Symptoms and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: are there patient_defined outcomes or predictive factors?

Abstract

Novel medications for therapy of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), primarily long-acting bronchodilators, could reduce severity of symptoms.
Nevertheless, 50% to 70% of patients continue to experience significant dyspnea despite the therapy. Early diagnosis of COPD is a quite difficult clinical problem, whereas an active treatment is usually required at early-stage disease because of decreasing physical tolerance and, importantly, rapidly declining pulmonary function. Novel fixed combinations of long-acting beta-2-agonists (LABA) and long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA) deliver both the drugs in a single inhaler. These combinations have been shown to be more effective compared to monotherapy with the components. One of new LABA/LAMA combinations is tiotropium/olodaterol combination (Spiolto Respimat). Several large clinical trials (TONADO 1 and 2, ОTEMTO 1 and 2) demonstrated significant improvement in quality of life and dyspnea in patients with COPD taking the tiotropium/olodaterol combination. This combined drug was highly effective in early-stage COPD.