J Carrasco

Can Qva149 Improve Short Term Outcomes In Patients With Copd Without Increasing The Overall Treatment Costs For The Portuguese Nhs? Optimizing Treatment Outcomes With A Responsible Use Of Limited Resources

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic degenerative disease that is associated with a progressive and accelerated reduction in the patients lung function. The reduction of the lung function is frequently accompanied by a worsening dyspnea, and by episodes of acute worsening of symptoms that require specific drug treatment and, in many cases emergency or hospital care. Such exacerbations (acute worsening of symptoms) are associated with a poor prognosis in terms of accelerated lung function decline (1,2) and with increased risk of death (3,4). COPD exacerbations are also associated with reduced physical activity and poor health status (5−7) Prevention of exacerbations is an a key component of any management strategy for COPD (8) and a key objective for new pharmacologic treatments for COPD.