Differences Between Central Airway Obstruction and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Detected with the Forced Oscillation Technique.

This study compared differences between CAO and COPD (mainly GOLD stage II). We found that the FOT measurement, ΔFres, was the optimal indicator of the difference between the airway wall thickening COPD phenotype and CAO. Thus, the difference might be due to mechanical changes that occur in COPD with airway wall thickening.