Active clinical trials for "Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive"

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common smoking-related lung disease. Patients with COPD are at increased risk of readmission to hospitals within the following 30 days. Hospital readmissions of COPD contribute to clinical and economic burden on society. Understanding why some COPD patients are readmitted remains a key area of unmet need. To our knowledge, no previous study has fully investigated both the social and clinical risk factors associated with these types of patients. The investigators want to prospectively and comprehensively explore the possible causes, whether clinical or social factors, that cause rehospitalisation. The investigators will be collecting demographic and clinical information including daily physical activity level, lung function, blood and sputum samples. These measurements will be collected at patient admission, discharge and at follow-up of 30 and 90 days. This process could lead to a better understanding of the reasons which prevent early hospital readmission for those patients.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized by a chronic airflow limitation associated with an abnormal inflammatory response of the airways to inhaled noxious particles or gases. It is the third leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for approximately 3 million deaths each year and the prevalence is predicted to increase even further during the coming decade (WHO 2015). In the last two decades, there has been a disappointing lack of fundamental breakthroughs in the understanding of the pathophysiology of COPD and there is currently no pharmacological treatment available that halts its relentless progression. A clear alternative for describing COPD does not exist either, while the identification of subgroups of COPD patients based on clinical, genomic and epigenomic factors would be useful. A clinically relevant phenotype with high potential of having a genetic cause is severe early-onset COPD (SEO-COPD), defined by severe airflow obstruction (FEV1 ≤ 40% predicted) at a relatively young age (≤53 years) [1]. In the UMCG, we have a continuous flow of severe COPD patients who are referred to our hospital for bronchoscopic lung volume reduction treatment or lung transplantation. Approximately 40-50% of these patients fulfil the criteria for SEO-COPD. As part of a previously approved study ("Phenotyping in COPD", METc 2014/102), these patients are routinely characterized when they are willing to participate in this study and gave their written informed consent. Characterization is performed using lung function (i.e. spirometry, body box), clinical (i.e. questionnaires, physical examination, measurement of waist-hip ratio), radiologic (HRCT-scan) and systemic parameters (venous blood collection). Moreover, the following additional samples are being extracted: bronchial biopsies, bronchial brushes and nasal brushes. There are two objectives this study adds. The primary objective is to identify the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying SEO-COPD by using the bronchial brushes and biopsies that are already extracted from the SEO-COPD patients. The secondary objective is to add two control groups (i.e. mild-moderate COPD group and healthy non-COPD control group) matched for age and smoking habits (all COPD patients referred for BLVRT or lung transplantation are ex-smokers). Hopefully, this will eventually explore COPD susceptibility and its genetic cause, resulting in a more tailored treatment of this COPD subset.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of a three-week inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program on the walking speed in patients with chronic obstructive (COPD) or interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Small airways disease is a pathological feature in mild to moderate COPD, which might be causally involved in disease progression. However, there are only limited studies available that prospectively identified patients at risk for small airway disease. Our intention is to investigate the early phase of the disease. In addition, we thereby want to build up a well-defined study population of patients in an early phase of the disease with a rapid decrease in lung function as measured by oscillometry and multiple breath washout (MBW)-testing. In addition, it is our goal to identify patients in an early stage of disease and patients at risk of fast progression and/or rapid decline in lung function.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of air pollution on the occurrence and clinical course of chronic respiratory diseases, and discover new biomarkers from various devices such as CT images that can indicate the process and amount of lung damage caused by air pollution. Accordingly, the investigators have designed an prospective cohort with enrollment of normal people and patients with chronic respiratory diseases of three different categories (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). Participants will be followed up for a period of one year, with evaluation of the clinical course of the respiratory disease and exposure to air pollution.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic condition involving an impairment in functionality and in the execution of activities of daily life. The hypothesis of this study is to examine the relationship between cognitive status and clinical profile (respiratory, sleep quality, nutritional status) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in two different moments: exacerbation or stable situation.

This study through the long-term observation followed up for 2 years to find the change of the COPD patients blood ROMs, systematically evaluate the relationship between ROMs and the severity of COPD. Evaluate the differences of prognosis between the different oxidative stress level (according to the level of ROMs are divided into higher and normal phenotype). Explore the new oxidative stress evaluation index ROMs application value in COPD.

Up to this moment, the majority of studies assessing the level of physical activity in daily life in patients with COPD are limited to a cross-sectional design, which does not take into account natural variation of physical activity in daily life due to differences in climatic conditions faced throughout the year. Preliminary evidences suggest that patients with COPD have different physical activity levels according to the seasons of the year. However, the limited current evidences do not allow us to know the magnitude of differences in the level of daily physical activity in patients with COPD when taking into account climatic changes resulting from different seasons of the year in cities and countries with contrasting climatic conditions. This gap observed in the literature does not allow us at this moment to know whether we should or not consider the season of the year as one of the main causes of variability while assessing physical activity in daily life in patients with COPD. The present project proposes to investigate the hypothesis that patients with COPD who live in a place with less marked decrease in temperature between summer and winter (Londrina, Brazil) have less variability in the level of physical activity in daily life through the year in comparison to patients who live in a place with more marked climatic variability during these seasons (Leuven, Belgium).

Hypothesis: A commercial e-nose (Cyranose 320) is able to detect specific breathprints from patients with COPD and bacterial infection

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Its prevalence is in progression and COPD is expected to become the fourth leading cause of death by 2030. COPD is characterized by periods of stability interspersed with acute infectious/inflammatory flare-ups, also called acute exacerbations, during which patients deteriorate, sometimes to the point of requiring immediate medical assistance. Although most patients eventually recover, repeated episodes of exacerbations may accelerate COPD progression. Exacerbations may further compromise the integrity of limb muscles by promoting further loss in muscle mass and strength. The overall objective of this substudy is to elucidate how an acute COPD exacerbation may affect limb muscles.