Late Breaking Abstract - Relationship between clinical features and mortality in a cohort of COPD patients

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disease with poor outcomes, including a high mortality. GULP is a multicenter Italian study that described clinical characteristics, exacerbation rates and survival of a cohort of COPD patients, as part of AstraZeneca’s AvoidEX program. Aims and objectives: To evaluate whether the clinical profile of subjects enrolled in the GULP study predicts mortality on a period of 3 years. Methods: Post-hoc analysis of an observational, multicenter, retrospective study. Patients were stratified according to survival status: alive (A) and dead (D). Clinical characteristics, comorbidities and exacerbation rates were reported in the two groups. Mortality was assessed at 3 years from the index visit. Results: 859 patients were included in the analysis, of whom 745 belonged to group A (73.7% male, median (IQR) age 76 (70-81), median (IQR) BMI 26.7 (23.7-29.4), median (IQR) FEV1 1.410 L (990-1.880), 14.2% chronic heart failure, 17.3% ischemic heart disease) and 154 to group D (76.3% male, median (IQR) age 80 (74-84), median (IQR) BMI 25.5 (22.7-29.0), median (IQR) FEV1 1.140 L (820-1.670), 27.2% chronic heart failure, 28.1% ischemic heart disease). More patients in the D group experienced ≥1 exacerbation (23.5%, 24 events VS. 10.2%, 73 events, respectively; p-value: 0.002). Chronic heart failure and ischemic heart disease were associated with a higher odds ratio (OR) of mortality (OR: 2.2, p-value: 0.001; OR: 1.9, p-value: 0.007; respectively). Conclusions: COPD patients enrolled in the GULP study showed high prevalence of cardio-vascular diseases. Chronic heart failure and ischemic heart disease appeared to predict mortality in this cohort.