AECOPD

COPD represents an important public health challenge that is both preventable and treatable. GOLD is committed to improving the health of people at risk of and with COPD, wherever they happen to have been born, and wishes to do its bit to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases - including COPD - by one third by 2030. GOLD aims in stable COPD to relieve symptoms, improve exercise tolerance and improve health status. Non-pharmacological interventions for those high-risk groups of patients, studies of intervention strategies both during inpatient stay and shortly after discharge have been undertaken, to decrease readmission rates and improve QOL, including disease-specific self-management, pulmonary rehabilitation, and early medical follow-up.Seeking for allow cost way to alleviate patients' symptoms in order to increase independence and QOL.

The goal of this clinical trial is to see if the use of two simple blood tests: C reactive protein and eosinophils, can reduce the use of steroids and antibiotics in patients with flares of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without reducing the chance of treatment success. Before we undertake a large trial to answer these questions, we need to do a small feasibility study to see if our study design will work. The questions we need to answer include: How many participants will we able to include in the study over 12 months? How many participants in the trial will take all of their medications? Will study protocols be followed? How much information will we be missing at the end of the study? How many study participants will take photographs of the phlegm they are coughing up or bring in a sample of the phlegm for inspection by study doctor? Participants will: Come into the clinic to be assessed when they have a flare of COPD, get a chest x-ray, blood work, and a doctor visit. The doctor will provide a prescription if it is a flare of COPD. The participant will get a call 3, 14, and 30 days later by a study researcher to ask questions about if the medications have been taken, if cough or shortness of breath remain, and if they have had to seek additional care from another doctor, clinic, or emergency room.