ERJ OPEN RESEARCH ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE E.P. BRIGHAM ET AL. Challenging the obesity paradox: extreme obesity and COPD mortality in the SUMMIT trial Emily P. Brigham 1, Julie A. Anderson 2, Robert D. Brook3, Peter M.A. Calverley4, Bartolome R. Celli 5, Nicholas J. Cowans6, Courtney Crim7, James E. Diserens6, Fernando J. Martinez8, Meredith C. McCormack1, David E. Newby9, Julie Yates7, Jorgen Vestbo 10, Tianshi David Wu 11 and Robert A. Wise 1 1Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. 2Research and Development, GlaxoSmithKline, Stockley Park, UK. 3Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA. 4Dept of Medicine, Clinical Sciences Centre, University of Liverpool, University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool, UK. 5Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. 6Statistics and Programming, Veramed Ltd, Twickenham, UK. 7Research and Development, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA. 8Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA. 9Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. 10Division of Infection, Immunity and Respiratory Medicine, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK. 11Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. Corresponding author: Emily P. Brigham (
[email protected]) Shareable abstract (@ERSpublications) In a population with moderate COPD, at heightened cardiovascular risk and containing a substantial proportion of individuals with BMI ⩾40 kg/m2, BMI and mortality demonstrate a U-shaped (rather than J-shaped) relationship https://bit.ly/3hDztI6 Cite this article as: Brigham EP, Anderson JA, Brook RD, et al.