Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcomes in COPD Study (SPIROMICS) is a multicentre
observational study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) designed to guide
future development of therapies for COPD by providing robust criteria for subclassifying
COPD participants into groups most likely to benefit from a given therapy during a clinical
trial, and identifying biomarkers/phenotypes that can be used as intermediate outcomes to
reliably predict clinical benefit during therapeutic trials. The goal is to enrol 3200 participants …

Background COPD is characterised by reduced airway lumen dimensions and fewer
peripheral airways. Most studies of airway properties sample airways based upon lumen
dimension or at random, which may bias comparisons given reduced airway lumen
dimensions and number in COPD. We sought to compare central airway wall dimensions on
CT in COPD and controls using spatially matched airways, thereby avoiding selection bias
of airways in the lung. Methods The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD …