Corticosteroids are often used in the outpatient treatment of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To date, there are few data documenting the benefit of this practice. The objective of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was to assess the efficacy of corticosteroids in the outpatient treatment of COPD exacerbations. Twenty-seven patients presenting with acute COPD exacerbation were studied. In addition to continuing their previous medications and increasing their use of beta-agonists, patients were randomized to receive a 9-d tapering dose of either oral prednisone or placebo. Treatment with prednisone rather than placebo resulted in a more rapid improvement in arterial PO2 (PaO2) (1.12 mm Hg/d versus -0.03 mm Hg/day; p = 0.002), alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient (A-aDO2) (-1.16 mm Hg/d versus -0.03 mm Hg/day; p = 0.04), FEV1 (0.05 L/d versus 0.00 L/d; p = 0.006), and peak expiratory flow (PEF) (0.15 L/s/d versus 0.04 L/s/d; p = 0.009). Prednisone also resulted in fewer treatment failures (p = 0.002) and in a trend toward more rapid improvement in dyspnea scale scores. Outpatient treatment of acute COPD exacerbation with prednisone accelerates recovery of PaO2, A-aDO2, FEV1, and PEF, reduces the treatment failure rate, and improves subjective dyspnea.
The death rate from asthma is highest in old age and continues to rise, despite diagnostic and therapeutic advances.'3 Acute attacks of asthma in older people with chronic asthma may be very rapidly fatal4 and have been said to have a poorer prognosis than in the young.5 Of the many potential reasons for the higher mortality from asthma in old age, the possibility of impaired awareness of the severity of an acute asthmatic attack by the elderly patient, his physician, or both has been little investigated. Petheram et al 6 showed that during acute exacerbations of asthma elderly patients have less pronounced pulsus paradoxus and tachycardia than younger patients with similar airway obstruction and blood gas abnormalities. They argued that this might theoretically result in undertreatment of the elderly asthmatic patient during an acute attack. Treatment might also be inadequate if the severity of the attack were also underestimated by the patient. This may indeed be the case in the elderly. Elderly asthmatic patients tend to deteriorate for longer periods at home before admission,6 and when challenged with inhaled methacholine they do not report dyspnoea or wheeze to be troublesome despite a minimum fall in one second expiratory volume (FEV,)
Objectives Administration of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA), omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil, has been associated with improved patient outcomes in acute lung injury (ALI) when studied in a commercial enteral formula. However, fish oil has not been tested independently in ALI. We therefore sought to determine if enteral fish oil alone would reduce pulmonary and systemic inflammation in patients with ALI. Design Phase II randomized controlled trial. Setting Four North American medical centers. Patients Mechanically ventilated patients with ALI ≥ 18 years of age. Interventions Subjects were randomized to receive enteral fish oil (9.75g EPA and 6.75g DHA daily) or saline placebo for up to 14 days. Measurements and Main Results Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and blood were collected at baseline (day 0), day 4±1, and day 8±1. The primary endpoint was BALF interleukin (IL)-8 levels. Forty-one participants received fish oil and 49 received placebo. Enteral fish oil administration was associated with increased serum EPA concentration (p<0.0001). However, there was no significant difference in the change in BALF IL-8 from baseline to day 4 (p=0.37) or day 8 (p=0.55) between treatment arms. There were no appreciable improvements in other BALF or plasma biomarkers in the fish oil group compared to the control group. Similarly, organ failure score, ventilator-free days, ICU-free days, and 60-day mortality did not differ between the groups. Conclusions Fish oil did not reduce biomarkers of pulmonary or systemic inflammation in patients with ALI, and the results do not support the conduct of a larger clinical trial in this population with this agent. This experimental approach is feasible for proof of concept studies evaluating new treatments for ALI.
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