BACKGROUND: Dysregulation of the lung microbiota may cause or contribute to disease development, including COPD and coronary heart disease (CHD). We aimed to examine whether bacteria were differentially abundant in oral wash (OW) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples among patients afflicted with COPD or CHD as judged by calcium score > or ? 101.

METHODS: 98 COPD patients and 98 non-COPD controls from Norway, aged 47-82 yrs, took coronary CT angiography (CCTA) estimating calcium score (CACS) and subsequent bronchoscopy with BAL. 16S rDNA sequencing of the BAL samples was performed with the Illumina MiSeq platform. Differential abundance was tested with ANCOM-BC2 and alpha diversity with Shannon index, significance level 0.05.

RESULTS: Altogether we identified 9 Phylae and 74 genera. The relative abundance of the most common taxa according to study category and calcium score is shown in Figure 1. Differential abundance analyses with ANCOM-BC2 revealed no significantly differentially abundant taxa. Alpha diversity did not significantly differ according to calcium score, neither in the overall study population, nor within COPD patients or healthy controls.

CONCLUSION: Coronary calcium score was unassociated with the lower airways microbiome in both COPD patients and healthy controls.