A new two-step algorithm for the treatment of COPD. Issue 2 (9th February 2017) - Miravitlles, Marc
The pharmacological treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is quite uniformly based on long-acting bronchodilators (LABD), either a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) or a long-acting β-agonist (LABA), and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). Moreover, most patients are eventually treated with a combination of all three (LAMA/LABA/ICS or "triple therapy") irrespective of their severity and level of risk. Furthermore, a large proportion of patients receive triple therapy as the initial treatment [1]. We propose a new simple treatment algorithm based on the severity of symptoms and phenotypes or treatable traits (figure 1). Treatment of COPD can be simplified with a two-step algorithm according to severity and phenotype http://ow.ly/iJUN306DEHU