Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Jul 2015
Multicenter Study Observational StudyEfficacy of pirfenidone for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: An Italian real life study.
In this retrospective Italian study, which involved all major national interstitial lung diseases centers, we evaluated the effect of pirfenidone on disease progression in patients with IPF. ⋯ In this national experience, pirfenidone reduced the rate of annual FVC decline (p = 0.065). Since pirfenidone provided significant treatment benefit for patients with moderate-severe disease, our results suggest that the drug may also be effective in patients with more advanced disease.
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Respiratory medicine · Mar 2015
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative StudyOnce-daily tiotropium Respimat(®) 5 μg is an efficacious 24-h bronchodilator in adults with symptomatic asthma.
Once-daily tiotropium Respimat(®) 5 μg is an efficacious add-on therapy to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) with or without long-acting β2-agonists in patients with symptomatic asthma. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the dosing regimen of tiotropium (once- versus twice-daily), delivered via the Respimat(®) SoftMist™ inhaler, affected 24-h bronchodilator efficacy and safety versus placebo Respimat(®) in patients with asthma who were symptomatic despite medium-dose ICS therapy. ⋯ Lung function improvements with tiotropium Respimat(®) add-on to medium-dose ICS were sustained and similar for once-daily 5 μg and twice-daily 2.5 μg, supporting tiotropium Respimat(®) 5 μg as a once-daily bronchodilator that provides efficacy over the whole 24-h dosing interval in patients with symptomatic asthma. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01152450.
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Respiratory medicine · Feb 2015
Multicenter Study Observational StudyReal-life effectiveness of smoking-cessation treatments in general practice clinics in Denmark. The Escape Smoke project.
The smoking prevalence has not decreased in the last years in Denmark. General practice (GP) offers smoking cessation (SC) treatment. Studies of real-life effectiveness of daily practice SC-activities from the GP-setting opposed to efficacy results from randomized clinical trials are few. The study aim was to evaluate the real-life effectiveness of SC-treatments for daily smokers among Danish GP-clinics. ⋯ Smoking cessation in Danish GP-clinics with some prior SC-activity can result in rather high long-term quit rates, especially when combining counseling and prescription-based SC-medicine. The effectiveness of prescription-based SC-medications versus NRT in the general population merits further investigation.
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Respiratory medicine · Feb 2015
Multicenter StudyCharacterisation of the frequent exacerbator phenotype in COPD patients in a large UK primary care population.
The 'frequent exacerbator' is recognised as an important phenotype in COPD. Current understanding about this phenotype comes from prospective longitudinal clinical trials in secondary/tertiary care with little information reported in primary care populations. ⋯ Although COPD exacerbations occur across all grades of disease severity, female patients with high dyspnoea scores, more severely impaired lung function and co-morbidities are at greatest risk. Elderly patients, with severely impaired lung function, high mMRC scores and osteoporosis are associated with experience of severe exacerbations requiring hospitalisation.
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Respiratory medicine · Dec 2014
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyEfficacy and safety of umeclidinium/vilanterol 62.5/25 mcg and tiotropium 18 mcg in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: results of a 24-week, randomized, controlled trial.
Combinations of inhaled long-acting bronchodilator therapies such as muscarinic antagonists and β2-agonists may be more effective than monotherapy in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ⋯ UMEC/VI was associated with statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in lung function versus TIO. UMEC/VI was well tolerated. UMEC/VI 62.5/25 mcg could provide an effective new treatment option for patients with moderate-to-very severe COPD.