Prevelance of cronıc obstuctive pulmonary disease ın fırst degree relatives of COPD patients

Objective: Investigate Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in firstdegreerelatives of COPD patients diagnosed in our medical centre.Material and Methods: 78 patients diagnosed as COPD with medical history,physical examination, respiratory function study and X-ray findings and their 139 firstdegree relatives were included in our study. Sociodemografical records of COPD patientsand their first degree relatives were recorded. Respiratory function test and alpha-1antitripsin enzyme level were evaluated for each first degree relatives of COPD patients.Findings : We found FEV1/FVC<0.7 in 24 of 129 (% 18.6) first degree relatives ofCOPD patients all of whom had normal alpha-1 antitripsin enzyme levels and whoserespiratory function tests were available. %90 of them were current/exsmoker and % 29.2(7/24) were women. It is interesting that there were biomass exposure in majority of ourindex COPD patients and first degree relatives of them (nearly % 75 and % 50,respectively). Nearly ¾ of all first degree relatives were current/exsmoker. The prevalenceof COPD was nearly 25% in the subgoup that consists the first degree relatives who were=> 40 years and current/exsmoker.Results: There seems to be a high prevelance of COPD among first degree relativesof COPD patients. Cigarette smoke and, aspecially for our region, biomass exposure arestill the main risk factors for COPD.Keywords: alpha-1 antitripsin, COPD prevalence, COPD risk factors,relatives of COPD patient .