Objective To investigate the serum level of surfactant protein D ( SP-D) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) and its clinical significance. Methods Serumlevels of SP-D in patients with acute exacerbations of COPD ( n = 29) , stable COPD ( n = 26) , and control subjects ( n = 19 ) were measured by ELISA. Multiple regression modeling was performed to determine the independent relationship between SP-D and lung function variables. Results The serum SP-D levels were significantly increased in the patients who experienced an acute exacerbation [ ( 70. 6 ±20. 7) ng/mL] compared with the patients with stable COPD and the control subjects [ ( 47. 9 ±13. 3) ng/mL and ( 31. 2 ±11. 4) ng/mL] ( both P lt; 0. 01) . The serum SP-D levels in the patients with stable COPD increased significantly than the control subjects ( P lt; 0. 01) . Smoking index and staging of COPD were positively related to SP-D level. Serum SP-D levels were also found to be inversely related to FEV1% pred in stable COPD. Conclusion Serum SP-D may be a potential diagnostic and staging biomarker for COPD.
ObjectiveTo explore the feasibility and clinical application value of low attenuation areas (LAA) scoring system in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD).MethodsA total of 380 patients with AECOPD were included. Clinical data including general information, laboratory examinations and treatments during hospitalization were collected. According to the high-resolution computed CT (HRCT) imaging performance, the patients were divided into bronchitis phenotype and emphysema phenotype. The clinical data between these two groups were compared to analyze the differences between different phenotypes and the feasibility of LAA scoring system.ResultsIn patients of bronchitis phenotype, the levels of body mass index, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, procalcitonin, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and eosinophil counts on admission were higher than those of emphysema phenotype (P<0.05). Patients with emphysema phenotype had a higher proportion of male, a higher smoking index, higher cystatin C levels and lower bilirubin levels on admission (P<0.05), the rates of using mechanical ventilation and systemic glucocorticoids were higher as also (P<0.05). LAA scores had a positive correlation with the use of mechanical ventilation and systemic glucocorticoids and cystatin C levels, and a negative correlation with interleukin-6 levels (P<0.05).ConclusionsFor patients with AECOPD, using LAA scoring system to classify different phenotype through HRCT has relevant accuracy and clinical practicability. The LAA scoring system might help to evaluate the patient's condition and prognosis to a certain extent.
ObjectiveTo explore the association between frailty and in-hospital mortality in older patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). Methods Elderly patients who were hospitalized with AECOPD from June 2022 to December 2022 at a large tertiary hospital were selected. The independent prognostic factors including frailty status were determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Mediation effect analysis was used to evaluate the mediating relationships between C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin and in-hospital death. ResultsThe training set included 1 356 patients (aged 86.7±6.6), 25.0% of whom were diagnosed with frailty. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that frailty, mean arterial pressure, Charlson comorbidity index, neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio, interleukin-6, CRP, albumin, and troponin T were associated with in-hospital mortality. Furthermore, CRP and albumin mediated the associations between frailty and in-hospital mortality. ConclusionFrailty may be an adverse prognostic factor for older patients admitted with an AECOPD. CRP and albumin may be parts of mechanism between frailty and in-hospital death.
ObjectiveTo systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of procalcitonin guided algorithms of antibiotic therapy in acute exacerbation chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 6, 2016), CBM, CNKI, VIP, and WanFang Data from the date of their establishment to July 2016, to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about procalcitonin guided antibiotics therapy in patients with AECOPD. References of the included literature were also searched manually for additional studies. The literature screening, data extraction and bias risk assessment of the included studies were completed by two reviewers independently. Statistical analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.2 software. ResultsA total of ten RCTs involving 1 071 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis indicated that compared with the standard treatment group, the antibiotic prescription rate (RR=0.70, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.89, P=0.004), the rate of duration of antibiotic >10 days (RR=0.38, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.56, P<0.000 01) and the superinfection rate (RR=0.23, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.58, P=0.002) were significantly lower in the procalcitonin-guided treatment group. There were no statistical differences in clinical effective rate (RR=0.98, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.06, P=0.61), hospital mortality (RR=0.84, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.73, P=0.43), and the rate of need for intensive care (RR=0.77, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.47, P=0.43). ConclusionProcalcitonin guided antibiotics therapy may reduce antibiotic exposure and superinfection rate in patients with AECOPD. In addition, due to the low methodological quality and limited quantity of the included studies, larger sample-size, and high quality RCTs are needed to verify the above conclusion.
