Vascular Pruning Predicts Mortality Risk in Smokers

Vascular pruning was associated with an increased risk of mortality in individuals who smoked but did not have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a recent study presented at the American Thoracic Society 2017 International Conference.

The study included 6435 individuals from the COPDGene cohort with Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stage 0-4 airflow obstruction. Researchers divided participants into 4 groups based on the amount of vascular pruning and analysis was stratified by COPD diagnosis.
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Over the median 5.6 years of follow-up, 3.8% of participants (142/3731) without COPD and 18.8% of participants (507/2703) with COPD died. Mortality rates were found to increase significantly based on the amount of vascular pruning for both groups.

For participants without COPD, mortality was significantly associated with the 2 highest quartiles of vascular pruning compared to the lowest quartiles of vascular pruning after researchers adjusted for sex, age, race, smoking status, pack-years of smoking, body mass index and other relevant covariates.

The researchers did not find a significant association between vascular pruning and mortality in participants with COPD.

“In multivariable analyses, vascular pruning was associated with an increased risk of death in smokers without COPD; however, no association was seen in subjects with COPD,” the researchers concluded. “This finding suggests vascular pruning may be an important marker for susceptibility to injury from tobacco smoke and may provide prognostic information in smokers with mild or no lung function impairment.”

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Come CE, Rahaghi FN, Putman RK, San Jose Estepar R, and Washko G. Computed tomographic vascular pruning predicts mortality in smokers without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Presented at: American Thoracic Society 2017 International Conference; May 19-24 2017; Washington, DC. Abstract 10283.