Naoya Tanabe

It was my great honour to receive the APSR Assembly Virtual Meeting Silver Award. My presentation was about disproportionally impaired diffusion capacity relative to airflow limitation on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study was based on the collaboration by Japanese and Korean research groups. We analyzed clinical and structural features and long-term prognosis in the two cohorts including the Republic of Korea COPD Subgroup Study cohort and Kyoto University cohort. Airflow limitation was assessed using FEV1 and diffusion capacity was assessed using DLCO. The results showed that a disproportionally impaired DLCO relative to FEV1 was commonly found in both cohorts. Furthermore, the data showed that the disproportionally impaired DLCO relative to FEV1 was associated with greater symptoms, reduced exercise capacity, paraseptal and centrilobular emphysema, arterial blood gas abnormality (lower PaO2 and PaCO2), and increased long-term mortality in COPD patients. Although we could not attend a face-to-face meeting due to the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, I made my presentation online and got important feedback. Finally, I would like to thank all the collaborators in Japan and the Republic of Korea for their great contributions and also thank the members of APSR, especially the Respiratory Structure and Function Assembly, for giving me this opportunity. Hopefully, we can see each other face to face and directly discuss the pathophysiology of lung disease in the next APSR conference.