Physical constitution and smoking habits of patients with idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax.

This is a report on a statistical study comparing the Kaup index and the level of tobacco consumption of patients with idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax and those of healthy subjects. A statistically significant difference was found between the average Kaup index of the patients with idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax and that of normal healthy individuals in Japan as published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. A statistically significant difference was also found in the physical features between 2,433 males with idiopathic pneumothorax and 1,906 healthy males when compared by means of the Kaup index. Again, a statistically significant difference was noted in the level of tobacco consumption between the males with idiopathic pneumothorax and normal males when compared by means of the Brinkmann index. The Kaup index of idiopathic pneumothorax patients was lower than that of healthy subjects, while the level of tobacco consumption of the former was higher. Idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax is related to thin and tall individuals and the level of tobacco consumption among such patients is higher than among healthy subjects.