Objective To compare the differences of flow and volume responses in patients with mild to very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease（COPD） in bronchodilatation test. Methods The different changes of FEV1 and FVC in 217 patients with mild to very severe COPD（GOLD stage Ⅱ-Ⅳ） after inhaling salbutamol were analyzed retrospectively. Results FEV1 and FVC of the patients with COPD at stage Ⅱ-Ⅳ increased remarkably after inhaling β2 agonist，while there were significant differences between the changes of FEV1 and FVC. Increment of FEV1 and FVC (ΔFEV1 and ΔFVC)，representing flow and volume responses respectively，showed a normal distribution. The majority of patients fell in the range of ΔFEV1 from 0.00 to 0.04，0.05 to 0.09 and 0.10 to 0.14 liter，and ΔFVC from 0.00 to 0.09，0.10 to 0.19 and 0.20 to 0.29 liter. There was significant difference of ΔFEV1 among stage Ⅱ-Ⅳ patients with COPD （Plt;0.01），namely more severe the disease less ΔFEV1 got.In the other hand ΔFVC increased along with the progression of COPD，although no significant difference of ΔFVC among stage Ⅱ-Ⅳ patients with COPD was found. Though different changes of ΔFEV1 and ΔFVC were revealed，there was a positive correlation between ΔFEV1 and ΔFVC in patients at each GOLD stage and the correlation became more insignificant with the progression of COPD. Conclusions There are significant differences between post-bronchodilator flow and volume responses in patients with COPD.Flow response decreases remarkably along with the progression of COPD，whereas volume response increases along with the progression of COPD.
Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of neutrophilic asthma ( NA) .Methods NA patients were collected from the out-patient and in-patient departments of Respiratory Diseases of Xinqiao Hospital between January 2010 and December 2010. The results of the medical records,pulmonary function tests, and induced sputum cytology were analyzed retrospectively. Results The NA patients with neutrophil percent ≥ 61% accounted for 33. 1% ( 51 /154 ) of all the asthmatics patients detected by induced sputumin the same period, and 45 cases with complete records were included. Of the 45 cases recruited, 20 cases ( 44. 4% ) were in-patients,2 cases ( 4. 4% ) were with controlled asthma, 3 cases ( 6. 7% ) were with cough variant asthma, 30 cases ( 66. 7% ) were female, 12 cases ( 26. 7% ) were atopic patients, and 27 cases ( 60% ) had acute exacerbation. The age of onset of 35 patients ( 77. 8% ) were after 12 years. FEV1% pred lt; 60% and gt; 80% was obtained in 55. 9% ( 19/34) and 14. 7% ( 5 /34) of patients respectively. The result of bronchodilator test was positive in 64% ( 16/25) of patients, and mean increase in FEV1 was 11. 7% . The percentage of neutrophil and eosinophil was ( 74. 5 ±9. 1) % and ( 2. 4 ±2. 5) % respectively in induced sputum, and 35. 6% ( 16/45) of the patients had increased eosinophil percentage ( gt;3% ) . Conclusions In our study, most of NA is severe and acute exacerbation asthma, and its clinical features are various. The mechanismand clinical significance of increased neutrophils in asthmatic patients are unclear and more studies are needed.