PAC-COPD-Phenotype Characterisation and Course of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Duración

2004-ongoing

Coordinador

Josep M Antó - Judith Garcia-Aymerich (ISGlobal)

Financiadores

AstraZeneca Farmacéutica España
Fundació La Marató de TV3
FIS/ISCIII ref. PI020541
Agència d'Avaluació de Tecnologia i Recerca Mèdiques (AATRM) ref. 035/20/02
Novartis
SEPAR ref. 2002/137
Fundació Catalana de Pneumologia ref. Beca Marià Ravà 2003

There is compelling evidence that COPD is a heterogeneous disease (Calverley P et al. Lancet 2003). Recent studies with an extensive phenotyping of COPD patients have challenged the functional paradigm based on airways obstruction (Celli B et al. New Eng J Med 2004; O’Brien C et al. Thorax 2000). The present project (PAC-COPD) is aimed at both assessing the phenotypic heterogeneity and at contributing to provide a multidimensional paradigm for COPD.

Methods

The phenotypic dimensions included in the PAC-COPD are: health status, exacerbations, lung function, lung morphology, cellular mechanisms, systemic consequences and central hemodynamics. Study design includes a cross-sectional study and follow-up of a cohort of 342 patients with COPD recruited from 9 tertiary hospitals in Spain, when admitted for the first time for acute exacerbation. Assessments, both at baseline and follow-up involve a large range of tests mainly epidemiological questionnaires (respiratory symptoms, health related quality of life, activities of daily living, sleepiness scale, comorbidities, treatment and health services utilization), lung function, strength of respiratory muscles, echocardiogram, bio-electric impedance, high resolution pulmonary computerised tomography, biomarkers of inflammation, six minute walking test, cardiopulmonary exercise test, induced sputum and nocturnal pulsioxymetry.