Efficacy of Inhaling Bronchodilator Medications in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2012-10-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Some patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) report that they are
uncertain whether they achieve clinical benefit using a dry-powder inhaler (DPI). One
possible explanation is that the patient is unable to inhale the dry powder bronchodilator
medication into the lower respiratory tract due to a low peak inspiratory flow rate (PIFR). A
PIFR < 60 l/min is considered to be suboptimal flow for a DPI, including the Diskus device.
The hypothesis of the study is that the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) measured
at two hours after inhalation of the study medication will be higher with arformoterol
solution (15 mcg) from a nebulizer compared with salmeterol dry powder (50 mcg) inhaled from
the Diskus.