD seen in women,” said Surya Bhatt , associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Allergy and Critical Care at the University of Alabama (United States).
And added that “When the airways are narrowed due to cigarette smoking, the impact on symptoms and survival is greater in women than in men”.
“It was remarkable that women seem to have a lower reserve against developing respiratory diseases and COPD”Surya Bhatt
For this study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 10,000 participants enrolled in Genetic Epidemiology of COPD (COPDGene), and conducted an observational study of current and former smokers, as well as non-smokers, aged between 45 and 80 years oldat 21 clinical centers in the United States.
In turn, each airway metric was calculated based on age, biological differences, years of smoking, and total lung capacity.
CT scans revealed, on the one hand, that in 420 people who had never smoked, men had thicker airway walls that the women.
In turn, after taking into account height and total lung capacity, the dimensions of the lumen – the space of the vein or artery through which blood flows – of the respiratory tract were smaller in women than in men.
While, in 9,363 current and former smokers, men had increased wall thicknesswhile women had a narrower segmental lumen diameter.
Thus, in the differences in the dimensions of the airways “It was notable that women seem to have a lower reserve against developing respiratory diseases and COPD”noted Bhatt, who cautioned that these differences must be taken into account in the development of new therapies for airway diseases.
