COPD phenotypes and 5-years mortality risk prediction: PALOMB Cohort

The main factors that increase the mortality risk of COPD patients are age, comorbidities and the severity of airflow obstruction. This study aimed to validate the clinically relevant COPD phenotypes found by Burgel P-R et al [1] and analyzed their impact on 5-year mortality in the PALOMB cohort. COPD patients (post-BD FEV₁/FVC<70%) have been included by their pulmonologist. After 5 years of follow-up, vital status was recorded through the national database that annually records the deaths of all French citizens. Classification and regression trees (CARTs) were used for allocating patients to the subgroups and clinical relevance was determined by comparing 5-year mortality. 2,653 patients (66 years old, 64.27% males) were included. Application of the CART-based algorithm to Palomb cohort confirmed that it identified 5 COPD phenotypes with different clinical characteristics. In addition: The high proportion of FEV₁ decline (≥100 ml/yr) belongs to phenotype 1 and 4; the majority of patients in these phenotypes were under oxygen therapy and they were associated with higher rates of exacerbation, lung cancer, anxiety and depression. These results confirmed the identification of five clinically relevant COPD phenotypes. A novel finding of this study is that FEV₁ decline, frequency of exacerbations and other comorbidities were associated with the more severe phenotypes. Fundings: Bordeaux Univ Foundation, Novartis, Isis Medical, GSK, BI, Chiesi.