Avaliação do papel do fator de Von Willebrand em pacientes portadores de Doença Pulmonar Obstrutiva Crônica (DPOC)

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an entity that leads to pulmonary obstruction generally irreversible. This is closely related to the smoking habit and leads to alveolar septal destruction with elastic fibres degradation and collagen fibres degradation. There are many argues about the presence of systemic inflammation in the COPD patients. The atherosclerosis process can be part of this inflammation spectrum from the presence of endothelial damage. The von Willebrand factor is a marker of endothelial damage and may be measured in a quantitative and qualitative form. This study demonstrates a significant statistically difference in both qualitative and quantitative form of von Willebrand factor in smokers and COPD patients compared to the control group. When analyzing subgroups in COPD patients considering four different classifications: GOLD 2006, GOLD 2011, degree of symptoms from the MRC dyspnea scale and number of exacerbations in the last year. We observed a significant statistically difference in the level of qualitative von Willebrand factor only in the subgroup of the degree of symptoms. Inverse correlation was observed with the percent of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1%) and the qualitative von Willebrand factor. Thus, the von Willebrand factor is increased in COPD patient and could be a possible serum marker of the presence of symptoms in this patient. We cannot identify the severity of COPD patients in GOLD classification using von Willebrand factor, but we established a inverse correlation between qualitative von Willebrand factor and FEV1%, what may suggest a participation in the progression of the disease.