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Klinisk institutt 2

Midtveisevaluering - Gunnar Husebø

Hovedinnhold

Abstrakt

 

Inflammation as a predictor for disease progression in COPD.

Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, COPD, is a disorder with a large disease burden and high mortality. A central component of the disease progression is a chronic bronchial and pulmonary inflammation which is incompletely understood. The aim of our study was to identify inflammatory biomarkers both as components of this inflammation, as well as predictors for several disease outcomes.

Methods: We have used data from the Bergen COPD Cohort Study, which started in 2006, and where the majority of data collection was performed in the period 2006-2010, but with additional longitudinal follow up on variables like decline in lung function and survival. Our main focus is on biomarkers of inflammation based on systemic blood samples, with the supplement of several COPD specific characteristics. Our statistical analyses include regression models designed for longitudinal datasets.

Results/conclusion: We have identified several biomarkers, both clinical characteristics as well as systemic inflammatory markers which are associated with COPD disease progression like exacerbation count, decline in lung function and survival. More specific, we have looked into the mechanisms behind glucocorticoid resistance and cachexia with the markers Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) and Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15).

We have several systemic inflammatory markers available in our dataset, and we now change focus from individual markers to the combined effect of these, of so-called inflammomas. Further, we have merged our data with the cancer registry and cause of death registry, allowing for analysis of additional disease outcomes.