Chronic Bronchitis in COPD Patients Creates Worse Symptom Burden Regardless of the Presence of Bronchiectasis in the COPDGene Cohort.

Purpose: To assess whether the presence or absence of bronchiectasis has an impact on the patient-reported symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

Methods: The study included participants from the COPD Genetic Epidemiology Study (COPDGene®) cohort with available high-resolution chest tomography reporting the presence or absence of bronchiectasis (BE+/BE-) and survey data reporting the presence or absence of chronic bronchitis symptoms (CB+/CB-). Patient symptoms based on the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) were then compared for the different groups.

High-resolution wrist-worn overnight oximetry has high positive predictive value for obstructive sleep apnea in a sleep study referral population.

Background: Reducing the need for diagnostic sleep studies for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) would reduce direct and opportunity costs while expediting time to treatment for this common and morbid disorder. We sought to determine if an established sleep apnea screening questionnaire (STOP-BANG) and wrist-worn overnight oximetry data could provide high positive predictive value for the presence of OSA.

Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study of consecutive unattended sleep study patients at a single facility.