Relationship between body composition and clinical features of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND: Identifying the nature of changes in body composition and the relationship with the clinical course of COPD is an urgent problem, since the data obtained can be used to assess the outcome and prognosis of the disease.

AIM: To establish the relationship between body composition and the characteristics of the clinical course of COPD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in the Clinics of the Siberian State Medical University, including the examination of invited patients from the City Clinical Hospital No. 3. This study is multicenter, interventional, two-sample, comparative. Patients with COPD and apparently healthy controls were included. All of them underwent anthropometry, questionnaires, bioimpedance measurements, spirometry and a test for the reversibility of bronchial obstruction.

RESULTS: 105 patients with COPD were conditionally divided into three groups according to BMI. The control group consisted of 40 people. The greatest number of patients with GOLD IV was observed in the group with normal body weight. Obese and overweight COPD patients have higher levels of lean body mass and visceral fat. Patients with GOLD stage I had the highest amounts of body fluid, mineral mass, visceral fat, and lean and lean body mas, and with stage GOLD IV had the lowest levels of muscle mass and adipose tissue. It was found that with a larger amount of adipose tissue, better indicators of external respiration function are observed. Visceral fat was positively correlated with CAT and CCQ scores.

CONCLUSION: Spirometry indicators in patients with COPD are related not only to muscle and fat tissue, but also to the amount of fluid in the body and mineral mass of the body. COPD patients with normal body weight had the least amount of adipose tissue and the worst FEV1. Patients with stage GOLD I had the highest amount of body fluid, mineral mass, visceral fat, as well as lean and lean body mass, while GOLD IV had the highest number of patients with a deficiency of lean body mass and excess adipose tissue. This highlights the importance of body composition assessment in the clinical management of patients with COPD.

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