Active clinical trials for "Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive"

TOPDOCS is a prospective cohort study including COPD patients from currently six study centers in Switzerland. Patients with COPD GOLD stages I-IV will be enrolled and followed-up annually for at least 3 years. Yearly assessments will include a detailed patient history, quality of life and activity questionnaires, history of exacerbations, lung function, measurements of exercise capacity, measurements of vascular function, exhaled breath analysis and blood sampling. The overall objective of the project is to establish a meticulously characterized cohort of COPD patients living in Switzerland in order to allow high quality research on the pathogenesis, treatment and complications of COPD. The specific aim of the project is to determine clinically relevant COPD phenotypes and biological factors influencing vascular function in COPD patients.

In COPD the patient's ability to use inhalers correctly and their preference for the inhaler are both important factors in selecting an appropriate treatment for COPD. This is a cross-sectional study where satisfaction, preference and handling of two different devices such as Respimat and Breezhaler will be evaluated by using the validated PASAPQ in COPD patients

To understand current practices of pulmonary physicians in relation to Advanced Care Planning (ACP) in order to develop future disease-specific tools that will improve patient-physician communication about ACP.

Assessment of the inhalation profiles of four dry powder inhalers in patients with variable degrees of lung obstruction

The purpose of this study is to compare the ability of two types of white blood cells to eat dead host cells, and how this process affects their ability to protect the body from infection. The two cell types are monocytes, a cell in the bloodstream, and alveolar macrophages, a cell in the lung that is ultimately derived from monocytes

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by a progressive decline in lung function and increased symptoms such as breathlessness/dyspnoea, cough and expectoration. Even though subjective in nature, the symptomatology of COPD and mainly that of breathlessness/dyspnoea has been studied with the use of objective measurement tools. Taking into consideration that the symptoms experienced by the patient who suffers from a progressive disease such as COPD can only be perceived and interpreted by the patient him- or herself, and thus difficult to be quantified, COPD remains a challenge in clinical research. Therefore, there is a need to carry out qualitative studies that will provide insight into the wide spectrum of COPD symptomatology from the patient's perspective. In addition, a further mapping of the impact that COPD symptoms' perception has on a patient's life is required, as well as of the different pathways through which symptoms' perception is interpreted regarding the limitations of daily living activities, and the subsequent impact on disease management. The more the physician learns on the embodied experience of COPD, the better he/she may assist the patient in achieving optimal COPD management. Thus this cross-sectional observational study was designed aiming to obtain these data. Specifically, the study aims to evaluate the most frequently used words by the patients and the physicians to express the symptoms of COPD as well as the limitation of activities that it causes.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate health status of uncontrolled Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients in response to treatments in clinical practice.

COPD exacerbations are characterized by an excessive accumulation and activation of inflammatory cells in the airways. It is not known whether this phenomenon represents a risk for for lung damage via the release in the extracellular environment of potent cytolitic cellular granular contents such as granzymes and perforin. The investigators assess the intracellular expression of granzymes and perforin in neutrophils and large granular lymphocytes (LGL) at the onset of exacerbations compared to stable disease. The investigators hypothesize that a greater release of intracellular perforin and granzymes from neutrophils and LGL into the extracellular environment occur at exacerbations compared to stable condition and that these changes are more pronounced in COPD patients than in subjects without COPD who undergo respiratory infection.

The main objective of the study is the exploration of the natural course of COPD and its biological background. To this end, active workers without COPD and workers in functional classes GOLD 0-III are investigated by a combined clinical and molecular approach. The study has been designed as a prospective, intraindividual pilot in 160 male or female volunteers of the greater Vienna Area over a period of three years for each individual volunteer.

The study focuses on trefoil family factor (TFF) peptides in sputum in lung diseases. The investigators hypothesize that TFF peptides are upregulated in lung diseases characterized by mucus hypersecretion.