Seasonal variability in clinical care of COPD outpatients: results from the Andalusian COPD audit

Does cryptogenic organizing pneumonia change seasonal?

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Meteorological factors affect the respiratory system, and the most important factor is the change in ambient temperature and humidity. We aimed to investigate the seasonal characteristics of patients diagnosed with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia.

METHODS

The study included 84 cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, 55 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 42 asthma patients. To determine the characteristics of the disease according to the seasons, the number of attacks and admissions was grouped according to the seasonal characteristics and analyzed for three groups.

RESULTS

Among cryptogenic organizing pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients, males significantly predominated (p<0.001). The hospitalization rate was highest in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients but similar to cryptogenic organizing pneumonia and asthma patients (p<0.001). The highest admission rate in cryptogenic organizing pneumonia patients was observed in spring (39.3% in spring, 26.2% in fall, 22.6% in winter, and 11.9% in summer). In winter, cryptogenic organizing pneumonia patients were admitted less frequently than chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma patients. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was higher in cryptogenic organizing pneumonia patients than in asthma patients and similar to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

CONCLUSION

As a result of our study, the high rate of diagnosis and admission in the spring in cryptogenic organizing pneumonia suggested that the effect of allergens on the formation of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia should be investigated. In contrast, it should be kept in mind that cryptogenic organizing pneumonia may develop as a prolonged finding of involvement that may occur in the lung parenchyma due to lung infections and/or cold weather triggering during the winter months. In this regard, further studies can be conducted in which allergens and/or the history of infection in patients and meteorological variables are also evaluated.

Community Assessment of COPD Health Care (COACH) study: a clinical audit on primary care performance variability in COPD care

Background

A thorough evaluation of the adequacy of clinical practice in a designated health care setting and temporal context is key for clinical care improvement. This study aimed to perform a clinical audit of primary care to evaluate clinical care delivered to patients with COPD in routine clinical practice.

Methods

The Community Assessment of COPD Health Care (COACH) study was an observational, multicenter, nationwide, non-interventional, retrospective, clinical audit of randomly selected primary care centers in Spain. Two different databases were built: the resources and organization database and the clinical database. From January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016 consecutive clinical cases of COPD in each participating primary care center (PCC) were audited. For descriptive purposes, we collected data regarding the age at diagnosis of COPD and the age at audit, gender, the setting of the PCC (rural/urban), and comorbidities for each patient. Two guidelines widely and uniformly used in Spain were carefully reviewed to establish a benchmark of adequacy for the audited cases. Clinical performance was analyzed at the patient, center, and regional levels. The degree of adequacy was categorized as excellent (> 80%), good (60–80%), adequate (40–59%), inadequate (20–39%), and highly inadequate (< 20%).

Results

During the study 4307 cases from 63 primary care centers in 6 regions of the country were audited. Most evaluated parameters were judged to fall in the inadequate performance category. A correct diagnosis based on previous exposure plus spirometric obstruction was made in an average of 17.6% of cases, ranging from 9.8 to 23.3% depending on the region. During the audited visit, only 67 (1.6%) patients had current post-bronchodilator obstructive spirometry; 184 (4.3%) patients had current post-bronchodilator obstructive spirometry during either the audited or initial diagnostic visit. Evaluation of dyspnea was performed in 11.1% of cases. Regarding treatment, 33.6% received no maintenance inhaled therapies (ranging from 31.3% in GOLD A to 7.0% in GOLD D). The two most frequently registered items were exacerbations in the previous year (81.4%) and influenza vaccination (87.7%).

Conclusions

The results of this audit revealed a large variability in clinical performance across centers, which was not fully attributable to the severity of the disease.