assessment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background and aims: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is a kind of pulmonary diseases characterized by chronic obstruction of lung that is in the form of a diffuse narrowing of airways resulting in air flow resistance. alpha-1 antitrypsin (aat) deficiency is genetically relatively common risk factor in patients with copd throughout the world and the exact cause of its prevalence is unknown. we therefore performed a study to determine the frequency of aat deficiency in patients with severe copd compared to the healthy controls. materials and methods: in this cross-sectional case control study, aat serum level in 60 patients with severe copd for whom the history and spirometry test with fev1<50% had been confirmed based on gold criteria as well as 60 healthy controls, were tested using commercial kit and nephelometry method. results: the lowest serum levels of aat measured in patients was <0.349 g/l and the highest was 3.099 g/l. these were obtained in healthy subjects as 1.180 g/l and 4.195 g/l respectively. out of 60 patients, 4 (6.7%) had partial deficiency of aat (aat<1 g/l) and 6 (10%) had definite shortage of aat (aat<0.5 g/l). in healthy subjects, we did not find any definite and relative lack of aat. the comparison of results obtained from these two groups indicated a significant difference between frequency of aat (p=0.001). conclusions: our findings revealed the frequency of aat deficiency, as a factor involved in copd disease, to be 10% and can be the reason for the high prevalence and severity of copd in zahedan city.