It's about time – directing our attention toward modifying the course of COPD (original) (raw)

Acute Exacerbations and Lung Function Loss in Smokers With and Without COPD

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 2016

Background Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increase the risk of death and drive healthcare costs, but whether they accelerate loss of lung function remains controversial. Whether exacerbations in subjects with mild COPD or similar acute respiratory events in smokers without airflow obstruction affect lung function decline is unknown. Methods We examined data on the first 2,000 subjects who returned for a second COPDGene visit 5 years after enrolment. Baseline data included demographics, smoking history and CT emphysema. We defined exacerbations (and acute respiratory events in those without established COPD) as acute respiratory symptoms requiring either antibiotics or systemic steroids, and severe events by the need for hospitalization. Throughout the 5-year follow-up period, we collected self-reported acute respiratory event data at six month intervals. We used linear mixed models to fit FEV1 decline based on reported exacerbations or acute resp...

Changes and clinical consequences of smoking cessation in COPD patients: a prospective analysis from the CHAIN cohort

Chest, 2018

Despite the existing evidence-based smoking cessation interventions, chances of achieving that goal in real-life are still low among COPD patients. We sought to evaluate the clinical consequences of changes in smoking habits in a large cohort of COPD patients. CHAIN is a Spanish multicenter study carried out at pulmonary clinics including active and former smokers with COPD. Smoking status was certified by clinical history and co-oximetry. Clinical presentation and disease impact were recorded via validated questionnaires, including the London Chest Activity of Daily Living (LCADL) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). No specific smoking cessation intervention was carried out. Clinical consequences of smoking cessation were analyzed by multivariate regression and decision tree analyses. One thousand and eighty-one COPD patients were included (80.8% males, 65.2 (SD 8.9) years of age, FEV60.2 (20.5)%). During the two-year follow-up time (visit 2: 906 patients; visit 3...

Frequency of Exacerbations and Hospitalizations in COPD Patients Who Continue to Smoke

Acta medica Okayama, 2017

We evaluated the frequency of exacerbations and hospitalizations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients who continue to smoke.: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of the COPD patients treated in Chest Diseases Clinic of Kocaeli University School of Medicine in 2007-2013. Their demographic characteristics, smoking status (non-smoker, current smoker, ex-smoker), Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), and history of COPD exacerbation and hospitalizations were evaluated. The cases of 120 patients (11 females, 9.2%; 109 males, 90.8%) were analyzed. Sixteen (13.3%) of the patients were current smokers, and 104 patients were ex-smokers (n=99) or non-smokers (n=5). The mean age was 69.7±7.9 years in the ex-smokers and 62.94±6.8 years in the current smokers. There were no significant differences between the current and ex-smokers regarding smoking history, FEV1 value, frequencies of exacerbations and hospitalization per year, or duration of follow-up. The initial st...