Inflammatory Biomarkers and Exacerbations in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Exacerbations of respiratory symptoms in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are of major importance because of their profound and long-lasting adverse effects on patients.^1,2 Frequent episodes accelerate loss of lung function,³ affect the quality of life of the patients,^4,5 and are associated with poor survival.^6-8 In general, exacerbations become more frequent with increasing disease severity, but the single best predictor of exacerbations in all grades of COPD is a previous exacerbation, suggesting the existence of a phenotype susceptible to exacerbations independent of degree of airflow limitation.⁹ However, when predicting risk of future exacerbations based on previous events, the positive predictive value remains low,⁹ indicating that additional determinants of exacerbation susceptibility remain to be identified.