[Profile and management of patients consulting for a non severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Pragma survey)].

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate, in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), stage 0 or 1, the percentage of patients who had spirometry, and to study their sociodemographic, clinical and epidemiological characteristics.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

An epidemiological survey was conducted with 2389 general practitioners concerning 4769 patients with early COPD, consulting for the first time for exacerbation of COPD, presumed to be bacterial.

RESULTS

Spirometry under stable conditions was performed in only 30% of patients. When the physician does not have access to this examination to guide antibiotic prescription for an exacerbation presumed to be bacterial, recent guidelines have established a correlation between dyspnoea and the degree of severity of COPD (GOLD classification). This correlation was not confirmed by the present study: 34% of patients with stage 0 or 1 COPD complained of dyspnoea and 52% of patients with stage 2 or 3 COPD did not complain of dyspnoea. The main criterion in favour of a bacterial cause of exacerbation, frank purulent sputum, observed in one out of three patients, did not influence the decision to prescribe antibiotics, given to 98% of patients. Therapy used bronchodilators (73%), even in patients with no signs of obstruction, and inhaled steroids (72%), although, according to guidelines, they are only indicated in the most serious forms (stage 3). This survey illustrates the effort needed to ensure better concordance between guidelines and practice, by taking into account the difficulties encountered by practitioners.