Changes in Inflammatory Markers During Pulmonary Rehabilitation Based on Exacerbation States in COPD (CIMPRES-COPD)

University of Lincoln

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Treatments: Other: Sample collection

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02740686

16/LO/0865

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will examine the inflammatory response to exercise encompassed as part of a standard pulmonary rehabilitation programme in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Patients will be split into two groups, frequent exacerbators or infrequent exacerbators, dependent upon exacerbation history to compare responses to pulmonary rehabilitation amongst phenotypes.

Full description

Pulmonary rehabilitation has been proven to benefit COPD patients in terms of quality of life and functional capabilities. The effects of pulmonary rehabilitation (exercise) on immune function are unclear despite clear benefits of exercise on immune function in healthy individuals being identified. Moderate-intensity and frequency of exercise has been shown to decrease the risk of upper respiratory tract infections in healthy individuals in comparison to sedentary individuals. Respiratory infections, also known as exacerbations, in COPD are the main cause of hospitalisation and mortality. Therefore, if exercise can modulate immune function in COPD, it can be encouraged further in COPD to reduce hospitalisation risk. However, it is important to compare the effects of exercise amongst different phenotypes as frequent exacerbators are known to have elevated inflammatory markers, and may consequently respond to exercise differently to infrequent exacerbators, paving a rationale for a different approach to this subset of patients.

Enrollment: 85 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40 to 90 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 58 frequent exacerbators and 58 infrequent exacerbators (116 in total) who have been diagnosed with any severity of COPD (according to BTS criteria, i.e. >10 pack year smoking history and post bronchodilator spirometry FEV1/FVC ratio <0.70 and FEV<80%).

Exclusion criteria

• Inability or unwillingness to sign informed consent
• Any unstable ongoing cardiovascular events which may be exacerbated by exercise
• Inability to complete walk tests due to physical or mental impairment
• Other active inflammatory conditions e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, cancer.
• Known asthma, allergic rhinitis or other respiratory disease (bronchiectasis, pulmonary fibrosis)

Healthy control group - Patients who have not been diagnosed with COPD or any other respiratory condition and are characteristically (age (between 45-85 years old) & smoking status) matched to recruited COPD patients.

Trial design

85 participants in 4 patient groups

Frequent exacerbators

Description:

Exacerbations will be defined as "a respiratory event which led to a hospitalisation or the prescription of antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids". Clinicians will ask patients to retrospectively recall how many exacerbations they have had in the past 12 months. Patients will be allocated to the frequent exacerbators group based on whether they have had 2 or more hospitalisations for exacerbations or have taken 2 or more courses on steroids/antibiotics within the past 12 months. Blood sample collection at the following pulmonary rehabilitation sessions: 1st (pre-exercise), 2nd (pre and post-exercise), 8th (pre-exercise), last session (pre and post exercise). Sputum samples collected pre-exercise at the following pulmonary rehabilitation sessions: 1st, 8th, and last session.

Treatment:

Other: Sample collection

Infrequent exacerbators

Description:

Exacerbations will be defined as "a respiratory event which led to a hospitalisation or the prescription of antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids". Clinicians will ask patients to retrospectively recall how many exacerbations they have had in the past 12 months. Patients will be allocated to the infrequent exacerbators group based on whether they have had no more than 1 hospitalisation for exacerbations or have not taken more than 1 course of steroids/antibiotics within the past 12 months. Blood sample collection at the following pulmonary rehabilitation sessions: 1st (pre-exercise), 2nd (pre and post-exercise), 8th (pre-exercise), last session (pre and post exercise). Sputum samples collected pre-exercise at the following pulmonary rehabilitation sessions: 1st, 8th, and last session.

Treatment:

Other: Sample collection

Healthy smokers

Description:

Recruited in accordance with inclusion/exclusion criteria with no medical history of COPD diagnosis and currently smoke.This group will be recruited by a nurse using medical records to assess smoking status and age-matching to the COPD groups. A resting blood sample will be taken from these patients and used to compare baseline measurements with the COPD groups.

Treatment:

Other: Sample collection

Healthy never smokers

Description:

Recruited in accordance with inclusion/exclusion criteria with no medical history of COPD diagnosis and have never smoked.This group will be recruited by a nurse using medical records to assess smoking status and age-matching to the COPD groups. Resting blood samples will be taken from these patients and used to compare baseline measurements with the COPD groups.

Treatment:

Other: Sample collection