The use of plethysmography and oscillometry to compare long-acting bronchodilators in patients with COPD.

What Is Already Known About This Subject: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) is the standard measurement used to measure drug effects in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) clinical trials. Having previously shown that specific airway conductance (sGaw) measured using body plethysmography and impulse oscillometry (IOS) are more sensitive than FEV(1) for assessing short-acting bronchodilator effects in patients with COPD, we conducted the first randomized, placebo-controlled study to compare long-acting bronchodilators in COPD patients using these techniques.

What This Study Adds: sGaw and IOS sensitively differentiated between the effects of tiotropium and salmeterol when FEV(1) measurements were similar.

Bronchodilating effect of combined therapy with ipratropium bromide and ondansetron in patients with COPD.

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of single and repeat dosing with oral ondansetron, a 5-HT3-specific receptor blocker, on the degree and duration of bronchodilation induced by inhaled ipratropium bromide in patients with COPD. Five clinics and university medical centers in four countries participated in the study; 47 patients with COPD were randomized to treatment; 44 completed all treatments. Patients had a baseline (pre-bronchodilator) FEV1>1L and post-bronchodilator (200 mcg salbutamol) FEV1<90% of predicted, with FEV1 reversibility (to 80 mcg inhaled ipratropium bromide and 400 mcg salbutamol) of at least 12% or 200 mL over baseline.

A study to evaluate safety and efficacy of mepolizumab in patients with moderate persistent asthma.

Rationale: Accumulation of eosinophils in the bronchial mucosa of individuals with asthma is considered to be a central event in the pathogenesis of asthma. In animal models, airway eosinophil recruitment and airway hyperresponsiveness in response to allergen challenge are reduced by specific targeting of interleukin-5. A previous small dose-finding study found that mepolizumab, a humanized anti-interleukin-5 monoclonal antibody, had no effect on allergen challenge in humans.