Viral Profile of COPD Exacerbations According to Patients§

Dimopoulos, G; Tsiodras, S; Lerikou, M; Chranioti, Aik; Perros, E; Anagnostopoulou, U; Karakitsos, P; Armaganidis, A

*Address correspondence to this author at the 8 th Pulmonary Department, SOTIRIA Athens Chest Hospital, 48, Rodopis Str, Glyfada, 16675, Athens, Greece; Tel/Fax: [phone]; E-mail: § Part of this article has been previously published in Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics; Volume 25, Issue 1, February 2012, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is complicated by frequent exacerbations, called Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (AECOPD) which are associated with high morbidity, increased used of health resources and aggravation of the health status of the patients [6] . The main risk factor for AECOPD development is considered an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus (up to 60%) or by bacteria (responsible approximately for 40% of those events) [7, 8] . The significance of viral infections has been recognized during the last decade by the development and clinical application of newer molecular techniques able to detect viral species that are not easily detected by serology or viral cultures such as human Metapneumovirus [9] . Recently, we evaluated the epidemiology of viral infections in a cohort of patients with AECOPD where we showed that viral infections were strongly associated with AECOPD development independent of the stage of COPD and an infection with both a viral and a bacterial pathogen was common in these patients [10] . In this cohort, we had a high percentage of elderly patients with AECOPD due to viral infections. For this reason, we conducted the present study aiming to investigate possible differences among elderly and non-elderly patients with AECOPD of viral origin.