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Abstract Background This study examined the association between chest muscles and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the relationship between chest muscle areas and acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD). Methods There were 168 subjects in the non-COPD group and 101 patients in the COPD group. The respiratory and accessory respiratory muscle areas were obtained using 3D Slicer software to analysis the imaging of computed tomography (CT). Univariate and multivariate Poisson regressions were used to analyze the number of AECOPD cases during the preceding year. The cutoff value was obtained using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results We scanned 6342 subjects records, 269 of which were included in this study. We then measured the following muscle areas (non-COPD group vs. COPD group): pectoralis major (19.06 ± 5.36 cm 2 vs. 13.25 ± 3.71 cm 2 , P < 0.001), pectoralis minor (6.81 ± 2.03 cm 2 vs. 5.95 ± 1.81 cm 2 , P = 0.001), diaphragmatic dome (1.39 ± 0.97 cm 2 vs. 0.85 ± 0.72 cm 2 , P = 0.011), musculus serratus anterior (28.03 ± 14.95 cm 2 vs.16.76 ± 12.69 cm 2 , P < 0.001), intercostal muscle (12.36 ± 6.64 cm 2 vs. 7.15 ± 5.6 cm 2 , P < 0.001), pectoralis subcutaneous fat (25.91 ± 13.23 cm 2 vs. 18.79 ± 10.81 cm 2 , P < 0.001), paravertebral muscle (14.8 ± 4.35 cm 2 vs. 13.33 ± 4.27 cm 2 , P = 0.007), and paravertebral subcutaneous fat (12.57 ± 5.09 cm 2 vs. 10.14 ± 6.94 cm 2 , P = 0.001). The areas under the ROC curve for the pectoralis major, intercostal, and the musculus serratus anterior muscle areas were 81.56%, 73.28%, and 71.56%, respectively. Pectoralis major area was negatively associated with the number of AECOPD during the preceding year after adjustment (relative risk, 0.936; 95% confidence interval, 0.879–0.996; P = 0.037). Conclusion The pectoralis major muscle area was negative associated with COPD. Moreover, there was a negative correlation between the number of AECOPD during the preceding year and the pectoralis major area.
Wang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.