Identification of factors directly linked to incident chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A causal graph modeling study.

This study took an agnostic approach to identify which baseline measurements differentiate and predict the early stages of lung function decline in individuals with previous smoking history. Our analysis suggests that emphysema affects obstruction onset, while airway predominant pathology may play a more important role in future FEV1 (%predicted) decline without obstruction, and FEF25-75% may affect both.