Ventilation-drive Coupling to Evaluate The Efficacy of Inhaled Bronchodilators in Patients With COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a major cause of chronic morbidity, mortality and disability throughout the world, leading to a heavy social and economic burden.Bronchodilators, the most commonly used drugs in COPD patients, have been shown to reduce dyspnea, improve exercise tolerance and improve health status. However,conventional lung function parameters such as forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) frequently fail to detect significant functional responses to bronchodilators in patients with chronic airflow obstruction. It is necessary for clinical and scientific reasons to develop a new tool to objectively assess the effect of different treatments including bronchodilator on COPD. Our previous study showed that Ventilation-drive coupling may be more sensitive and accurate to evaluate the efficacy of inhaled bronchodilators in patients with COPD because it could better reflect the pathological and physiological characteristics of COPD. Based on the above conclusion, the present study were performed using the experimental methods of placebo and self-controlled. We aimd to explore the value of ventilation-drive coupling in evaluating the efficacy of bronchodilators on COPD and provide a reasonable basis for the clinical application of this index.