Evaluation of patients with chronic bronchitis and COPD during 7-year follow-up

Recent guidelines define chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a preventable and treatable disease characterized by airflow limitation and systemic consequences. Airflow limitation in COPD worsens over years as assessed by FEV1 . Parametric and nonparametric statistic techniques were used to analyze prognostic influence of acute exacerbations of COPD, smoking, compliance, and type of treatment on forced spirometric parameters in a cohort of 191 consecutive patients with COPD and chronic bronchitis followed up during 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6-7 years. This study showed that acute exacerbations of COPD, smoking, and low compliance have negative impact on the patient's prognosis. We conclude that deterioration of health status in patients with COPD and chronic bronchitis could be reduced by the treatment adherence to the GOLD guidelines, smoking cessation and improvement in the patient's compliance.