[The relation of severe obstructive disorders to ventilation found in young patients with bronchitis and bronchopulmonary diseases in childhood].

Of the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COLD) and severe obstructive syndrome, 39 whose age was under 40 were selected. In 23 of them, the anamnesis revealed bronchopulmonary affections in childhood, that required admission into the hospital (19 were non-smokers). Of the rest of 16 patients, 14 were hard smokers that started to smoke before the age of 14. The functional picture was severely modified, similarly to that of the COLD patients in the 6th decade of life. This suggests that the degradation process started in the childhood, and that the chronic respiratory diseases and/or smoking at an early age had an important role.