Clinical characteristics of airway impairment assessed by impulse oscillometry in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: findings from the ECOPD study in China

BACKGROUND: The role of airway impairment assessed by impulse oscillometry (IOS) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the proportion and clinical characteristics of airway impairment assessed by IOS across COPD severities, and explore whether airway impairment is a subtype of COPD. METHODS: This study was based on cross-sectional data from the ECOPD cohort in Guangdong, China. Subjects were consecutively recruited from July 2019 to August 2021. They filled out questionnaires and underwent lung function tests, IOS and computed tomography (CT). COPD was defined as post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity < lower limit of normal (LLN). Meanwhile, airway impairment was defined as IOS parameters > upper limit of normal or < LLN. On the one hand, Poisson regression was employed to analyze the associations between acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) in the previous year and airway impairment. On the other hand, logistic regression was used to assess differences in CT imaging between patients with IOS parameters’ abnormalities and patients with normal IOS parameters. RESULTS: 768 COPD subjects were finally enrolled in the study. The proportion of airway impairment assessed by R(5), R(20), R(5)–R(20), X(5), AX, and F(res) was 59.8%, 29.7%, 62.5%, 52.9%, 60.9% and 67.3%, respectively. Airway impairment assessed by IOS parameters (R(5), R(5)–R(20), X(5), AX, and F(res)) in patients with COPD was present across all severities of COPD, particularly in GOLD 3–4 patients. Compared with patients with normal IOS parameters, patients with IOS parameters’ abnormalities had more respiratory symptoms, more severe airway obstruction and imaging structural abnormalities. Patients with IOS parameters’ abnormalities assessed by R(5) [risk ratio (RR): 1.58, 95% confidential interval (CI): 1.13–2.19, P = 0.007], R(5)–R(20) [RR: 1.73, 95%CI: 1.22–2.45, P = 0.002], X(5) [RR: 2.11, 95%CI: 1.51–2.95, P < 0.001], AX [RR: 2.20, 95%CI: 1.53–3.16, P < 0.001], and F(res) [RR: 2.13, 95%CI: 1.44–3.15, P < 0.001] had a higher risk of AECOPD in the previous year than patients with normal IOS parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Airway impairment assessed by IOS may be a subtype of COPD. Future studies are warranted to identify the underlying mechanisms and longitudinal progression of airway impairment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12890-023-02311-z.