Inhaled corticosteroids and survival in COPD patients receiving long-term home oxygen therapy

Several observational studies suggest that therapy with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is associated with reduced mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, none of these has reported survival data in COPD patients with respiratory insufficiency who require domiciliary oxygen therapy. The present study was conducted to examine the association between ICS and all-cause mortality in patients with severe COPD and chronic hypoxemia.

From a tertiary referral clinic, we identified 145 consecutive COPD patients who met the criteria for long-term oxygen therapy between 1996 and 2002. We compared the hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality over 1 year between patients who were (n=55) and were not treated with ICS (n=90).

In a crude analysis, the use of ICS was associated with a HR of 0.38 (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.18-0.79). After adjustments for age, sex, use of oral steroids, and beta2-agonists, PaO2 and PaCO2, the HR was 0.46 (95% CI=0.21-0.98).

Our findings indicate that ICS may reduce all-cause mortality in patients with severe COPD and chronic hypoxemia, who require long-term domiciliary oxygen therapy. These data suggest that ICS may play an important role in improving clinical outcomes in patients with advanced COPD.