Abstract
Introduction:
COPD is a major cause of mortality and morbidity and it is characterized by airflow obstruction.The natural evolution of the desease is characterised by frequent exacerbation.
Fibrinogen and CRP are two important biomarkers that can evaluate the progression of COPD and also can evaluate the presence, the frequency and severity of exacerbation.
Aims: Assess the influence of elevated marker levels on the number of exacerbations and the number of days of hospitalization for patients with COPD group C and D.
Methods:
We followed 37 patients with COPD group C and D who had two or more exacerbation per year and who had been hospitalized in our Department of Pneumology last year .
We divided the patients in two groups: patient with an elevated level of fibrinogen(over 400mg/dl) and CRP(40 mg/l) and patients with lower level of fibrinogen(under 400mg/dl) and CRP(under 40mg/l) We followed the frequency, the severity of exacerbation and the number of days of hospitalization needed in these two groups. We also analyzed the following data : FEV1, BMI, age, gender, leukocyte count, smoking history, COPD assessment test.
Results: Group 1 is 40.5% of our patients had low levels of biomarkers. Group 2 is 59.5% of our patients had high level of biomarkers. Members of group 1 had 2.13 exacerbations/year and members of group 2 had 2.90 exacerbations/year. The patients with an elevated markers level had more days of hospitalization (16.8 days) than the patients with a lower level of markers (12.3 days).
Conclusions: Inflammatory markers level is frequently elevated in patients with exacerbation. The high level of PCR and fibrinogen are associated with more exacerbations and more days of hospitalization .
- © 2014 ERS