Besutti G, Santoro A, Scaglioni R, et al. - Among 159 HIV-infected never-smoking patients [mean (± standard deviation) age 54.6 ± 9.1 years] and 75 nonmatched never-smoking controls [mean (± standard deviation) age 52.6 ± 6.9 years], researchers characterized chronic lung disease in HIV-infected never-smokers by looking at clinical, structural and functional abnormalities. According to this comparative cross-sectional study, 25 of the HIV-infected patients compared with two of the controls had a COPD Assessment Test (CAT) score > 10. Only 5% of the HIV-infected patients displayed FEV1% < 80%, and 25% had the diffusion lung capacity of carbon monoxide (DLCO) < 75% of the predicted value. HIV infection was significantly linked to CAT > 10, emphysema, airway disease and DLCO < 75% of predicted after correction for age, gender, and clinical factors. Although correlations are constrained by the different enrollment procedures used for HIV-infected patients and controls, the results suggest that non-smoking HIV-infected patients that show chronic lung damage characterized by CT evidence of airway disease. A minority of them displayed respiratory symptoms without major changes in function.