BACKGROUND Acute bronchodilator responsiveness is an area of discussion in COPD. No information exists regarding this aspect of the disease from an unselected COPD population. We assessed acute bronchodilator responsiveness and factors influencing it in subjects with and without airway obstruction in an epidemiologic sample. METHODS COPD was defined by GOLD criteria (post-bronchodilator FEV(1...

Background: A limited or absent bronchodilator response is used to classify chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and can determine the treatment offered. The reliability of the recommended response criteria and their relationship to disease progression has not been established. Methods: 660 patients meeting European Respiratory Society (ERS) diagnostic criteria for irreversible COPD wer...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous disease and responses to therapies are highly variable. The aim of this study was to identify the predictors of pulmonary function response to 3 months of treatment with salmeterol/fluticasone in patients with COPD. A total of 127 patients with stable COPD from the Korean Obstructive Lung Disease (KOLD) Cohort, which were prospecti...

BACKGROUND The relationship between patient-reported symptoms and objective measures of lung function is poorly understood. AIM To determine the association between responsiveness to bronchodilator and respiratory symptoms in random population samples. METHODS 4669 people aged 40 years and older from 8 sites in Canada completed interviewer-administered respiratory questionnaires and perform...

BACKGROUND We previously reported a progressive decline in absolute responses of FEV1 and FVC to a near-maximal dose of 2 different short-acting bronchodilators over 4 years. Since varying host factors and the method of expressing the response may impact the time trend of acute bronchodilator responses, we now examined the potential influence of salient host characteristics on changes in bronch...

BACKGROUND Spirometry as a non-invasive and inexpensive test is widely used for occupational health evaluations. Bronchodilator test is used for the assessment of airflow limitation and increase in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) or forced vital capacity (FVC) is considered as a positive response. This study was performed to assess the response of forced expiratory volume in 6 secon...

We report here on the redistributed regional ventilation abnormalities after the administration of a bronchodilator and as seen on xenon-inhaled dual-energy CT in a patient with asthma. The improved ventilation seen in the right lower lobe and the decreased ventilation seen in the right middle lobe after the administration of a bronchodilator on xenon-inhaled dual-energy CT could explain a posi...

There have been suggestions that corticosteroid treatment might improve bronchodilator responses in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We have studied bronchodilator responses to salbutamol and to oxitropium bromide in 20 patients with stable moderate to severe COPD. Dose responses to the two bronchodilators were tested before and after 3 week courses of placebo and 30 mg prednisolon...

BACKGROUND The impact of interventions on the progressive course of COPD is currently assessed by the slope of the annual decline in FEV₁ determined from serial measurements of the post-, in preference to the pre-, bronchodilator FEV₁. We therefore compared the yearly slope and the variability of the slope of the pre- versus the post-bronchodilator FEV₁ in men and women with mild to moderate CO...

BACKGROUND Controversy exists regarding the best method to interpret pediatric spirometry. There is also controversy regarding the benefit of performing post-bronchodilator spirometry after normal baseline spirometry. This study compares the use of lower limit of normal (LLN) against percent of predicted (PP) in the interpretation of spirometry. We also investigate the occurrence of a substanti...