BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations are acute events of worsened respiratory symptoms and enhanced inflammation partly mediated by NF-κB activation. RelB, an NF-κB family member, suppresses cigarette smoke-induced inflammation but its expression in COPD is unknown. Moreover, there is no information on its association with clinical features of COPD. The objectiv...

RATIONALE Admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) may be beneficial to patients with pneumonia with uncertain ICU needs; however, evidence regarding the association between ICU admission and mortality for other common conditions is largely unknown. OBJECTIVES To estimate the relationship between ICU admission and outcomes for hospitalized patients with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pu...

BACKGROUND Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) compromise physical activity and quality of life and contribute significantly to health care costs. Systemic glucocorticoids benefit clinical outcome in AECOPD, and the REDUCE trial demonstrated noninferiority of a 5-day treatment course with prednisone compared with 14 days therapy regarding clinical outcome over ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs) provide superior therapeutic effects over long-acting β2 agonists (LABAs) for preventing COPD exacerbations. METHODS This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials involving patients with stable, moderate to severe COPD according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease...

BACKGROUND Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are frequently hospitalized with an acute exacerbation. Patients with COPD often lose weight. Consequently, deterioration in nutritional status (loss of lean body mass) is a likely repercussion of acute exacerbation in hospitalized COPD patients. The study was carried out to assess the nutritional status of COPD patients with...

Objective of the study was to estimate the case-fatality of a severe exacerbation from longterm survival data presented in the literature. A literature search identified studies reporting at least 1.5 year survival after a severe COPD exacerbation resulting in hospitalization. Each study’s survival curve was divided into a critical and a stable period. Mortality during the stable period was the...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by chronic airway inflammation and/or airflow limitation due to pulmonary emphysema. Chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, and bronchial asthma may all be associated with airflow limitation; therefore, exacerbation of asthma may be associated with the pathophysiology of COPD. Furthermore, recent studies have suggested that the exa...

Antibiotic treatment of bacterial exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) shows some immediate clinical benefits and may also minimise the frequency of further recurrences. Patients (n=511) were enrolled into a randomised double-blind multicentric study comparing the exacerbation-free interval (EFI), efficacy and safety of 7-day levofloxacin versus 10-day clarithromycin in ...

The aim of our study was to estimate the case fatality of a severe exacerbation from long-term survival data presented in the literature. A literature search identified studies reporting ≥1.5 yr survival after a severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation resulting in hospitalisation. The survival curve of each study was divided into a critical and a stable period. Mortalit...