• COPD Exacerbations

COPD is a progressive lung disease that leads to significant impairment of quality of life and is the third leading cause of death worldwide.1 It is principally caused by tobacco smoking over many years through airway inflammation and oxidative stress to lung tissue. Patients exposed to smoke or occupational dusts are diagnosed with the disease when their post-bronchodilator FEV₁/FVC ratio falls to <0.7.2 Disease severity is assessed differently by expressing the measured FEV₁ as a percentage of the expected value for normal, healthy people of similar sex, age and height. The threshold value of <0.7 for the FEV₁/FVC ratio is arbitrary and may not always identify people in the early stages of COPD with smoking-related lung damage.

COPD exacerbations (the flare-up of respiratory symptoms) are often triggered by viral or bacterial infection and cause patients sometimes to seek medical help. Attention has focused on those patients most susceptible to exacerbation as the disease appears to progress more rapidly in this group, and consequently, they …