Letter to the Editor, International Journal of COPD [Response to Letter]

Abstract

Montserrat Llordés,1 Angeles Jaen,2 Elba Zurdo,1 Montserrat Roca,1 Inmaculada Vazquez,1 Pere Almagro3 On Behalf of the EGARPOC collaboration group1Terrassa Sud Primary Care Center, Hospital Universitari Mutua Terrassa, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; 2Fundació Docència i Recerca Mutua Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain; 3Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Universitari Mutua Terrassa, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, SpainCorrespondence: Montserrat LlordésTerrassa Sud Primary Care Center, Hospital Universitari Mutua Terrassa, Avenida Santa Eulalia s/n, Terrassa, Barcelona 08223, SpainTel [phone]Fax [phone]Email [email protected] We appreciate the observations of Prof. Miller and colleagues about our article recently published in the International Journal of COPD.1 The authors feel that our conclusions are not supported by data, based on two main arguments. The first is that concordant and discordant patients are different. This is obvious, and in fact, extensively detailed in our study. It seems that the authors erroneously suggest that our study is penalized by  election bias since concordant and discordant groups are quite dissimilar. In fact, we just compared two different ways of defining airway obstruction in the same prospective cohort, in a similar approach to that used by Prof. Miller et al in a previous publication.2 View the original paper by Llordés and colleagues   This is in response to the Letter to the Editor