Life Expectancy With COPD

[David]

Life Expectancy With COPD

8 Apr 2016 | Under Caregiver, COPD, Lung Disease | by David Ebner |

How Long Do Patients Usually Have?

There are currently 24 million Americans living with a severe and deadly condition. The nature of this disease causes the lungs to deteriorate and makes every breath an effort. As the years progress, the condition ultimately takes its final toll upon its sufferer. This is the nature of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, more commonly known as COPD.

COPD encompasses two very different conditions known as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, but both conditions are characterized by a restriction of airflow into and out of the lungs that makes breathing difficult. To this day, there is no cure for COPD. Treatment is available to help stop the progression, but that is pretty much it. While many patients with COPD know there is no cure for the disease, many people will ask the very same question: how long do I have? Let’s talk about the life expectancy with COPD.

Read more: lunginstitute.com/blog/life-expectancy-with-copd/

[David]

BODE Index for COPD

About this tool

This formula is taken from Celli et al (2004), based on the evaluation of 207 patients with COPD and the subsequent prospective validation on a similar cohort of 625 patients. Patients were recruited in the United States, Venezuela, and Spain and all were judged to have stable COPD.

61% of deaths were secondary to respiratory insufficiency. Multiple variables were assessed and each was evaluated as a possible independent predictor of mortality. FEV1, body-mass index, 6-minute walk distance, and the modified MRC dyspnea scale were found to be the best predictors of death among these variables. The BODE Index predicts all-cause mortality and respiratory-related mortality with better accuracy than the FEV1 alone.

The hazard ratio for all-cause mortality is 1.34 for every one-point increase in the BODE score. The hazard ratio for respiratory-related mortality is 1.62 for every one-point increase in the BODE score.

qxmd.com/calculate/calculator_29/bode-index-for-copd

[John]

Thanks David . Have you looked into stem cells ?

[David]

Yes, it is expensive and not approved by the FDA.