Publications

Rationale Structural airway changes related to chroniccough (CC) are described in the literature, but so farreported data are rare and non-conclusive. Furthermore,they derive mainly from cohorts with small sample sizes.Advanced CT imaging not only allows airway abnormalitiesto be quantified, but also to count the number of visibleairways. The current study evaluates these airwayabnormalities in CC and assesses the contribution of CCin addition to CT findings on the progression of airflowlimitation, defined as a decline in forced expiratory volumein 1 s (FEV1) over time.

In the current publication that is part of the LEAD general population cohort, we aimed to examine the prevalence of asthma in the Austrian general population and better understand how differential asthma phenotypes present itself. Our findings reveal that the prevalence of asthma is 4.6%, which fit well with the global prevalence rates. Furthermore, asthma phenotypes were age-dependent: there was a shift from allergic to non-allergic asthma with increasing age, with a non-eosinophilc asthma being more prominent. Lastly, we observed that asthma has major association with body composition.

Restrictive lung function (RLF) is characterized by a reduced lung expansion and size, but in the absence of lung volume measurements, restriction can be indirectly assessed through spirometry with the restrictive spirometric patterns (RSP). In the current publication that is part of the LEAD Study, we evaluated the prevalence of RLF and RSP in the general population and determined factors influencing RLF and RSP. The prevalence of RLF and RSP in the general population are 1.1 and 4.4%, respectively. While RSP has a high negative predictive value, it has a low positive predictive value to define true RLF. In addition, we observed that body composition is an important determining factor of RLF and RSP. Overall, our data indicate the need to combine lung function and body composition trajectories.