COPD: Trial of Home-Based Rehab Shows Promising Results

A multicenter randomized controlled trial of a home-based rehabilitation program for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) showed highly positive results.

At the end of 12 weeks, those randomly assigned to the intervention had a significant and clinically meaningful improvement in all domains of the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ), including activity levels and emotional well-being, reported Roberto P. Benzo, MD, a consultant in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Read more here.

Predicting Mortality in COPD

All-cause mortality in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was strongly predicted by diffusing capacity (DLCO), independent of computed tomography (CT) evidence of emphysema and airway wall thickness and BODE index, according to study findings published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

The standard for assessing mortality risk in COPD is the BODE index, a multidimensional scoring system and capacity measure that includes body mass index, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁), 6-minute walk distance, and dyspnea score. Researchers sought to evaluate DLCO as a predictor of mortality among patients with COPD, with DLCO used both independently and together with the BODE index.

The researchers conducted time-to-event analyses among 2329 patients with COPD (former/current smokers with FEV₁/FVC <0.7) and DLCO measurements who were participants in the COPDGene study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00608764). Survival was modeled, adjusting for sex, age, smoking status, pack-years, BODE index, CT percent emphysema (low attenuation areas <-950 Hounsfield units), history of cardiovascular or kidney diseases, and CT airway wall thickness using Cox proportional hazard methods. Read more here.