Jan. 17 – Leonardo Fabbri brings an Italian contribution to a new and ambitious international research project on drug treatment in patients with COPD – Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This chronic lung disease, characterized by airflow obstruction, is the fourth cause of death in Europe and the U.S. Professor Leonardo Fabbri, Professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and director of the Clinic of Respiratory Diseases of the University Hospital of Modena, contributed to the recently published study in Lancet Respiratory Medicine with the title “Effect of ADRB2 polymorphisms on the efficacy of salmeterol and tiotropium in Preventing COPD exacerbations.” Authors include many of the best known pulmonologists worldwide, including Klaus F. Rabe of University of Kiel / Grosshansdorf (Germany), Elliot Israel of Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), Haral Kögler, Kathrin Riemann, Hendrik Schmidt and Thomas Glaab of the Boehringer Ingelheim Research Centre (Germany), and Claus Vogelmeier of Marburg University (Germany). The study was conducted at the international level on a sample of more than 5,000 patients with moderate-to-severe COPD, and underscored the high incidence that COPD has on the global population. It is estimated that, in Italy, the disease affects 5% of the population, more than 3 million people, with a death toll that is estimated at about 20,000 cases per year. “This disease – says Prof. Fabbri – has a huge social and economic burden that undermines the quality of life of the patients, especially in the final stages. It is estimated that 20% of patients are in need of continued drug therapy, and in the more serious cases, this includes the need to continuously administer oxygen (about 60-70,000 people in Italy). In the Modena province, these figures translate into about 30,000 patients, 6,000 of who, require continuous therapy, 5-700 patients that are on continuous oxygen therapy, and about 200 deaths per year. The Modena province is forced to re-hospitalize 5-600 patients per year for acute exacerbations of COPD.”
Leonardo Fabbri is among the world’s best-known pulmonologists
