The Burden of Severe Asthma in France: A Case-Control Study Using a Medical Claims Database.

Background: Severe asthma (SA) is defined by treatment intensity. The availability of national databases allows accurate estimation of the prevalence, long-term outcomes, and costs of SA.

Objective: To provide accurate information on SA, focusing on comorbidities, mortality, health care resource consumption, and associated costs.

Defining the "Frequent Exacerbator" Phenotype in COPD: A Hypothesis-Free Approach.

Background: The COPD "frequent exacerbator" phenotype is usually defined by at least two treated exacerbations per year and is associated with a huge impact on patient health. However, existence of this phenotype and corresponding thresholds still need to be formally confirmed by statistical methods analyzing exacerbation profiles with no specific a priori hypothesis. The aim of this study was to confirm the existence of the frequent exacerbator phenotype with an innovative unbiased statistical analysis of prospectively recorded exacerbations.

Clinical characteristics and quality of life in women with COPD: an observational study.

Background: The impact of COPD on patient's quality of life is well established, but gender differences have received little attention.

Methods: To describe factors associated with the health-related quality of life by gender: A cross-sectional observational study (NCT01007734) was conducted in COPD patients followed by pulmonologists. The first patient included had to be a woman.

Do asthmatic smokers benefit as much as non-smokers on budesonide/formoterol maintenance and reliever therapy? Results of an open label study.

Background: Studies with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in smoking asthmatics have mostly shown poorer treatment responses than in non-smoking asthmatics.

Methods: EuroSMART, an open, randomised, 6-month study, compared budesonide/formoterol (Symbicort (®) Turbuhaler(®))(h) maintenance and reliever therapy (Symbicort SMART(®)) at two maintenance doses of budesonide/formoterol (160/4.5 μg), 1 × 2 and 2 × 2, in patients with asthma who were symptomatic despite treatment with ICS ± long-acting β(2)-agonists.

High prevalence of COPD symptoms in the general population contrasting with low awareness of the disease.

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is underdiagnosed because of limited disease awareness with trivialization of the symptoms in the general population.

Methods: A survey was conducted in a representative sample (n=2758) of individuals older than 40 years of age in the general population of France. Respiratory symptoms and knowledge about COPD were assessed in individuals with or at risk for COPD (n=860, 31% of the sample).