Antiinflammatory therapy of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess clinical efficacy of antiinflammatory drug fenspirid in patients with early-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We observed 125 patients randomly divided into 2 groups: a study group of 76 patients and a comparative group of 49 patients. Fifty eight patients had the stable COPD and 67 ones had the exacerbation of the disease but did not need antimicrobial therapy.

All 125 COPD patients received bronchodilating therapy according to their bronchial obstruction severity. Besides this, 25 study group patients with stable COPD received fenspirid 80 mg twice a day during 6 months and 10 patients with COPD stage 2 were given inhaled beclomethazone 200 meg twice a day for 6 months. Among 67 patients with exacerbation of COPD 26 were treated with fenspirid for 2 weeks, 26 of them received bronchodilating medication only, 13 received systemic corticosteriods for a week in daily doses equal to 20 mg of prednisolon abolished gradually during the subsequent 7 days. The patients have being observed for 6 months, the principal clinical signs of COPD were assessed, the lung function was tested, bronchodilating tests and the 6-min walking test were performed.

The study led to a conclusion about a significant influence of fenspirid on the main clinical features of COPD stage 1. This was not noted in the comparative group and in COPD treated with inhaled steroids. The 6-month therapy with fenspirid in COPD stage 1 patients resulted in FEV₁ improvement. The greatest effect of fenspirid developed for the first 2 months of the treatment. Under the COPD exacerbation the efficacy of fenspirid and systemic steroids was similar.