Real world studies in infrequently exacerbating patients with COPD

The benefits of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) as dual- or triple-combination therapy are more pronounced in patients with the frequent exacerbating eosinophilic (FEE) phenotype of COPD, corresponding to Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) group D.1 In the June issue of CHEST, the real-life study by Suissa et al2 looks at a cohort of patients with COPD in whom 82% had zero or one prior exacerbation, corresponding to GOLD group B. In infrequently exacerbating patients one might expect there to be little impact conferred by using an ICS in combination with a long-acting β-agonist (LABA).