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Clinical InvestigationsCopdMortality After Hospitalization for COPD
Section snippets
Subjects
Between October 1996 and May 1997, we recruited all consecutive patients admitted with COPD exacerbation to any medical ward of Hospital Mútua de Terrassa, a 520-bed, acute-care teaching referral center, in the province of Barcelona, Spain. Inclusion criteria were a clinical diagnosis of COPD, and forced spirometry at discharge showing FEV1 < 70% of the reference value and FEV1/FVC < 70%. Exacerbation was defined as breathlessness, respiratory failure (Po2 < 60 mm Hg and/or Pco2 > 50 mm Hg), or
Results
Of the 141 patients originally evaluated during hospital admission, follow-up information was available for 135 patients (96%; 124 men and 11 women). Six patients (4%) were unavailable for follow-up and were excluded from analysis. Mean age of the population studied was 72.2 ± 9.25 years. The women were older than the men: 79.36 ± 8.96 years vs 71.62 ± 9.03 years (p < 0.007). Mean length of stay was 13.47 ± 9.6 days (range, 2 to 76 days). Seventy patients (58.5%) were in respiratory failure (Po2
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to evaluate mortality predictors after discharge of patients hospitalized for acute exacerbation of COPD. This population consists of aging patients with associated chronic diseases and a high rate of functional dependence. We can expect that the factors predictive of mortality in such patients would be likely to differ from those reported for COPD patients overall. Our study confirms the importance of other factors, namely comorbidity, hospital readmission, the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank Dr. Pau Sanchez for critical review of the article, and Ms. Mary Ellen Kerans for assistance in writing the article.
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