Results tagged “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” from Allergy

January 8, 2006 — Independent of smoking, chronic cough and phlegm in young adults are strong predictors of increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to the results of a study reported in the January 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

"The few prospective studies aimed at assessing the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in relation to the presence of chronic cough/phlegm have produced contrasting results," write Roberto de Marco, MD, of the University of Verona in Italy, and colleagues. "The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines have introduced a stage 0 (normal spirometry, but presence of chronic cough or phlegm) in the COPD staging system as a tool to identify subjects at risk of developing the disease later in life."

Patients with obstructive lung diseases receive only about 55 percent of recommended medical care, according to a study that reflects the increasing health-care challenges of an aging population.

"The quality of care provided to patients with obstructive lung diseases is not as good as it should be or needs to be," said Dr. Richard Mularski, with Kaiser's Portland-based Center for Health Research.

Mularski is lead author of the study, which was published in the December issue of the journal Chest. The RAND Corp. study is part of the largest examination of the quality of American health care ever undertaken.

HANOI, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Some 6.7 percent of Vietnam's 83.1-million plus population suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Over 3 million local people are now infected with COPD, which is mainly caused by smoking and environmental pollution, and the figure is increasing, local newspaper Youth on Thursday quoted Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen as saying.

To date, Vietnam has spent some nine trillion Vietnamese dong (over 556 million U.S. dollars) on treatment for the sufferers.

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in America, claiming the lives of 122,283 Americans in 2003. It is a term used to describe the obstruction of airflow associated primarily with emphysema and chronic bronchitis. While COPD cannot be cured, it can be treated.

Smoking is the primary cause of COPD. About 90 percent of COPD cases are caused by smoking. Other risk factors include air pollution, secondhand smoke, history of childhood respiratory infections, and heredity. This is the fourth consecutive year in which women have exceeded men in the number of deaths attributed to COPD. In 2003, approximately 63,062 females died compared to 59,321 males.

We need to expand the awareness of a quiet killer. Early detection and the development of new therapies can improve health outcomes and help millions of people with COPD live longer, healthier lives.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14 -- Patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) get only half the care that they should, according to a national sample.

Although there are a variety of guidelines for the care of patients with obstructive lung disease, the extent to which they receive it has been largely unknown, said Richard Mularski, M.D., of the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System here, and researchers at Rand Health and UCLA School of Public Health.

The national sample found a grim story, with varying levels of routine and exacerbation care, as well standards of delivery (history taking, laboratory and radiologic studies, geographic location), and patient education, the investigators reported in the November issue of Chest.

Once-daily dosing with a very long-acting beta₂-agonist (VLABA) would be a significant convenience and compliance-enhancing advantage leading to improved clinical outcomes in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A once-daily VLABA will pave the way for a fixed-combination inhaler: with an inhaled corticosteroid in asthma and COPD and an inhaled long-acting anticholinergic for use in COPD.

Carmoterol 

Carmoterol is one such new VLABA in clinical development for asthma and COPD, and clinical data on a new metered-dose inhaler (pMDI) formulation were presented at the European Respiratory Society 16th Annual Congress. Professor Peter Barnes led off the discussion addressing the need for such a very long-acting agent. The inhaled route is preferred over the oral route when using VLABA because both routes allow excellent smooth muscle relaxation and bronchodilation, and the mast cells that are involved in bronchoconstriction are positioned close to the airway lumen and accessible to the inhaled route. Therefore, drug delivery via the inhaled route provides a much better bronchoprotective effect than the oral route. An airway that is bronchodilated continuously for 24 hours expends theoretically much less energy than airways subjected to repetitive closure when short-acting agents are used. Prof. Jean Bousquet, from France, presented information on a new, once-daily long-acting beta₂-agonist (LABA), carmoterol.

The total asthma and COPD population in 2006 is estimated to be 44.8 million and 28.8 million respectively. While the majority of patients are well controlled with current therapies, the remaining unmet needs are twofold: first, to find better options for the 1.7 million patients with severe asthma; second, to identify effective anti-inflammatory drugs in COPD.

Scope

• Discussion and quantification of the patient potential and segmentation in both Asthma and COPD
• Detailed overview and assessment of drugs in mid-to late stage clinical development, highlighting recent clinical trial results
• Assessment of the remaining unmet clinical needs in both asthma and COPD, analyzing the potential of new targeted therapies
• Ten year indication-based sales forecast to 2015 for major Phase III to recently launched drugs

Patients with symptomatic moderate asthma who were treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha, an anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibody, experienced significantly fewer disease exacerbations than individuals taking a placebo.

This research appears in the first issue for October 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.