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Comparison of tiotropium plus fluticasone propionate/salmeterol with tiotropium in COPD: A randomized controlled study
Respiratory Medicine, 01/23/2012
Clinical Article
Jung KS et al. - Over the course of 24 weeks, fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (FSC) (250/50 Μg twice daily) added to tiotropium provided greater improvement in lung function and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (FEV1 ≤ 65%) than tiotropium alone.
Methods- In this 24-week, randomized, open label, multicenter two-arm parallel study, 479 patients received tiotropium plus FSC (n = 237) or tiotropium alone (n = 242).
- After 24 weeks of treatment, the triple-inhaled treatment group had a significant improvement in pre-bronchodilator FEV1 (L) compared to the tiotropium-only group (0.090 L vs. 0.038 L; P = 0.005).
- Regarding health-related quality of life, the mean change in total score on the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire for COPD patients (SGRQ-C) was -6.6 points in the tiotropium plus FSC group, but -1.5 points in the tiotropium-only group (P = 0.001).
- In the subgroup of GOLD stage II patients with COPD, treatment with tiotropium plus FSC also improved FEV1 compared to tiotropium alone (0.088 L vs. 0.030 L; P = 0.011) and improved the total SGRQ-C score than tiotropium alone (-4.5 points vs. -1.0 points, respectively).
- This triple-inhaled treatment approach did not induce more adverse events, such as pneumonia.