Active clinical trials for "Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive"

The purpose of the study is to inform decision-makers of the best strategies to implement advanced care planning (ACP). An advanced care plan (ACP) is a verbal or written instruction describing what kind of care an individual would want (or not want)if they are no longer able speak for themselves to make health care decisions.

Recently integrated in clinical practice, the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) classification states that a mild (stage I) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is present, in a smoker, when the postbronchodilator forced expired volume in 1 second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio is < 0.7. A major change that was introduced by the GOLD classification system was that COPD could be diagnosed despite an FEV1 that is within normal predicted values (above 80% predicted). Because it suggests diagnosing and detecting COPD earlier than done until very recently in medical practice, the GOLD standards bring in a new reality to clinicians. In fact, this novel COPD classification comes with new research challenges because the functional impacts and systemic consequences related to COPD are mostly documented in patients with moderate to severe stages with little information specifically in GOLD stage I COPD. This information is important if the investigators are to convince physicians that GOLD stage I COPD needs to be diagnosed and eventually treated. The investigators aimed to characterize GOLD stage I COPD patients according to activity-related dyspnea. More specifically, our objectives were to compare: i) baseline pulmonary function ii) exercise capacity iii) quadriceps muscle function iv) levels of physical activity in daily life between symptomatic (Sx) GOLD stage I COPD patients, asymptomatic (ASx) GOLD stage I COPD patients and healthy control subjects (CTRL). The investigators reasoned that exercise tolerance and physical activity levels would be decreased in Sx GOLD stage I COPD patients as it would be similar between ASx GOLD stage I COPD patients and CTRL.

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the sensitivity of a new oxygen enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (OE-MRI) method in detecting changes in the lungs of patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) following treatment with either Oxis Turbuhaler or Symbicort Turbuhaler.

This study is evaluating the effectiveness of a dose counter for an inhaler device used to deliver medication to people diagnosed with asthma or COPD.

Preference study: Genuair vs HandiHaler inhalers in COPD patients.

Respiratory virus infections are a common cause of COPD exacerbations and antiviral therapies have potential as treatments for exacerbations. However it is likely that treating patients when they present with an exacerbation with antiviral drugs will be too late to be effective and earlier treatment at the time of the initial upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) will be required. The incidence of exacerbations following URTIs in COPD patients, and whether there are host factors and biomarkers that can identify the risk of this, is unknown. The aims of this study are to establish the proportion of viral URTIs that progress to an acute exacerbation in COPD patients and identify clinical, viral and biological markers that predict risk of an exacerbation following an URTI. In addition we will determine the frequency of, and risk factors for, bacterial infection following viral URTIs in COPD patients. This data will permit development of a model combining baseline patient characteristics, clinical measurements and biomarkers to predict exacerbation risk following viral URTI in COPD patients. The results will open the way for trials of antiviral therapy in COPD exacerbations and targeting of treatment to high risk patients.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition that is characterized by airway obstruction due to inflammation. Levels of inflammatory proteins may be linked to when and to what extent COPD develops. This study will use data collected during the Tucson Epidemiological Study of Airway Obstructive Disease (TESAOD) and its 33-year follow-up to determine the relationship between inflammatory protein expression and COPD.

This is a clinical study, with no investigational product, to characterise the inhalation profiles of healthy volunteers, volunteers with mild, moderate and severe Asthma and volunteers with mild, moderate and severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), through the novel dry powder inhaler.

Cigarette smoking is the major risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, commonly known as chronic bronchitis and emphysema). Despite this clear link, only 15-20% of smokers develop COPD suggesting that genetic factors affect the lung's susceptibility to the stress of cigarette smoke. The cells lining the airways (epithelium) and cells that help defend the lung (alveolar macrophages) of smokers develop gene expression changes that are different from that of nonsmokers. In the investigators' previous studies they have demonstrated that there are greater than 200 genes that are responsive to cigarette smoke in these cells. But the investigators do not know whether the gene expression is static or changes as a function of time. Genes that show significant changes over time may be relevant to the progression of the disease. Even though quitting smoking reduces the rate at which the lungs decline, many-smokers still go on to develop COPD. This study will provide insights into the natural history of smoking-related gene expression of the lung cells in health and disease.

This research is being done to study mechanisms of progression of COPD and to develop treatments for it. The investigators are doing the present study to identify people age 40 and older with mild to moderate COPD who will qualify for such studies to include in a database. The study will include establishing a screening evaluation or characterization of the following two studies: Emphysema Progression in COPD- Losartan's Effects on Airway Parameters - NA_00009980 Sleep-Related Physiology and Inflammation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - NA_00001771