LOS ANGELES, May 16 -- Black men in the United States who are in their fifties may be more than six times more likely than white men of the same age to have emphysema when lung function tests deem them to have better-than-normal lung function, according to a report of New Scientist magazine.

The findings highlight the need to remove calculations that account for race in medical tests in order to tackle health inequalities, said the report published on Sunday.

Emphysema is an irreversible condition in which tiny air sacs in the lungs are damaged by toxic chemicals from smoking and air pollution, causing shortness of breath.

"It was surprising to see these considerable rates of emphysema in Black men who we would consider to have above normal lung function," said Gabrielle Liu at the Northwestern University in Chicago.

Liu and her colleagues analyzed medical data from a total of 2,674 Black and white people in the United States in their fifties who had taken part in a separate study into cardiovascular disease, according to the report.

They found that 12.2 percent of Black men who were classed as having above normal lung function in 2015 actually had emphysema.

In contrast, just 2 percent of white men who were classed as having above normal lung function in 2015 actually had emphysema, said the report.

  - Xinhua