Abstract
PURPOSE: Clinically important deterioration (CID) is a composite endpoint developed to quantify the impact of pharmacological treatment in clinical trials for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), also showing a prognostic value. CID is defined as any of the following condition: forced expiratory volume in 1 s decrease ≥100 mL from baseline, and/or St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire total score increase ≥4-unit from baseline, and/or the occurrence of a moderate-to-severe exacerbation of COPD. Although most COPD patients experience a clinical worsening as they get older, to date, no specific studies assessed the correlation between ageing and CID in COPD. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of ageing on CID in COPD patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data obtained from 55219 COPD patients were extracted from 17 papers, mostly post-hoc analyses. A pairwise meta-analysis and a meta-regression analysis were performed according to PRISMA-P guidelines to quantify the impact of pharmacological therapy on CID and to determine whether ageing might modulate the risk of CID in COPD patients. RESULTS: Inhaled treatments resulted generally effective in reducing the risk of CID in COPD (relative risk: 0.81, 95% confidence interval 0.79-0.84; P < 0.001). The meta-regression analysis indicated a trend toward significance (P = 0.063) in the linear relationship between age and the risk of CID. Of note, age significantly (P < 0.05) increased the risk of CID when associated with lower post-bronchodilator FEV(1). These results were not affected by a significant risk of bias. CONCLUSION: This quantitative synthesis suggests that inhaled therapy is effective in reducing the risk of CID in COPD, although such a protective effect may be affected in older patients with impaired lung function. Further studies specifically designed on CID in COPD are needed to confirm these results.