You are here

Article Text

Article menu
PDF
Therapeutics/Prevention
Randomised controlled trial
LABA/LAMA combinations instead of LABA/ICS combinations may prevent or delay exacerbations of COPD in some patients
  1. Mario Cazzola,
  2. Paola Rogliani
  1. University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
  1. Correspondence to : Professor Mario Cazzola, Department of Systems Medicine, University Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, Rome 00133, Italy; mario.cazzola{at}uniroma2.it
View Full Text

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ebmed-2016-110525

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Commentary on: Wedzicha JA, Banerji D, Chapman KR, et al. Indacaterol-glycopyrronium versus salmeterol-fluticasone for COPD. N Engl J Med 2016;374:2222–34OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed.

    Context

    A substantial body of evidence shows that inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) reduce the risk of exacerbations by 10–20% beyond that achieved by inhaled long-acting β2-adrenergic agonist (LABA) and also reduce progression of lung function loss, improving health-related quality of life.1 However, drawbacks of ICSs in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (increased risk of pneumonia, osteoporosis, hyperglycaemia in patients with diabetes, cataracts, skin bruising and glaucoma) are the reason why all COPD guidelines recommend ICSs only for patients with severe impairment and high risk of exacerbations.1 Nonetheless, ICSs are still overprescribed worldwide.2

    Methods

    A randomised, double-blind, double dummy, non-inferiority trial lasting 52 weeks enrolled 3362 patients suffering from COPD with …

    View Full Text

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Copyright information:

    Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/