Clinical-pharmacist intervention reduces clinically relevant drug-drug interactions in patients with heart failure: A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.

Background: Incidence of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) increases with complexity of treatment and comorbidities, as in heart failure (HF). This randomized, double-blind study evaluated the intervention of the pharmacist on prevalence of clinically relevant DDIs (NCT01855165).

Methods: Patients admitted with HF were screened for clinically relevant DDIs, and randomized to control or intervention.

Asthma treatment outcome in children is associated with vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) polymorphisms.

Background: Asthma is a common chronic disease characterized by airway inflammation and structural remodeling. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a major regulator of angiogenesis, is elevated in asthma patients. VEGF contributes to airway responsiveness and remodeling.

The need for medication reconciliation: a cross-sectional observational study in adult patients.

Background: Poor communication of drug therapy at care interface often results in medication errors and adverse drug events. Medication reconciliation has been introduced as a measure to improve continuity of patient care. The aim of this cross-sectional observational study was to evaluate the need for medication reconciliation.

Body mass index and prognosis in patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND: Nutritional status, weight loss and cachexia have important prognostic implications in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Body mass index (BMI) has been implicated in COPD risk assessment, but information is mostly limited to composite scores or to patients with stable disease. We aimed to analyse the association between BMI and mortality in acute exacerbation of COPD.

Adherence to treatment guidelines and long-term survival in hospitalized patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Rationale And Aims: Adherence to treatment guidelines in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been shown to be less than optimal over the COPD continuum. This retrospective study aimed to assess the implementation of COPD guidelines and potential association with long-term mortality in patients with COPD.

Methods: All consecutive patient discharges in the period of February 2002-June 2007 from the University Clinic of Pulmonary and Allergic Diseases Golnik, Slovenia, were screened for a primary discharge diagnosis of COPD.

Heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Two for tea or tea for two?

A combination of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) is common yet it is inadequately and rarely recognized. Because of the similar clinical manifestations, comorbidity is frequently not considered and appropriate diagnostic tests are not performed. It is very important that a combination of COPD and HF is recognized as these patients have a worse prognosis than patients with an individual disease.

Self-rated health predicts acute exacerbations and hospitalizations in patients with COPD.

Background: Self-rated health predicts outcome in chronic disease, but such information is scarce in COPD. We aimed to assess self-rated health as an outcome predictor in carefully characterized patients with this condition.

Methods: This was a prospective study in 127 clinically stable patients with COPD (64 +/- 8 years, 79% men, 82% Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stage II or III).

Distribution of self-rated health and association with clinical parameters in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Background: Data on self-rated health (SRH) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are very limited; we therefore initiated this study to investigate the distribution of SRH and association with established parameters of disease severity.

Patients And Methods: We included 135 clinically stable patients with COPD (64 +/- 8 years, 71% men, GOLD stage: II -59; III -55; IV -21) and 25 healthy control persons. SRH was evaluated using the 5-grade Likert scale (1-very poor to 5-very good).

COPD is not COPD is not allergy.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is still a poorly understood disease. Its pathogenesis is excitingly complex and has systemic consequences caused not only by increased production of certain cytokines but also by neurohumoral activation, chronic bacterial infection, muscle wasting and cachexia. Asthma and COPD have many overlapping clinical features so it should not be surprising that in the pathogenesis of COPD mediators such as leukotrienes, complement activation, atopic or even autoimmune processes are possibly involved.

Complement factors c3a, c4a, and c5a in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.

Studies of animal models have shown that the activation of the complement system could have a role in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma by promoting inflammation and enhancing airway hyperresponsiveness. We sought to determine whether the levels of complement factors C3a, C4a, and C5a are elevated at the site of inflammation in patients with COPD and patients with asthma. We analyzed the induced sputum of seven patients with COPD, ten patients with asthma, and twelve healthy nonsmokers.