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Evidence summaries

Tiotropium for Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Tiotropium is effective in reducing COPD exacerbations and related hospitalisations as compared to placebo and ipratropium. Level of evidence: "A"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 9 studies with a total of 6584 subjects. Tiotropium reduced the odds of a COPD exacerbation (OR 0.74; 95% CI 0.66 to 0.83) and related hospitalisations (OR 0.64; 95% CI 0.51 to 0.82) compared to placebo or ipratropium. When applied to an annual baseline risk of 45% for exacerbations and 10% for hospitalisation, the number of patients needed to treat with tiotropium for one year were 14 (95% CI 11 to 22) to prevent one exacerbation and 30 (95% CI 22 to 61) to prevent one hospitalisation compared to placebo and ipratropium. Reductions in these endpoints compared to long-acting ß2-agonists were not statistically significant. Similar patterns were evident for quality-of-life and symptom scales. Increases in FEV1 and FVC from baseline were significantly larger with tiotropium than with placebo, ipratropium and long-acting ß2-agonists over 6 to 12 months. The decline in trough FEV1 from steady state was 30 ml (95% CI 7 to 53 ml) less with tiotropium than with placebo or ipratropium over one year; no data on decline in FEV1 from steady state were available for long-acting ß2-agonists. Dry mouth was increased by tiotropium.

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References

  • Barr RG, Bourbeau J, Camargo CA, Ram FS. Inhaled tiotropium for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2005 Apr 18;(2):CD002876. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords