FDA Approves Breo Ellipta, Once-Daily LABA/ICS for COPD The FDA approved the new drug Breo Ellipta as a once-daily inhaled therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Breo Ellipta includes the corticosteroid fluticasone, and vilanterol — a once-daily long acting beta agonist — in a combination dry powder inhaler. This was the FDA’s first approval [... read more]
image: wikimedia Pulse Oximetry: The 30-Second Time Machine Why does it seem to take so long to re-oxygenate your crashing patient? Because your pulse oximeter is lying to you, no matter how good it is. Telescopes show us how a star looked millions or billions of years ago; pulse oximeters create a similar, though tiny [... read more]
The 2011 GOLD classification for COPD: Old GOLD vs. New GOLD Guidelines by Brett Ley, MD Ever had a COPD patient with an awful FEV1, yet who seems to be cruising along, doing fine for years? How about a COPD patient with a relatively preserved FEV1, yet always seems to be in your clinic or [... read more]
Feds to Big Tobacco on Cigarette Labeling Fight: “Uncle!” The feds are admitting defeat for now in their fight for graphic, negative imagery to be displayed on all cigarette packaging and advertisements. Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that the Justice Department will not ask the Supreme Court to reverse their loss in a federal [... read more]
FDA Warns of Sudden Cardiac Death Risk from Azithromycin Last summer, PulmCCM reported on a New England Journal paper suggesting an increased risk of sudden cardiac death in patients taking even a short 5-day course of azithromycin. Yesterday, the FDA expressed its official concern in a Drug Safety Communication and statement to the press on [... read more]
Continuing Selective Beta Blockers Safe During COPD Exacerbations by Blair Westerly, MD Many COPD patients also have congestive heart failure or ischemic heart disease, two conditions where beta blocker therapy improves survival, but it has consistently been underutilized. The fear physicians have of instituting beta blockers in COPD is mostly secondary to the theoretical concern [... read more]
Who Needs In-Flight Oxygen? New Method May Help by Brett Ley, MD COPD patients without a long-term indication for supplemental oxygen may still be at risk for severe hypoxemia during air travel since cabin pressures are generally maintained to simulate altitudes of about 8000 feet. In-flight supplemental oxygen is recommended when the partial pressure of [... read more]
(image: Rxhealthdrugs.com) Azithromycin for Prevention of COPD Exacerbations Azithromycin taken daily prevents exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD exacerbations), but seems to also carry risks for cardiovascular death and hearing loss. The true balance of risks and benefits with use of azithromycin to prevent COPD exacerbations is unknown, but physicians who choose to prescribe [... read more]
Spiriva (Tiotropium) for Uncontrolled Asthma Most people with asthma can achieve good control with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA). Some people living with asthma, though, experience persistent symptoms despite maximum doses of these inhaled medications. Fairly or not, LABAs have also been sullied with an FDA black-box warning for worsening bronchospasm in a [... read more]
(image: Rxhealthdrugs.com) People taking 5 days of azithromycin had a very small absolute increased risk of death, especially due to cardiovascular causes, compared to people taking amoxicillin, in a retrospective cohort review by Wayne Ray, Katherine Murray, and C. Michael Stein published in the May 17 New England Journal of Medicine. Erythromycin and clarithromycin (the other [... read more]
There’s no use in sugar-coating the truth: Nicotine is an appetite suppressant, and smoking prevents weight gain. Not wanting to gain weight is a common reason why body-obsessed teenage girls say they smoke–and as far as we know, they’re “right:” teens who smoke gain slightly less weight than teens who don’t. It’s also long been believed [... read more]
Smoking marijuana moderately over years is strongly associated with small improvements in lung function, even compared to people who have never smoked cigarettes or marijuana, according to a study in JAMA. But the popular news media and the study authors downplayed that finding of the study, apparently to avoid sending a pro-marijuana message. Mark Pletcher, [... read more]
Adding Spiriva to LABA and Inhaled Steroid Might Improve COPD No strong outcomes-based evidence exists as to the benefits in treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with tiotropium, long-acting beta-agonist and inhaled corticosteroid together — so called “triple therapy.” LABA and tiotropium together do provide additive bronchodilation over either agent alone, evidence suggests. However, only [... read more]
DECAF Score Predicts COPD Exacerbation Mortality, But Needs Validation By Brett Ley, MD Despite improvements in care, death during hospitalization for acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) is not uncommon. In the UK in 2008, almost 1 in 12 people admitted with a COPD exacerbation died in-hospital. In the U.S. in 1996, about 1 in 40 [... read more]
(image: PneumRx) ATLANTA — In a small, open-label pilot study, bronchoscopically-placed metal coils that retract emphysematous lung, creating lung volume reduction without surgery, produced functional and airflow improvements in a majority of patients with severe COPD, the lead researcher reported at CHEST 2012. Investigators randomized 47 patients with severe emphysema type COPD to undergo either [... read more]
Caring For Older Folks With COPD Terri Fried, Carlos Fragoso, and Michael Rabow argue in the September 26, 2012 JAMA that older adults (age ~80 or above) with COPD and significant dyspnea are a distinct, complex group of patients with unique features and needs, and their doctors should think broadly and be willing to go [... read more]
(image: DiagnosticClinic.com) Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD exacerbations) occur with wide variability in people with COPD, and no one really knows why. Respiratory infections, interactions with coexistent cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary embolism have all been implicated as causes of exacerbations. But some people with COPD experience exacerbations that are mild and infrequent, while [... read more]
Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency: 2012 Review & Update More 2012 Topic Updates This alpha-1 antitrypsin review is periodically updated and reposted as new research findings are published. Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is underrecognized and by implication undertreated, according to James Stoller and Loutfi Aboussouan of the Cleveland Clinic in their excellent concise clinical review in the Blue [... read more]
We may see it more often, but we doctors don’t really know anything more about death than anyone else, and we find it just as scary. Yet we are expected to spontaneously discuss death-as-a-coming-event with seriously ill patients who (we assume) probably want to avoid the subject, well, like the plague. Maybe they do. But [... read more]
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was always believed to be a disease of progressive accelerated decline in lung function, even after quitting smoking. However, as it turns out, that time-honored (and still-taught) paradigm, based on some unsure assumptions and weak primary data, is not true. More recent investigations incorporating robust data sets from large populations [... read more]