Introduction

Eosinophilic airway inflammation is a recognized inflammatory pattern in subgroups of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, there are still conflicting results between various studies concerning the effect of eosinophils in COPD patients. Our aim with this study was to evaluate eosinophilic inflammation and its’ relation to the clinical characteristics in a group of COPD patients.

Methods

Stable COPD patients with FEV1% predicted < 50 or with ≥ 1 exacerbation leading to hospital admission or ≥2 moderate or severe exacerbation history were consecutively enrolled from outpatient clinics.

Results

We included 90 male COPD patients, with a mean age of 63.3 ± 9.2. Mean FEV1% predicted was 35.9 ± 11.3. Eosinophilic inflammation (eosinophil percentage ≥ 2%) was evident in 54 (60%) of the patients. Participants with eosinophilic inflammation were significantly older and had better FEV1 predicted % values. Eosinophilic COPD patients were characterized with better quality of life and fewer symptoms. COPD patients with non-eosinophilic inflammation used supplemental long term oxygen therapy (LTOT) more frequently compared to patients with eosinophilic inflammation (36.1% vs 14.8%, p=0.01). Eosinophilic inflammation is associated with less dyspnea severity measured by mMRC (OR: 0.542 95% CI: 0.342 – 0.859, p=0.009) and less LTOT use (OR: 0.334 95% CI: 0.115-0.968, p=0.04) regardless of age, severity of airflow limitation and having frequent exacerbation phenotype.

Conclusion

Our study supports the growing evidence for a potential role of eosinophilic inflammation phenotype in COPD with distinctive clinical characteristics. Eosinophilic inflammation is inversely associated with dyspnea severity measured by mMRC and LTOT use independently from age, total number of exacerbations, SGRQ total score and FEV1 % predicted.