Can Early Detection and Treatment of Patients with COPD or Asthma Improve Outcomes?

Many people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma have not received formal diagnoses. Researchers in Canada employed a “case-finding” strategy to detect patients with undiagnosed respiratory disease: Automated phone surveys to 1 million households identified almost 50,000 adults who reported respiratory symptoms and agreed to be contacted further. Among those, 5600 participants reported uncontrolled symptoms on asthma and COPD questionnaires, 2850 then underwent spirometry, and 508 had either irreversible or reversible obstruction (i.e., COPD or asthma, respectively) and were enrolled in the trial.

Participants were randomized to receive treatment from a pulmonologist and an asthma/COPD educator using GINA^* or GOLD^† gui…