Treatment Of Lung Hypertension Does Not Help Patients With Chronic Bronchitis

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Hypertension;  COPD
Article Date: 29 Aug 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Patients with chronic smoker's bronchitis often suffer from increased pressure in the blood vessels supplying the lung (pulmonary hypertension). The blood pressure increases further during exercise and can lead to severe limitation of physical activity. In patients with other diseases causing pulmonary hypertension, for instance rheumatic or heart conditions, drug therapy has been shown to improve exercise capacity and decrease mortality.

Daiana Stolz (University Hospital Basel, Switzerland) and her colleagues wanted to find out whether patients with severe chronic bronchitis also benefit from treatment of pulmonary hypertension. They compared the effect of the lung vasodilator bosentan, a standard therapy for pulmonary hypertension, with the effect of placebo in 30 patients with severe chronic bronchitis. All patients underwent several tests including lung function and computed tomography before and after the three months of therapy.

The study shows that, in contrast to patients with other causes of pulmonary hypertension, chronic bronchitis patients do not improve their exercise capacity if treated with bosentan. This study also suggests that the treatment of pulmonary hypertension in patients with chronic bronchitis reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood. "Although we hoped to alleviate breathlessness by treating patients this way, we could not identify any benefit of the therapy," said Daiana Stolz.

Title Of The Original Article
A randomised, controlled trial of bosentan in severe COPD

The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 8,000 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia).

European Respiratory Journal

The European Respiratory Society (ERS)