Analysis of pulmonary function test parameters according to pleural plaque thickness in subjects with isolated pleural plaques*
| Maximum cumulative extent† | Maximum thickness (mm) | ||||||||
| <0.25 | 0.25–0.5 | >0.5 | p trend | <2 | 2–5 | 5–10 | >10 | p trend | |
| Number of subjects | 206 | 84 | 54 | 30 | 201 | 100 | 15 | ||
| Pulmonary function (% predicted for FVC, FEV1, FEF25–75, RV and TLC, absolute ratio for FEV1/FVC) | |||||||||
| FVC, mean (SD) | 98.4 (17.2) | 94.3 (15.9) | 94.0 (16.3) | 0.0089 | 100.1 (11.7) | 94.6 (17.6) | 98.8 (17.1) | 101.0 (12.7) | 0.20 |
| FEV1, mean (SD) | 99.5 (19.9) | 95.0 (18.3) | 95.4 (19.5) | 0.06 | 101.0 (14.3) | 96.3 (20.2) | 99.8 (18.9) | 100.5 (13.0) | 0.28 |
| FEV1/FVC, mean (SD) | 79.1 (8.4) | 79.0 (11.0) | 79.1 (8.7) | 0.60 | 104.5 (10.7) | 105.1 (11.4) | 104.6 (11.2) | 102.9 (9.5) | 0.86 |
| FEF25–75, mean (SD) | 93.3 (37.6) | 86.3 (32.8) | 89.9 (36.2) | 0.36 | 99.0 (36.6) | 91.1 (38.0) | 89.7 (32.6) | 80.6 (29.3) | 0.32 |
| RV, mean (SD) | 109.3 (28.1) | 103.8 (29.0) | 102.5 (33.9) | 0.11 | 103.0 (21.8) | 108.1 (30.0) | 106.6 (30.2) | 105.5 (29.8) | 0.79 |
| TLC, mean (SD) | 100.4 (14.0) | 95.4 (14.8) | 95.4 (14.4) | 0.0046 | 97.1 (10.7) | 97.9 (14.8) | 99.4 (15.1) | 100.6 (13.4) | 0.36 |
↵* Multilevel generalised linear model adjusted for age, smoking status, body mass index, cumulative exposure index for asbestos and the centres where pulmonary function tests were conducted.
↵† The maximum cumulative extent of pleural plaques corresponded to the sum of their circumference on three levels of reference slice.
FEF25-75, forced expiratory flow at 25–75% FVC; FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 s; FVC, forced vital capacity; RV, residual volume; TLC, total lung capacity.