Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease News and Research

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CT shows promise in predicting COPD exacerbation risk

Measurement of the pulmonary artery-to-aorta ratio can predict the risk for exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, particularly those that require hospitalization, say the authors of a US study.

11 Sep 2012

SPIRIVA to mark 10th anniversary with European Respiratory Society Congress

Coinciding with the annual European Respiratory Society Congress, ERS 2012, SPIRIVA (tiotropium), the first once-daily long-acting inhaled anticholinergic maintenance treatment for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) will mark its 10th anniversary since launch.

3 Sep 2012

New data from Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer's tiotropium clinical studies on asthma, COPD

New data to be presented at the Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS 2012), in Vienna, Austria, will shed light on the current and potential future role of tiotropium, the first once-daily long-acting inhaled anticholinergic for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

27 Aug 2012

Study signals biomarker hope for monitoring COPD

The biomarkers desmosines and C-reactive protein could be used to assess disease severity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, show the results of a Swedish study.

7 Aug 2012

FDA approves Forest Laboratories’ Tudorza Pressair to treat COPD

Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Almirall, S.A. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Tudorza Pressair (aclidinium bromide inhalation powder) for the long-term maintenance treatment of bronchospasm associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

24 Jul 2012

Mass spectrometry reveals precise spatial distribution of drug within tissue

When a new drug is developed, the manufacturer must be able to show that it reaches its intended goal in the body's tissue, and only that goal. Such studies could be made easier with a new method now established at Lund University in Sweden.

18 Oct 2011

Potential new protein target for pulmonary hypertension

A protein critical to development appears to have a grave impact on lungs exposed to smoking and air pollution, researchers report.

18 Oct 2011

Mortality, morbidity rates linked with AF remain 'unacceptably high' despite new treatments

Despite recent advances in the treatment of heart rhythm disturbances, mortality and morbidity rates associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) remain "unacceptably high", according to a new report.

27 Jun 2011

Mist inhalers increase risk of death in patients with COPD

People who use a mist inhaler to deliver a drug widely prescribed in more than 55 countries to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be 52 percent more likely to die, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests.

16 Jun 2011

Lung cancer in smokers versus non-smokers shows different genetic mutations

A group of scientists at B.C. Cancer Agency have found that lung cancers in smokers have different genetic mutations and look different than lung cancer in non-smokers. According to senior scientist at the BC Cancer Agency Research Centre Wan Lam, this finding is significant because it means that from now on, research, treatments and diagnostics should be tailored to the distinct genetic variations in the different lung cancers instead of expecting that a one-size fits all approach will work. He said, “At the current time, treatment does not distinguish between these different types. The subtypes are all grouped together. But with this work, we are beginning to tease out the subtypes.” The study was presented Tuesday at a conference in Philadelphia of the American Association of Cancer Research.

10 Nov 2010

Penn. effort fades to override cuts to family planning; Ill. faces budget cuts to health care; Mich. focuses on high cost of chronic disease

The Philadelphia Inquirer: "As two Democratic state lawmakers initiated a campaign to override the governor's veto of $7.5 million for family-planning health centers, six Republican state senators who previously voted to restore the funding reversed course, most likely ending any hopes of restoring the money. Democrats would need at least four Republican votes for an override in the Senate, which now appears unlikely.

5 Aug 2010

Study describes association between childhood asthma and risk of developing adult COPD

Children with severe asthma have more than 30 times the risk of developing adult chronic obstructive lung disease as adults compared to children without asthma, according to a prospective longitudinal cohort study from the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

17 May 2010

Children born very early have abnormal lung function: U.K. researchers

More than half of children who were born very early—at 25 weeks or less (normal gestation is around 40 weeks)— have abnormal lung function and are twice as likely as their full-term peers to have a diagnosis of asthma, according to U.K. researchers, who followed a national cohort of extremely preterm infants to age 11.

22 Apr 2010

Majority of rural hospital stays are covered by Medicare

Medicare patients accounted for almost half of all stays (45 percent) at rural hospitals in 2007, while the percentage of Medicare beneficiaries who were admitted to urban hospitals was considerably lower (35 percent) , according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

5 Feb 2010

CHANTIX/CHAMPIX raises hope for quitting smoking

New study results showed that 42.3 percent of smokers with mild-to-moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who took CHANTIX/CHAMPIX® (varenicline) were able to quit smoking and remain abstinent during the last four weeks of treatment (weeks 9-12) compared with 8.8 percent of those given placebo (p<0.0001). These findings were presented by investigators at CHEST 2009, the 75th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

5 Nov 2009

Long-term use of inhaled corticosteroid drugs increases risk of pneumonia for COPD patients

Newly published research out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine finds that a popular class of anti-inflammatory inhalers significantly increases the risk of pneumonia in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

9 Feb 2009

Discovery of new cause of ozone wheezing and potential treatments

Researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and Duke University have discovered a cause of airway irritation and wheezing after exposure to ozone, a common urban air pollutant.

3 Feb 2009

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators improve survival in older heart patients

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) can improve survival in patients with heart damage - even those in their 70s - according to research reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

6 Jan 2009

AstraZeneca submits sNDA for SYMBICORT in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

AstraZeneca today announced that it submitted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of a new indication for SYMBICORT (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) Inhalation Aerosol for the treatment of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). SYMBICORT is currently approved for the long-term maintenance treatment of asthma in patients 12 years and older.

30 Apr 2008