Estudio comparativo de la estadificación de pacientes con EPOC según GOLD 2007, 2011 y 2019

Resumen

Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) affects 260 million people worldwide and it is thought to become the third leading cause of mortality by the year 2020. Materials and Methods: A transversal descriptive observational study was conducted to compare the categorization of a group of Venezuelan COPD patients according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 2007, 2011 and 2019. Results: Eighty-nine (89) patients with a mean age of 66.7 ± 0.9 years were included, 60.7% were male and 82% smokers. 14.6% of the patients had mild COPD, 36% moderate COPD, 41.6% severe COPD and 7.9% very severe COPD. Cohen’s Kappa coefficient value between mMRC and COPD Assessment test (CAT) was 0,529 (GOLD 2011) and 0,555 (GOLD 2019). Conclusions: 1) the lack of concordance between FEV1 values, degree of dyspnea and history of exacerbations impacts COPD severity classification when using GOLD 2011; 2) moderate agreement between mMRC and CAT scales suggests that the type of questionnaire used to evaluate perception of dyspnea can affect disease severity categorization; 3) group B patients showed a significant gas exchange impairment due to lower values of DLCO and arterial oxymetry and 4) a significant proportion of patients were categorized in the high-risk groups (B and D) both in GOLD 2011 and 2019. Optimization of the evaluation of COPD severity is important to allow a better standardization of care and pharmacological management of patients with this disease.