Who is a Candidate for Inhaled Corticosteroids in Patients with COPD? - The Viewpoint of Patient-Reported Outcomes

Takashi Hajiro and Koichi N

Abstract

In clinical practice with patients with chronic obstructive disease (COPD), clinicians should consider patientssymptoms and health status, or quality of life, which are evaluated with patient-reported outcomes (PROs).Combination bronchodilators proved to be more effective about PROs than monotherapy. Inhaled corticosteroid(ICS) is associated with risk of pneumonia in COPD patients. Adding ICS to combination bronchodilators, so-calledtriple therapy could be effective on dyspnea and health status in patients with elevated blood eosinophil counts.Therefore, clinicians are advised to assess and re-assess COPD patients in order to get benefits of pharmacologicaltherapy and reduce risks of adverse events while referring to eosinophil counts.

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