Spirometric Values of Greek People and Comparison with ECSC and GLI Values in COPD People.

Background: During the past few years, the use of criteria introduced by Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) is recommended for the diagnosis and classification of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD),taking into account the values of a Forced Expiratory Volume In 1 second (FEV1) and a Forced Expiratory Volume In 1 second (FEV1) to Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) ratio. In Europe, the reference values of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), that were originally developed in 1993 are still used.

Aim Of The Study: The study aimed to carry out measurement of spirometric values in a healthy, non smoking Greek population, development of local equations and comparison with ECSC and Global Lung Initiative(GLI) equations, in order to see if there is a need for separate ones in everyday use.

The safety of indacaterol for the treatment of COPD.

Bronchodilators, namely long-acting inhaled β2-agonists and long-acting muscarinic antagonists, are the first-line medications for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The safety of these medicines is of great concern since COPD patients usually have other co-morbidities such as cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases. Areas covered: In this review we present information about the safety and the use of indacaterol in COPD.

The prognostic efficacy of beta2-microglobulin in acute pulmonary embolism.

Our aim was to prospectively assess the prognostic value of beta2-microglobulin (b2-M) in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE). We conducted a prospective study of 109 patients admitted in a pulmonary clinic due to acute PE. A panel of inflammatory markers including b2-M white blood cell (WBC) count and C-reactive protein (CRP) was determined for each patient.