ObjectiveTo analyze the association between the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) (syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung) and clinical indicators related to COPD. MethodAECOPD in-patients and out-patients were enrolled from the Third People's Hospital of Chengdu from January 2013 to January 2014. The patients were grouped to Tanre Syndrome and non-Tanre Syndrome according to their clinical symptoms, signs and tongue, pulse. All patients underwent the following tests including routine blood test, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, lung function, blood gas analysis, C-reaction protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and other clinically relevant indicators. The association between AECOPD and clinically relevant indicators were analyzed by using SPSS 19.0 software. ResultsA total of 194 AECOPD patients were included, of which 88 patients were syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung and 106 were non syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung according to the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) classifications. The results of single factor analysis showed that age (Z=-4.848, P=0.000) and course of disease (Z=-2.455, P=0.014) were associated with syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung. While further logistic regression analysis showed that age (r=0.090, P=0.000) and the level of CRP (r=-0.008, P=0.000) were associated with syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung. ConclusionSyndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung is the major clinical TCM syndrome of AECOPD. Syndrome of phlegm-heat obstructing lung is associated with age and level of CRP.
Objective To investigate the risk factors for secondary pulmonary fungal infection in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). And a visual tool using nomogram was developed and validated to assist in the clinical prediction of the probability of pulmonary fungal infection occurrence in AECOPD patients. Methods A retrospective cohort study method was used to collect AECOPD patients hospitalized in the Department of Respiratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College from January 2021 to December 2021 as a training set. And AECOPD patients between January 2020 and December 2020 were collected as a validation set. Independent risk factors were determined through univariate, Lasso regression analyses. and multivariable logistic, A nomogram prediction model was constructed with these independent risk factors, and the nomogram was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (AUC), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results The use of glucocorticoid, combined use of antibiotics, duration of antibiotic use and hypoalbuminemia were independent risk factors for secondary pulmonary fungal infection in AECOPD patients (all P<0.05). The training set and validation set of the constructed prediction model had an AUC value of 0.915 [95%CI: 0.891 - 0.940] and 0.830 [95%CI: 0.790 - 0.871], respectively. The calibration curve showed that the predicted probability was in good agreement with the actual observed probability of pulmonary fungal infection in AECOPD patients. The corresponding decision curve analysis (DCA) indicated the nomogram had relatively ideal clinical utility. Conclusions The result showed that the use of glucocorticoid, combined use of antibiotics, prolonged antibiotic therapy and hypoalbuminemia was independent risk factors for pulmonary fungal infection in AECOPD patients. The clinical prediction model for secondary pulmonary fungal infection in AECOPD patients constructed in this study has strong predictive power and clinical practicability.
Objective To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of venous thromboembolism ( VTE) in patients with acute exacerbation of COPD ( AECOPD) . Methods The patients with AECOPD admitted fromJune 2006 to February 2010 in Beijing Tongren Hospital were included for analysis. VTE was investigated in all patients ( whether or not clinically suspected) by a standardized algorithm based on D-dimer testing, 4-limb venous ultrasonography, and the patients with clinically suspected pulmonarythromboembolism ( PTE) received ventilation/perfusion scan and ( or) computed tomography pulmonary angiography ( CTPA) . Results The total number of patients with AECOPD was 282, and the prevalence of VTE was 6% ( 17 /282) . Among the hypoxemia group( n = 84) , there were 16 patients with DVT with a prevalence of VTE of 19. 1% ( 16/84) in which 3 cases developed with PTE. In the non-hypoxemia group ( n =198) , the prevalence of VTE was 0. 5% ( 1/198) , and there was no case with PTE. The incidence of VTE in the hypoxemia group was significantly higher than that in the non-hypoxemia group( P lt; 0. 01) .Logistic analysis showed that lower PaO2 was the risk factor for VTE ( P lt; 0. 01 ) . Conclusions The incidence of VTE in AECOPD was 6% , mainly in the form of lower limb DVT. Hypoxemia was the risk factor for VTE in patients with AECOPD.