Soumagne T, Roche N, Guillien A, et al. - Researchers analyzed a group of patients with mild-to-moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) secondary to organic dust exposure, tobacco smoking or both, to evaluate systemic arterial stiffness as well as its determinants. By means of aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV), they evaluated systemic arterial stiffness. This study included 142 patients with COPD and 155 healthy controls—matched for age, sex, BMI, and tobacco smoking—exposed to tobacco smoking (n = 56/70 for COPD/controls, respectively), organic dusts (n = 44/48), or both (n = 42/37). In participants exposed to tobacco smoking and to both dusts and tobacco smoking, higher aPWV was detected in COPD vs in healthy controls. By contrast, similar aPWV was seen in patients with COPD and matched controls in never-smokers exposed to organic dusts. Overall, COPD alone was not enough to explain the observed increase in aPWV, and tobacco smoking was identified as a risk factor for increased aPWV in COPD.