Pulmonary Microvascular Blood Flow and Cor Pulmonale Parvus in Emphysema/COPD

描述（由申请人提供）：慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）是全球和美国第三大死亡原因。计算机断层扫描显示，超过一半的COPD患者有肺气肿，这与死亡率增加有关，但COPD的医学治疗只针对气道。多民族动脉粥样硬化（MESA） COPD研究招募了327名参与者来验证肺气肿的内皮假说，该假说认为吸烟相关的肺内皮损伤有助于肺气肿。MESA COPD研究证实了其主要目的：磁共振成像（MRI）上的肺微血管血流（PMBF）显著降低所有严重程度的COPD和肺气肿；内皮微粒增多，内皮祖细胞减少；外周血单个核细胞的基因表达与PMBF密切相关。虽然支持内皮假说，但结果也可能是由于新描述的异常缺氧肺血管收缩（HPV）或通气受损残留的HPV。我们还发现，在慢性阻塞性肺病和肺气肿中，右心室（RV）体积减小，我们称之为肺心病。这种情况与一般人群的全因死亡率有关，试点数据显示，

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death globally and in the United States. More than half of COPD patients have emphysema on computed tomography, which is associated with increased mortality, but medical therapies for COPD exclusively target the airways. The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD Study recruited 327 participants to test the endothelial hypothesis of emphysema, which posits that smoking-related pulmonary endothelial damage contributes to emphysema. The MESA COPD Study confirmed its primary aims that: pulmonary microvascular blood flow (PMBF) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is substantially reduced COPD and emphysema of all severities; endothelial microparticles are increased and endothelial progenitor cells are reduced; and gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells is strongly linked to PMBF. Although supportive of the endothelial hypothesis, findings also may be due to newly described aberrant hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) or residual HPV from impaired ventilation. We also found that right ventricular (RV) volumes were reduced in COPD and emphysema, a condition we have termed cor pulmonale parvus. This condition is associated with all-cause mortality in the general population and might result, pilot data suggest, from RV stiffness and subtle ventilatory impairment. The renewal is a longitudinal continuation of the MESA COPD Study in which we aim to use regional measures of oxygen tension, ventilation, PMBF and emphysema, along with interventions to reverse HPV and to treat hyperinflation, and innovative measures of RV function and venous blood flow on MRI to test the hypotheses that: emphysema is characterized by reduced PMBF independent of HPV and ventilatory impairment; cor pulmonale parvus is associated with RV stiffness and increased intrathoracic pressure; and reduced PMBF in non-emphysematous regions of the lung is associated with the local development of emphysema and tissue loss at five years. Innovative aspects of this proposal include the use of novel MRI imaging modalities of direct clinical relevance, examination of a new entity, cor pulmonale parvus, and the longitudinal testing of the vascular hypothesis of emphysema in humans. Confirmation of these aims would create a paradigm shift in COPD treatment to justify the testing of existing and novel (e.g., EPC/stem cell) therapies targeted to the pulmonary vasculature in emphysema, provide a potential imaging biomarker to facilitate early phase, short-term clinical trials of such therapies, and suggest mechanisms to approach and possibly treat cor pulmonale parvus.