2019 COPD GOLD Guidelines launched on World COPD Day

World COPD Day is organized by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) in collaboration with health care professionals and COPD patient groups throughout the world.
Its aim is to raise awareness about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and improve COPD care throughout the world.
Please join us in showing your support online using #WorldCOPDDay and #COPDDay to shed light on critical issues surrounding COPD and lung health. 

2019 GOLD Reports are available now on official website: 

https://goldcopd.org/gold-reports/

Emerging biological therapies for treating eosinophilic COPD

In Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics was published meta-analysis by great Italian team on hot topic Emerging biological therapies for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A pairwise and network meta-analysis.

Inflammation in COPD is often corticosteroid resistant and, thus, alternative anti-inflammatory approaches are needed. Since it is still not clear whether blocking specific pro-inflammatory factors may provide clinical benefit in COPD, we have performed a meta-analysis to quantify the impact of monoclonal antibodies (mABs) targeting the cytokine/chemokine-mediated inflammation in COPD.

A pairwise and network meta-analyses were performed by extracting data from randomized clinical trials on COPD concerning the impact of mABs vs. placebo on the risk of exacerbation, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV₁), and St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ).

Data on the interleukin (IL)-1β antagonist canakinumab, IL-1R1 antagonist MEDI8986, IL-5 antagonist mepolizumab, IL-5R antagonist benralizumab, IL-8 antagonist ABX-IL8, and TNF-α antagonist infliximab were found. Overall, mAB therapy had a moderate impact on the risk exacerbation, but not on FEV₁ and SGRQ. The pairwise meta-analysis performed in eosinophilic patients, and the network approach, indicated that mepolizumab elicited a beneficial effect against the risk of exacerbation, whereas benralizumab was more effective in improving both FEV₁ and SGRQ.

This study demonstrates that targeting the pathway activated by IL-5 may have a beneficial impact in eosinophilic COPD patients.

Full text:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1094553918300579

Exacerbations of COPD: prevention is still actual in 2018!!

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death worldwide. While COPD is a mainly chronic disease, a substantial number of patients suffer from exacerbations. Severe exacerbations are related to a significantly worse survival outcome. This review summarises the current knowledge on the different aspects of COPD exacerbations. The impact of risk factors and triggers such as smoking, severe airflow limitation, bronchiectasis, bacterial and viral infections and comorbidities is discussed. More severe exacerbations should be treated with β-agonists and anticholinergics as well as systemic corticosteroids. 

Antibiotic therapy should only be given to patients with presumed bacterial infection. Noninvasive ventilation is indicated in patients with respiratory failure. Smoking cessation is key to prevent further COPD exacerbations. Other aspects include choice of pharmacotherapy, including bronchodilators, inhaled corticosteroids, phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors, long-term antibiotics and mucolytics. Better education and self-management as well as increased physical activity are important. Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination is recommended. Treatment of hypoxaemia and hypercapnia reduce the rate of COPD exacerbations, while most interventional bronchoscopic therapies increase exacerbation risk within the first months after the procedure.

The prevention of exacerbations is one of the most important treatment goals. To achieve that goal, patient education and smoking cessation programmes as well as patient-tailored pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments are mandatory.

Full text:

http://err.ersjournals.com/content/27/147/170103

Impact of obstructive sleep apnea on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: prospective, consecutive study

What is not known yet, about the topic
Coexistent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are insufficiently studied in terms of prevalence, frequency and spectrum of complications, health risks and impact on quality of life.

Research hypothesis
Certain clinical and demographic parameters or data obtained from nocturnal polysomnography can have significant predictive value for overlap syndrome, induced by coexistent obstructive sleep apnea and chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease.
Article’s added novelty on this scientific topic
It was established that increased body mass index and high Epworth sleepiness score have significant predictive value for coexistent OSA and COPD.

Full text

Dual LABA/LAMA bronchodilators in COPD: why? when? and how?

Dual LABA/LAMA bronchodilators in COPD: why? when? and how?

Still many questions in our real everyday practice!

Read Editorial in Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine by great Italian team conducted by professor Mario Cazzola. 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17476348.2018.1442216

LABA/LAMA combinations induce bronchorelaxant synergistic interaction when the drugs mixture is well-balanced and administered at low isoeffective concentrations.
The overall approach of Drug Companies has been to combine in a FDC a LABA and a LAMA at the same doses for which the monocomponents were previously approved. Indeed, this practice does not permit to optimize the synergy in the final
LABA/LAMA FDCs. Conversely, dose-finding studies are required to identify the correct dose-ratio and establish the minimal doses for each monocomponent in the FDC leading to the greater synergism with regard to the improvement in lung
function, symptoms, and exacerbations.
Furthermore, although LABA/LAMA FDCs are characterized by an acceptable safety profile, the cardiovascular toxicity of LABAs and LAMAs may overlap. Thus, postmarketing surveillance and observational studies are needed to assess the real risk of rare, but potentially serious, cardiovascular adverse events associated with the dual bronchodilation therapy in COPD patients.

Full text:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17476348.2018.1442216

COPD in 2018: syndrome or disease - first steps to new classification

New article from ERJ Open Research by Celli and Agusti is dedicated to hot topic in COPD: new classification with absolutely fresh approach!

Due to well-conducted epidemiological studies and advances in genetics, molecular biology, translational research, the advent of computed tomography of the lungs and bioinformatics, the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a single entity caused by susceptibility to cigarette smoke is no longer tenable. Furthermore, the once-accepted concept that COPD results from a rapid and progressive loss of lung function over time is not true for a sizeable proportion of adults with the disease. Now we know that some genetic predisposition and/or different environmental interactions (nutritional, infectious, pollution and immunological) may negatively modulate post-natal lung development and lead to poorly reversible airflow limitation later in life, consistent with COPD.

 

We believe it is time to rethink the taxonomy of this disease based on the evidence at hand. To do so, we have followed the principles outlined in the 1980s by J.D. Scadding who proposed that diseases can be defined by four key characteristics: 1) clinical description (syndrome), 2) disorder of structure (morbid anatomy), 3) disorder of function (pathophysiology) and 4) causation (aetiology). 

Here, we propose a pragmatic approach to the taxonomy of COPD based on different processes that result in a similar syndromic presentation. It can accommodate changes over time, as the pathobiology that may lead to COPD expands. We hope that stakeholders in the field may find it useful to better define the patients now boxed into one single entity, so that specific studies can be designed and conducted for each type of COPDs.

Free full text:

http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/4/1/00132-2017