Obstructive and restrictive lung disease and markers of inflammation: data from the third national health and nutrition examination

Although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and restrictive lung diseases are important causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States ( 1 Mannino D.M. Homa D.M. Akinbami L. et al. Surveillance for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—United States, 1971–2000. MMWR CDC Surveill Summ. 2002; 50: 1-16 Google Scholar , 2 King Jr, T.E. Respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease. Clin Chest Med. 1993; 14: 693-698 PubMed Google Scholar , 3 Gay S.E. Kazerooni E.A. Toews G.B. et al. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis predicting response to therapy and survival. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1998; 157: 1063-1072 Crossref PubMed Scopus (374) Google Scholar ), a large proportion of the morbidity and mortality is not pulmonary ( 4 Camilli A.E. Robbins D.R. Lebowitz M.D. Death certificate reporting of confirmed airways obstructive disease. Am J Epidemiol. 1991; 133: 795-800 Crossref PubMed Scopus (113) Google Scholar ). This raises the possibility that lung disease may be an indicator of susceptibility to the development of other diseases or may be associated with systemic inflammation that leads to other diseases ( 5 Danesh J. Pepys M.B. C-reactive protein in healthy and in sick populations. Eur Heart J. 2000; 21: 1564-1565 Crossref PubMed Scopus (24) Google Scholar , 6 Nijmeijer R. Lagrand W.K. Visser C.A. et al. CRP, a major culprit in complement-mediated tissue damage in acute myocardial infarction?. Int Immunopharmacol. 2001; 1: 403-414 Crossref PubMed Scopus (39) Google Scholar ). Previous analyses of the relation between lung function and markers of inflammation ( 7 Cirillo D.J. Agrawal Y. Cassano P.A. Lipids and pulmonary function in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Am J Epidemiol. 2002; 155: 842-848 Crossref PubMed Scopus (79) Google Scholar , 8 Mendall M.A. Patel P. Ballam L. et al. C reactive protein and its relation to cardiovascular risk factors a population based cross sectional study. BMJ. 1996; 312: 1061-1065 Crossref PubMed Scopus (797) Google Scholar ) have not looked at restrictive lung disease separately.