Active clinical trials for "Lung Diseases, Obstructive"

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

COPD patients often have a wide range of physical (e.g., dyspnea, fatigue, pain) and psychological (e.g., depression, anxiety) symptoms and various other debilitating conditions that cause considerable suffering for the individual. Unfortunately, many of the symptoms and health problems in patients with COPD are unrecognized and untreated. Due to the irreversible nature of COPD, the aim is not to cure the disease, but to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to investigate the existence and nature of symptom clusters over time in patients with COPD and their effects on patient outcomes. Since this study aims to identify possible new subgroups of patients with COPD defined by the clustering of certain symptoms, the study also aims to investigate the relationship between the clinical presentation and certain immunologic and genetic factors.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a statistical association between the changes from baseline in the levels of two cytokines interleukin (IL)-17A and IL-6 in the sputum of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the severity of acute exacerbations of COPD (AE-COPD). These sputum cytokine levels are taken as measures of the adaptive immune response (IL-17A) and the innate immune response (IL-6), respectively. Sputum will be collected either spontaneously or will be obtained by induction; cytokine levels will be measured by ELISA. The primary analysis, comparisons of sputum cytokine levels between clinical states, will be done using random effects modeling.