The Association Between Small Airway Obstruction and Emphysema Phenotypes in COPD.

The article compares the severity of small airway obstruction in both forms of emphysema. The lung histology of nonsmoking control subjects without emphysema was compared to patients with centrilobular emphysema (CLE) and panlobular emphysema (PLE). It was found that mean linear intercept was greater in all three subgroups of emphysema than in control subjects.