International Journal of COPD (Nov 2017)

Determinants of exacerbation risk in patients with COPD in the TIOSPIR study

  • Calverley PMA,
  • Tetzlaff K,
  • Dusser D,
  • Wise RA,
  • Mueller A,
  • Metzdorf N,
  • Anzueto A

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 12
pp. 3391 – 3405

Abstract

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Peter MA Calverley,1 Kay Tetzlaff,2 Daniel Dusser,3 Robert A Wise,4 Achim Mueller,5 Norbert Metzdorf,2 Antonio Anzueto6 1Clinical Science Centre, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; 2Respiratory Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH, Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany; 3Department of Pneumology, Hôpital Cochin, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France; 4Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 5Biostatistics and Data Sciences Europe, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH, Biberach an der Riss, Germany; 6Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care, University of Texas Health Sciences Center and South Texas Veterans’ Health Care System, San Antonio, TX, USA Background: Exacerbation history is used to grade the risk of COPD exacerbation, but its reliability and relationship to other risk factors and prior therapy is unclear. To examine these interrelationships, we conducted a post hoc analysis of patients in the TIOSPIR trial with ≥2 years’ follow-up or who died on treatment.Patients and methods: Patients were grouped by their annual exacerbation rate on treatment into nonexacerbators, infrequent, and frequent exacerbators (annual exacerbation rates 0, ≤1, and >1, respectively), and baseline characteristics discriminating among the groups were determined. We used univariate and multivariate analyses to explore the effect of baseline characteristics on risk of exacerbation, hospitalization (severe exacerbation), and death (all causes).Results: Of 13,591 patients, 6,559 (48.3%) were nonexacerbators, 4,568 (33.6%) were infrequent exacerbators, and 2,464 (18.1%) were frequent exacerbators; 45% of patients without exacerbations in the previous year exacerbated on treatment. Multivariate analysis identified baseline pulmonary maintenance medication as a predictive factor of increased exacerbation risk, with inhaled corticosteroid treatment associated with increased exacerbation risk irrespective of exacerbation history.Conclusion: Our data confirm established risk factors for exacerbation, but highlight the limitations of exacerbation history when categorizing patients and the importance of prior treatment when identifying exacerbation risk. Keywords: COPD, exacerbation, frequent exacerbators

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