Deepak Desh, Prasad Akhila, Atwal Swapndeep Singh, Agarwal Kshitij
Chief Medical Officer, Department of Medicine, Respiratory Division, PGIMER and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Associate Professor, Department of Radiodiagnosis, PGIMER and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, India.
J Clin Diagn Res. 2017 Mar;11(3):TE01-TE05. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2017/19920.9478. Epub 2017 Mar 1.
The small airways, once regarded as the silent zone in the air conducting system of the lungs are now known to be one of the initial sites of involvement in diseases like asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Identification of the involvement of distal airways in these diseases is often difficult to assess, clinically as well as by conventional pulmonary function tests and therefore, usually remains undiscovered in early stages. Early recognition of their involvement in asthma and COPD and timely management may reduce long term morbidity in these conditions. This article aims to highlight the relatively lesser recognized facts about small airways involvement in asthma and COPD and role of imaging and newer modalities for detection.
小气道，曾被视为肺部气道传导系统中的“沉默区域”，如今已知是诸如哮喘和慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）等疾病的初始受累部位之一。在这些疾病中，远端气道受累情况的识别在临床上以及通过传统肺功能测试往往都难以评估，因此在早期阶段通常仍未被发现。早期认识到它们在哮喘和COPD中的受累情况并及时进行管理，可能会降低这些病症的长期发病率。本文旨在强调关于小气道在哮喘和COPD中受累的相对鲜为人知的事实，以及成像和新检测方法的作用。
