[Body weight loss in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is multifactorial, multisystemic, inflammatory disease, whose basic pathophysiogical characteristic is the airflow obstruction caused by airways inflammation, mucociliary dysfunction and structural changes in airways and lung parenchyma. Systemic components, caused by this inflammatory process, are body weight loss, loss and dysfunction of skeletal muscles, osteopathy and osteoporosis, and accompanying cardiovascular diseases and psychic depression. Weight loss, especially loss and dysfunction of skeletal muscles, is the substantial characteristic of COPD that contributes to the level of disability of these patients independently of the degree of the airflow limitation, and has a close connection with the survival. It is assumed, according to the current studies, that different factors contribute to the body weight loss and to the muscle alterations in COPD, and that the relative contribution of each factor seems to differ between patients as well as between muscle types. Because of the important role of wasting in the evolution of COPD, and its influence on health status, quality of life and survival, adequate assessment of body weight, especially muscle mass, has to be considered as an integral part of the pathophysiologic characterization of COPD patients. Reversal of the wasting state is the substantial factor in improvement of quality of life and survival in COPD patients.