Assessing Short-Term Weather-Induced Immune Response In Russian Far East Residents With Respiratory Diseases

Objective — To identify criteria for contrasting meteorological changes affecting the temporal dynamics of the immune response in individuals with bronchopulmonary pathology in the maritime monsoon climate of Vladivostok. Methods — We examined 178 patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) of mild and moderate severity, 212 patients with controlled bronchial asthma (BA) and 60 apparently healthy volunteers. We assessed the cumulative response of the components of adaptive and innate immune systems to the effects of day-to-day variability in temperature, air pressure and humidity, wind speed and direction, and precipitation relative to the day of the patient’s medical examination ± 2 days. The response of the immune system was measured by an integral indicator calculated as the ratio of the sum of statistically significant correlations (p<0.05) to the total sum of correlation matrix elements. Results — The short-term compensatory severity and activity of the immune response to the weather in healthy people (∑D%=2.56; ∑r=117) was almost twice as high as the similar response in patients with COPD (∑D%=1.28; ∑r=72) or BA (∑D%=1.35; ∑r=69). The immune response of apparently healthy subjects to the action of specific meteorological factors on the day of medical examination was reduced by 40%, compared with the short-term response (±2 days) in patients with COPD, but the difference was not significant. The values of the criteria for the day-to-day contrast of influencing meteorological factors in apparently healthy patients were reduced. Conclusion — The urban population in maritime monsoon climate exhibited weak and moderate weather-induced immune system responses. Wind regime, humidity and precipitation had a pronounced effect on the immune system. In patients with COPD and BA, the maximum pathogenic response of the immune system to the impact of climatic factors was observed within ±1 day.